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The funeral (5/7)
The funeral began in the church and was attended by the entire community. Incense was waved over the corpse at the end of each Collect. The body was then carried to the grave by the four monks who had born it into the church. They wore the scapular and were followed in a procession by the rest of the monks and lay-brothers; several members of the community remained behind to keep an eye on the church and cloister. At the graveside the body was placed on the ground. The community gathered around as the grave was prepared, and when it was ready the corpse was blessed with Holy Water and incense was waved over the grave and grave-digger; some houses always had a grave dug in preparation. The monks and lay-brothers watched while the body was lowered into the grave (with neither a coffin nor a shroud) and the infirmarer climbed into the grave so that he could arrange the body appropriately. The grave was unmarked. When this had been completed the community, led by the lay-brothers, processed back to the church and recited the Seven Penitential Psalms. The abbot prostrated himself on the step of the altar and the ceremony was brought to a close with the Requiem eternam and a Collect after the psalm. The bonds between the living and dead did not, however, end here and for the following thirty days, the period during which it was believed that the soul passed through Purgatory, the community recited extra Collects for their deceased brother at the Canonical Offices and Masses, to help secure for his soul a swifter passage to salvation. On the thirtieth day the late monk’s soul was absolved in the chapter-house, marking the release of his soul from Purgatory. |
