Litany for the Dying

The Litany for the Dying (also called the Litany in the Commendation of the Departing Soul) is a specialized, abbreviated form of the ancient Litany of the Saints.

It is used specifically in the Ordo Commendationis Animae (Commendation of the Departing Soul) within the Roman Ritual. This litany invokes the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, angels, and selected saints on behalf of a dying person, followed by petitions for deliverance from the perils of death, evil, the devil, and eternal damnation, culminating in commendatory prayers.

Its structure emphasizes the communion of saints aiding the soul’s passage to eternal life, reflecting the Church’s belief in the power of intercession at the moment of death.

Unlike the full Litany of the Saints (used in processions, ordinations, and other rites), this version is concise and focused: it begins with the Kyrie eleison, invokes a limited selection of saints (notably only Abel and Abraham from the Old Testament, alongside the Baptist, St. Joseph, apostles, martyrs, confessors, virgins, and others), then shifts to repeated cries of “Deliver him/her, O Lord” tied to Christ’s mysteries, before concluding with prayers for strength against the enemy.

The broader commendatio animae rite has ancient origins, but the saint-invoking litany entered later as part of its evolution. The earliest clear witness appears in Ordo Romanus XLIX (800), which describes communicating the dying, reading the Lord’s Passion until death, and using the responsory Psalm 114, and the antiphon Chorus angelorum at the moment of expiration. No saint litany is present here.

Frankish influences in the 9th–12th centuries introduced additional texts, such as the prose prayer Proficiscere, anima christiana (“Go forth, Christian soul”), whose roots trace to 4th-century Orationes pseudocyprianae (originally exorcistic prayers for catechumens seeking protection from demonic powers).

These supplemented or replaced Passion readings in many places. Monastic rituals and the 12th-century Roman Pontifical often retained the Passion readings, but the 13th-century Pontifical of the Roman Curia and the influential Franciscan Ritual of the Last Sacraments (1260) shifted toward the Frankish pattern without the full saint litany.

The specific Litany for the Dying—drawing directly from the Litany of the Saints but abbreviated and adapted—became formalized in the late medieval and early modern periods. The 1614 Rituale Romanum (promulgated by Pope Paul V) integrated the Litany of the Saints into the commendation rite, along with six commendation prayers from the Franciscan tradition. It also incorporated elements from the 14th-century Ars moriendi (devotional literature on the art of dying), including biblical readings (John 17, the Passion according to John, Psalms 118–119) and devotional prayers. This made the litany a standard liturgical component for the dying, often recited by a priest (or in private/devotional use by the faithful) alongside the dying person.

Predecessors to the 1614 Ritual, such as Alberto Castellani’s Liber Sacerdotalis (1523) and Giulio Santori’s Rituale Sacramentorum Romanum (1602), still emphasized Passion readings in some cases, but the 1614 edition marked the widespread adoption of the saint litany for uniformity.

The Catholic Encyclopedia notes this as the “third form” of the Litany of the Saints, with invocations and supplications “specially chosen to benefit the departing soul.”

Individual saints (including later ones like St. Camillus de Lellis or St. Francis de Sales in some versions) could be added locally, though the Church regulated changes for consistency.

The rite underwent revision after the Second Vatican Council. The 1972 Ordo commendationis morientium (part of the Ordo Unctionis Infirmorum) and the 1983 English edition (Pastoral Care of the Sick: Rites of Anointing and Viaticum) retained the Litany of the Saints as a core element but reframed the entire commendation within the context of viaticum (final Communion) and the paschal mystery.

t now emphasizes hope, baptismal fulfillment, and communal participation—even by laity when no priest is present—while still invoking saints for the dying person’s safe passage. The litany continues to express the Church’s confidence in the intercession of the saints at life’s end.

The 2001 Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy explicitly affirms the Litany of the Saints’ role “in entrusting the dying to the mercy of God,” linking it to the Church’s ancient tradition of uniting the earthly and heavenly Church.

In practice today, this litany (or its post-conciliar equivalent) is prayed at the bedside during the commendation, often as part of Last Rites.

It remains a profound expression of the Church’s care for the dying, echoing over 1,200 years of liturgical development from early medieval ordines through Frankish adaptations to the standardized Roman form. Its endurance stems from the same conviction as the full Litany of the Saints: the saints surround and support the faithful even—and especially—at the threshold of eternity.