the petition is carried up, while this holy and most solemn Sacrifice is laid
out.”
St. Gregory of Nyssa, Sermon on the Dead (383 AD)
“After his departure out of the body, he gains knowledge of the difference
between virtue and vice, and finds that he is not able to partake of divinity
until he has been purged of the filthy contagion in his soul by the purifying
fire.”
St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on First Corinthians 41, 5 (c. 392
AD)
“Let us help and commemorate them. If Job’s sons were purified by their
father’s sacrifice, why would we doubt that our offerings for the dead bring
them some consolation? Let us not hesitate to help those who have died and
to offer our prayers for them.”
St. Augustine of Hippo, Confessions Bk. 9, 2 (400 AD)
St. Augustine’s mother, St. Monica, on her death-bed said to him: “This
one request I make of you, that, wherever you be, you remember me at the
Lord’s altar.”
St. Augustine of Hippo, The Care that Should be Taken for the Dead
1, 3 (421 AD)
“We read in the book of Maccabees that the sacrifice was offered for the
dead. But even if it were found nowhere in the Old Testament writings, the
authority of the universal Church which is clear on this point is of no small
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