Rest in peace

"Rest in peace" (Latin: Requiescat in pace) is a short epitaph or idiomatic expression wishing eternal rest and peace to someone who has died. The expression typically appears on headstones, often abbreviated as "RIP". The phrase or initialism is commonly found on the grave of Catholics,[1] as it is derived from the burial service of the Catholic Church, in which the following prayer is said at the commencement and conclusion:[2]

“ Anima eius et animae omnium fidelium defunctorum per Dei misericordiam requiescant in pace. ”

In English, it is rendered as[3]

“ May his soul and the souls of all the departed faithful by God's mercy rest in peace. ”

To satisfy a vogue for rhyming couplets on tombstones, the phrase has been parsed as:[4]

“ Requiesce
cat in pace		 ”

Originally in Hebrew in Isaiah (57, 2):

“ ...will come in peace, and they will rest in their beds, he who goes straightforward. ”

The verse from Isaiah has been found inscribed in Hebrew on gravestones dating from the 1st century BC, in the graveyard of Bet Shearim. This verse speaks of the righteous person who died because he could not stand the evil surrounding him. A recapture of these words, read as "come and rest in peace," has been transferred to the ancient Talmudic prayers, in a mixture of Hebrew and Aramaic of the 3rd century AD. It is used to this day in traditional Jewish ceremonies.[5]

The phrase in English was not found on tombstones before the eighth century.[6][7] It became common on the tombs of Catholics in the 18th century, for whom it was a prayerful request that their soul should find peace in the afterlife. When the phrase became conventional, the absence of a reference to the soul led people to suppose that it was the physical body that was enjoined to lie peacefully in the grave.[8] This is associated with the Catholic doctrine of the particular judgment; that is, that the soul is parted from the body upon death, but that the soul and the body will be reunited on Judgment Day.[9]

Other variations include “Requiescat in pace et in amore” for "May she rest in peace and love", “Requiescat in pace et in amore” and “In pace requiescat et in amore”. The word order is variable because Latin syntactical relationships are indicated by the inflexional endings, not by word order. However, if “Rest in peace” is used in an imperative mood, it would be “Requiesce in pace” (acronym R.I.P.) in the second person singular, or “Requiescite in pace” in the second person plural.[10]

Linguistic Analogs

Phrases in other languages:

References

  1. ^ Charles Langworthy Wallis (1954), Stories on stone: a book of American epitaphs, p. 226 
  2. ^ Joshua Scodel (1991), The English poetic epitaph, Cornell University Press, p. 94, ISBN 9780801424823, http://books.google.com/books?id=Z6oULX3wr58C&pg=PA94 
  3. ^ Joshua Scodel (1991), The English poetic epitaph, Cornell University Press, p. 94, ISBN 9780801424823, http://books.google.com/books?id=Z6oULX3wr58C&pg=PA94 
  4. ^ Francis Edward Paget (1843), A tract upon tomb-stones, p. 18, http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=IvgDAAAAQAAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA18 
  5. ^ El male rachamim
  6. ^ The Church of England magazine (Church Pastoral-aid Society): 208, 1842 
  7. ^ Robert Jefferson Breckinridge, Andrew Boyd Cross, Antiquity of the Religion, , The Baltimore literary and religious magazine 3: 206, http://books.google.com/books?id=xtQRAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA206 
  8. ^ Joshua Scodel (1991), The English poetic epitaph, Cornell University Press, p. 269, ISBN 9780801424823, http://books.google.com/books?id=Z6oULX3wr58C&pg=PA269 
  9. ^ Karl Siegfried Guthke (2003), Epitaph culture in the West, p. 336 
  10. ^ Experts on Latin phrase.