To ask a question about what a Catholic would do in a certain scenario for a piece of fiction I'm writing?

[AjasLipstick]

So...the setting is 1890. If an Irish Catholic had to bury a fellow Catholic in a very remote place where there were no churches or priests...how would they go about it?

What things would they be certain to ensure were done? What would they say?

This prayer is usually said at burials.

Eternal rest, grant unto him/her O Lord
and let perpetual light shine upon him/her. The priest normally says that bit, but I think a person would say it if there was no priest there.

May s/he rest in peace. Amen.

May his/her soul and the souls of all the faithful departed,
through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

Amen.

I don't know if that would have been said in Latin back then. Neither do I know if it's a prayer that was even said then.

A decade of the Rosary is sometimes said. I'd say most people said that in Irish at home but I don't know would it have been in Latin at a burial. Where in Ireland are your characters from? That would make a difference as to Irish or English speakers.

Body washed and laid out in clean/best clothes. Rosary beads entwined in hands, hands on solar plexus. Crucifix facing up.

This must have been a situation which occurred in real life for colonists and missionaries

I know it did happen in the American frontier, but I don't know what they did about it. I'm not Catholic, but I believe that baptism can be performed by lay people in the absence of a priest. Are there not similar exceptions for burial?

It depends on how they felt about the other person. Desperate times and all that. Digging a grave requires a lot of energy. If you look at what people did on the Oregon Trail it was the minimum necessary and graves were unmarked due to grave robbers.

Assuming a love between the two characters, a burial, a cross/grave marker (they could hang their rosary from it or perhaps bury with rosary in their hands) and some prayers. Wordings will have changed of the prayers used between then and now.

Yes, in the absence of a priest the most qualified person around must step up and do his or her best.

Well, Irish Catholic immigrants to distant places in 1890 weren’t the Borg. Who is your protagonist? Literate? Educated? Is he or she devout? Superstitious? Have they spent a long time away from civilisation, and hence from confession/Mass? What are their feelings towards the dead person — is wanting to dispatch them properly an act of love or superstitious fear of consequences? How much time does the person have to dispose of the body? Because, depending on circumstances and environment, actually digging a grave, especially if he or she is alone, would be very time-consuming, so the main anxiety might well be to put the body out of reach of animals and make sure it’s not dug up again.

Burial in unconsecrated ground was associated with suicides and unbaptised babies, so one option I’ve come across in studies of settlers in the American West would be to bury near some topographical feature and mark the grave so you could find it again, then travel to find a priest and consecrate the grave. Or, alternatively, to make the sign of the cross or say a decade of the rosary over it, possibly intending to come back some day with a priest.

Can't help about the 1890 but as the daughter of Irish Catholics if I wanted to patch together my own version of a catholic funeral I would probably go for a rosary and an eternal rest.

I don't think it would be wrong to say that they would pray the Our Father (Lord's prayer) and possibly a Hail Mary. Those 2 prayers are known by all Catholics and, lacking any other structure, those 2 prayers would come to mind.

The priest normally says that bit, but I think a person would say it if there was no priest there

Really? I thought everybody said it? Last catholic funeral I went to was about a year ago. Or maybe I am just saying it when I shouldn't be....

There must be some circumstances where the body would have been buried without a priest etc. But look up ‘Corspe Roads’ here in the UK and you will get a flavour of the lengths communities would go to avoid those circumstances.

So I think you could concentrate on the search for an alternative rather than the solution.

Hail Marys and Our Fathers all the way.

As pps have said, in 1890, all Catholic liturgies were in Latin, and if literate, people followed along during Mass in a Missal, but only made very occasional brief responses learned by heart. So no ‘eternal rest grant unto him/her’ in English, and not in Latin, unless the character has a missal with prayers for the dead included.

I think people are being a bit obtuse here. It is plain that the situation is one Irish Catholic dead and one Irish Catholic alive, no other civilisation around.

I think they would say the Our Father (Lords prayer) and Hail Mary. Those 2 prayers are known by all Catholics and would serve in extreme circumstances. Also maybe the Creed? The Nicene creed, not the Apostles creed. Again, known by all Catholics. Entering into the mind of the protagonist, I think any form of familiar words might be said at such a time, to bring to mind God, and to make something sacred out of burying a body in unconsecrated ground.

HTH

Maybe if they were explorers they'd know what pertained for burial at sea and reason that similar might apply in a 'sea of sand'?

Oops, sorry, I thought my first post was lost.

You’d definitely bless them with holy water

You could be right, Tess. I feel like the priest says stuff (I've been looking up burials and I don't really recognise much of what's given as said) and then starts off with the first few words of the Eternal Rest prayer and everyone kind of joins in then.

You’d definitely bless them with holy water

I was thinking thing, perhaps they may try and bless their own water (with humble intent) to use for the grave/body.

At convent school we learned some prayers in Latin, but mostly these were led by the priest. As someone said above, everyone would have learned the basic prayers and Eternal Rest, so in the absence of anyone or anything else, would have said that.

@Apileofballyhoo

I am honestly not sure, despite attending at least 10 Catholic funeral I can't quite picture it. It's weird but I tend to go on auto pilot in mass, I would struggle to write out what actually happens but know when I am there.

I'm a badly lapsed Catholic but would say what Apile wrote as it's the only relevant prayers I would remember.

Rest eternal grant to them O Lord,and let light perpetual shine upon them:
May their souls, and the souls of all the departed,
through the mercy of God rest in peace.
Amen

That and a single decade of the rosary. I would think anyone much older than me or from those times would say the entire bloody thing though.

Just caught up with the rest of the comments. PP are right. Prayers would've been in Latin and more than likely they might not have understood the literal meaning.

I learnt the Rosary in Irish and English at school and still know both by heart but would have no clue what the individual Irish words/sentences mean.

@zzzzz

I went to mass in Poland once on Easter Sunday, I was on holiday and promised my Grandma I would attend. It was oddly comforting that everything was the same despite being in a different language (and nobody queued for communion).