May The Angels Lead You Into Paradise: Medieval Liturgical Expressions of Eschatology
by Rebecca Spellacy (Trinity College)
*A joint session with the TST Patristics Seminar.
“Who I was, you are. Who I am, you will be. Pray for me”.
This Medieval admonishment from the dead to the living reminds all who would
read it of two very important things, the inevitability of death, and the
necessity of prayer for the departed.
This presentation will concern itself with the liturgical prayers around
the death of a Christian in the Middle Ages and how the prayers for the dead
reflected the theology, both popular and established, of the day. It will demonstrate
a development and continuity of the related liturgies in relationship to the eschatology
of the time that still allowed for local adaption. Ultimately, it will attempt
to show that the prayers for the dead exhibit a deep ecclesial and personal
response to an eschatology that could at times prove both hopeful and hopeless.
