Masses for Those Who Have Died

Why Does the Church Offer Mass for the Dead? §

A man died in the first week of October. His wife has asked their parish for a Mass for him in early November, a month after his death, and she means to ask for one on every anniversary.

The Church teaches that those who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are purified after death, and she calls that purification Purgatory (Catechism, 1030 to 1031). She offers the Eucharist for the faithful departed “so that they may be able to enter into the light and peace of Christ” (1371). The Missal adds a reason that reaches the living: because all the members of Christ’s body are joined to one another, asking spiritual help for some may also bring comfort and hope to others (GIRM 379, in our words).

The Church offers the Mass and leaves its fruit to God. Neither the Catechism nor canon law measures it or says when it’s given, so no one can promise you a particular result.

The Funeral and the First Days §

The first Mass for someone who has died is usually the funeral Mass, which holds first place among all the Masses for the dead (GIRM 380). In it the Church “asks to purify his child of his sins and their consequences” (Catechism, 1689). Your parish arranges it with you (how a funeral Mass and a memorial Mass differ).

You needn’t wait for the funeral: the news of a death is the first of the Missal’s three moments. For all three it allows the Mass for the Dead, with its own prayers, on more days than other Masses for the dead: within the octave of Christmas, on obligatory memorials, and on weekdays other than Ash Wednesday and those of Holy Week (GIRM 381). If a friend dies far away, you can ask your own parish for a Mass that week.

On other days the priest says the Mass of the day, and he can still offer it for the one who died. A priest may apply a Mass for anyone at all, living or dead (canon 901), and apply is the Church’s word for offering it for someone.

What Is a Month’s Mind? §

A month’s mind is a Mass offered for someone on or near the thirtieth day after their death or burial.¹ It’s a custom of Ireland and England, not a rule of the Church.² Mind is the old word for remembrance.³

The thirtieth day is far older than the name. On 25 February 395, the fortieth day after the Emperor Theodosius died, St. Ambrose preached in Milan and said that Christians kept different days:⁴

alii tertium diem et trigesimum alii septimum et quadragesimum observare consueverunt

some are accustomed to keep the third day and the thirtieth, others the seventh and the fortieth

St. Ambrose, De obitu Theodosii, 3. Latin · Our translation.

He found both in Scripture, in the forty days of Jacob’s burial and the thirty days Israel mourned Moses (Genesis 50:3; Deuteronomy 34:8), and said each had authority. In 1911 the Missal still gave the third, seventh and thirtieth days a privileged place among the Masses for the dead.⁵ Today’s Missal singles out only its three moments, but other days live on as customs: Filipino Catholics, for example, often keep nine days of prayer after a death, then the fortieth day.⁶

For a month’s mind, ask for a Mass about thirty days after the death or the funeral. No rule fixes the day, so the nearest Mass still open will do, ideally one that people who loved them can come to.

The First Anniversary, and Every Year After §

The first anniversary is the last of the Missal’s three moments, and many people ask for a Mass on it and on every anniversary after. Catholic teaching, as the Holy See restated it in 2025, holds that having Mass offered again for the same person has value (2025 decree, preamble).

On most weekdays in Ordinary Time the priest may use the prayers for the dead, as long as the Mass is offered for someone who has died (GIRM 381); on a Sunday or a feast he says the Mass of the day, offered for your intention just the same. Tell the office whether you mean the anniversary of the death or of the funeral.

All Souls Day and November §

On 2 November the whole Church prays for all the faithful departed. Pope Benedict XVI recalled that the monks of Cluny added this commemoration to the calendar (general audience, 11 November 2009), and St. Odilo, their abbot, who died in 1048, had it kept every year in the monasteries of his congregation.⁷

Every priest may say three Masses that day. Pope Benedict XV traced the custom back several centuries, to the Kingdom of Aragon, and in August 1915, with so many young men dying in the First World War, he extended it to every priest in the Church, on one condition:

Liceat omnibus in Ecclesia universa Sacerdotibus, quo die agitur Sollemnis Commemoratio omnium fidelium defunctorum, ter sacrum facere; ea tamen lege, ut unam e tribus Missis cuicumque maluerint applicare et stipem percipere queant; teneantur vero, nulla stipe percepta, applicare alteram Missam in suffragium omnium fidelium defunctorum, tertiam ad mentem Summi Pontificis, quam satis superque declaravimus.

On the day of the Solemn Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed, let all priests throughout the Church be permitted to celebrate Mass three times; on this condition, however, that they may apply one of the three Masses for whomever they wish and receive an offering for it, but are bound, receiving no offering, to apply the second Mass in suffrage for all the faithful departed, and the third for the intention of the Supreme Pontiff, which We have made abundantly plain.

Benedict XV, Incruentum Altaris, 10 August 1915, I. Acta Apostolicae Sedis 7 (1915) 403. Latin · Our translation.

The Missal’s instructions still keep that rule and cite him (GIRM 204), and in 2020 the Holy See earnestly asked every priest to say the three Masses according to it (Apostolic Penitentiary, decree of 22 October 2020). So one of a priest’s three Masses that day may be offered for your intention, if you ask in time. The three are allowed, not required, so ask what your parish does (what this means for a priest’s offerings).

November has long been kept as the month of the Holy Souls,⁸ and many parishes keep a book of names near the altar through the month and remember those names at Mass.⁹ A name written in that book, or simply remembered in the Prayer of the Faithful, is real prayer, but it isn’t the same as a Mass applied for that person, and in 2025 the Holy See told bishops and pastors to make that difference plain (decree, Art. 4 §2). Write the name in the book, and if you’d like a Mass offered for them, ask for one too.

Gregorian Masses and Novenas §

Gregorian Masses are thirty Masses offered on thirty days in a row for one person who has died, a custom named for Pope St. Gregory the Great. A series interrupted by something unforeseen, or for another reasonable cause, isn’t begun again (AAS 59 (1967) 229 to 230). Few parishes can give one person thirty Masses in a row, so many people arrange them with a religious community or a shrine (what happens if a day is missed).¹⁰

A novena of Masses is nine Masses on nine days. When a pope dies, the cardinals celebrate funeral rites for him on nine days in a row (Universi Dominici Gregis, 27), and some parishes keep an All Souls novena, offering an intention at one Mass a day for nine days.¹¹ If you’re asked for an offering with names for one, it’s fair to ask what it becomes: a Mass applied for your intention, or a name remembered with others. The 2025 decree is clear that an offering may be asked for and accepted only for a Mass applied, never for a name simply remembered (Art. 4 §3).

How to Ask §

Ask your parish office, or any priest, shrine or religious house (canon 945). Give the name as it should be written, say that the person has died, and name the occasion: “For the repose of the soul of [Name], on the first anniversary of his death” (more wording for each occasion). For a month’s mind or an anniversary, ask early, since someone else may want the same date, and ask for a Mass card at the same time if you’d like to send one.

It’s customary to give an offering when you ask, and priests are earnestly urged to celebrate Mass for the intention of the faithful, especially those in need, even when no offering has been received (canon 945). So ask, whatever you can give (what to say, step by step).