"Last Judgement Triptych" (Central Panel)
in Muzeum Narodowe, Gdansk, Poland.
Artist: Hans Memling (circa 1433–1494).
Date: Circa 1467-1471.
Source/Photographer: Web Gallery of Art:
(Wikimedia Commons)
"Dies Irae"
(Day of Wrath).
Available on YouTube at
unless otherwise stated.
"Dies Irae" (Day of Wrath) is a Latin Hymn attributed to either Thomas of Celano of The Franciscan Order (1200 – circa 1265) or to Latino Malabranca Orsini († 1294), Lector at The Dominican Studium at Santa Sabina, the forerunner of The Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum in Rome.
The Hymn dates from at least the 13th-Century, though it is possible that it is much older, with some sources ascribing its origin to Saint Gregory the Great († 604 A.D.), Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), or Saint Bonaventure (1221-1274).
It is a Mediaeval Latin poem characterised by its accentual stress and its rhymed lines. The metre is trochaic. The poem describes The Day of Judgement, The Last Trumpet summoning Souls before The Throne of God, where The Saved will be delivered and The Unsaved cast into Eternal Flames.
The Hymn is best-known from its use as a Sequence in The Roman Catholic Requiem Mass (Mass for The Dead or Funeral Mass). An English version is found in various Anglican Communion Service Books.
The melody is one of the most-quoted in musical literature, appearing in the works of many diverse composers.
