Bier

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Pope John Paul II lying in state on his funeral bier at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

This article is about a frame to transport corpses. For other uses, see Bier (disambiguation).

A bier is a stand on which a corpse, or coffin containing a corpse, is placed to lie in state or to be carried to the grave.^[1]

In Christian burial, the bier is often set up in the center of the nave with candles placed around it, and there it remains during the funeral.

A wheeled bier from Grendon church, Northamptonshire.

The bier is a flat frame, traditionally wooden but sometimes made of other materials. In antiquity it was often simply a wooden board on which the dead was placed, covered with a shroud. In modern times, however, the corpse is almost never carried on the bier without being first placed in a coffin, though the coffin is sometimes kept open.

A bier is often draped with cloth, to add to the dignity of the funeral service. The modern funeral industry uses a collapsible aluminum bier on wheels, known as a "church truck" to more conveniently move the coffin in and out of the church or funeral home for services.