Catholic Dictionary

Find accurate definitions of over 5,000 Catholic terms and phrases (including abbreviations). Based on Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

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DIES IRAE

The sequence beginning "That Day of Wrath" used at Requiem Masses. It was written in the thirteenth century by Thomas of Celano, biographer of St. Francis of Assisi; there have been hundreds of translations in all the major languages. There is no record of the authorship or origin of the old ecclesiastical melody. Among others who set it to music were Cherubini, Verdi, Bruneau, Gounod, Berlioz, and Mozart.