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Summary
- The traditional prayers said at a deathbed include Psalm 23, the Lord’s Prayer, the Hail Mary and the commendation “Depart, O Christian soul,” and each is quoted here from a named source.
- “Depart, O Christian soul” comes into English from the Latin Proficiscere, anima christiana, which is found in two eighth-century service books, and the 1928 Book of Common Prayer prints it.
- Eleven short prayers are for particular moments: a doctor’s timeline, fear, pain, unfinished business, a person who can no longer speak, a family keeping watch and a parent who is dying.
- Catholics can ask a priest for confession, the Anointing of the Sick and Viaticum, Orthodox priests read the Prayers at the Departing of a Soul, and Protestants can call a pastor or elders (James 5:14).
- The US National Institute on Aging advises talking and reading to dying people even when they cannot respond, and a 2020 study found brain responses to sound in most unresponsive hospice patients.
- Catholics and Orthodox pray for the dead. Most Protestants do not, and the Westminster Confession limits prayer to the living.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (1611), text of Project Gutenberg eBook no. 10 (Numbers 6:24–26; Psalm 23:1–6; Psalm 31:5; Luke 2:29–30; Luke 23:42, 46; Philippians 1:23; James 5:14; 1 John 4:18). https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10
- The Book of Common Prayer (1928), The Order for the Visitation of the Sick: A Commendatory Prayer for a Sick Person at the point of Departure; Litany for the Dying (including the Lord’s Prayer); A Commendation; A Commendatory Prayer when the Soul is Departed; Unction of the Sick (pp. 308–320). https://justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/1928/ ; text checked against the standard edition PDF, https://www.artisticdailyprayers.org/uploads/3/0/1/6/30164961/bcp1928std.pdf
- Lasance, Francis Xavier. With God: A Book of Prayers and Reflections. New York: Benziger Brothers, 1911. “Prayer for the Faithful in their Agony” and “Ejaculation to Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.” https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/With_God/Indulgenced_Prayers
- Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2005. Questions 211, 316–320 and 470–471; Appendix, “The Hail Mary” and “Eternal Rest.” https://www.vatican.va/archive/compendium_ccc/documents/archive_2005_compendium-ccc_en.html
- Orthodox Church in America. Guidelines for Clergy (2023), “The Mystery of Unction” and “Burial.” https://www.oca.org/files/PDF/official/2023-OCA-Guidelines-for-Clergy.pdf
- Westminster Confession of Faith (1646), chapter 21, section 4. https://thewestminsterstandard.org/the-westminster-confession/
- Thomas, Columba, OP. “Improving Spiritual Care at the End of Life by Reclaiming the Ars moriendi.” The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 20, no. 4 (2020): 727–743. https://doi.org/10.5840/ncbq202020466
- National Institute on Aging. “What Are Palliative Care and Hospice Care?” https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/hospice-and-palliative-care/what-are-palliative-care-and-hospice-care
- National Institute on Aging. “Providing Care and Comfort at the End of Life.” https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/end-life/providing-care-and-comfort-end-life
- Blundon, Elizabeth G., Romayne E. Gallagher and Lawrence M. Ward. “Electrophysiological Evidence of Preserved Hearing at the End of Life.” Scientific Reports 10 (2020): 10336. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-67234-9
- 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. https://988lifeline.org/
- Samaritans. “Contact Samaritans.” https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/contact-samaritan/
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