PRAYER FOR THE DEAD. The practice which prevails in the Roman Catholic. Greek. and other Oriental churches of praying for the souls of the deceased with the intention and ex pectation of obtaining for them an alleviation of their sufferings after death. because of venial sins, or of the penalty of mortal sins. remitted but not fully atoned for during life. The doc trine of purgatory. or a middle state of purga tion after death before the soil can enter heaven, naturally gives rise to the practice of prayer for the dead, though there are those who pray for the dead, yet do not explicitly accept the doc trine of purgatory. The two doctrines are, how ever, closely connected. especially in conjunction with the related doctrine of the communion of saints. (See SAINT.) A belief in the efficacy of prayer for the dead existed in practically all of the ancient religions, especially those of Egypt. India, and China. The existence of this belief, implicit. if not explicit, affords the only rational explanation of many of the practices of the Greeks and Latins with regard to their dead. Among the Jews the custom of prayer for the dead is attested by the well-known text in II.
Maccabees xii. 45. that it is "a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from their sins." The prac
tice of prayer for the dead is equally recognizable in the early Christian Church. The parable of Lazarus and the rich man evidently portrays a definite belief in the inter-communion of this earth with the world beyond the grave. The Fathers of the first centuries, Clement of Alex andria, Tertullian, Saint Cyprian, and especially Saint John Chrysostom. Saint Cyril of Jerusa lem, and Saint Augustine, frequently allude to prayers for the dead. The Liturgies of all the rites without exception contain such prayers. Prayer for the dead has been a constant tradition of the Roman Catholic and Eastern churches. The Protestant churches, with some exceptions, have repudiated the practice. Prayers for the dead were not forbidden in the English Church. and there is an almost unbroken tradition of ecclesi astical authorities, including such names as An drewes, Barrow. Ken. Wesley, and Keble. who approved of it. Consult: Luckock, After broth (ih., 1879) ; Plumptre, The Spirits in Prison (ib., 1864) ; Mumford. Two .1 ncient Treatises on Purgatory (New York. 1894).