Anima Christi at a Catholic funeral
Anima Christi asks Christ for one thing at the end: in hora mortis meae voca me — in the hour of my death, call me. Families planning a Requiem Mass arrive at the piece through that line. Marco Frisina’s setting gives the Latin a melody a congregation can follow the first time it hears it.
Our quintet singing Frisina’s Anima Christi. Hear more recordings.
A prayer from about 1300
The text is anonymous and turns up in manuscripts from the early fourteenth century. St Ignatius of Loyola placed it at the opening of the Spiritual Exercises two hundred years later, which is why so many people credit him with writing it. For families with a Jesuit connection — a school, a parish, a brother in the Society — that association is part of why they ask for it.
The prayer moves through short petitions and then turns, in its last lines, towards death: hide me within your wounds, never let me be parted from you, call me in the hour of my death, bid me come to you. You do not have to explain any of that to a congregation at a funeral. Print the English beside the Latin and the room follows it.
Your parents may know it as Soul of My Saviour
Soul of My Saviour is a metrical English translation of the same prayer, sung to William Maher’s tune Anima Christi. Most Catholics schooled in Britain before the 1980s know it by heart. Older mourners will recognise the words in Frisina’s setting without recognising the music, which at a funeral is often the right combination: familiar enough to hold on to, unfamiliar enough that it does not belong to somebody else’s service.
If the congregation is elderly and you would rather they sang, use Soul of My Saviour as a hymn and keep Frisina’s setting for a moment when the singers are on their own. Our guide to hymns for a Catholic funeral covers the rest of the repertoire and where each piece falls in the Mass.
Frisina’s setting
Monsignor Marco Frisina is a priest of the Diocese of Rome who founded the diocesan choir and ran the Vicariate’s office for sacred music. His Anima Christi keeps the Latin and sets it to a long melodic line over plain harmony, sitting in a comfortable part of the voice. He wrote it for parish forces rather than cathedral ones, so it holds up with a single singer and an organ.
At a funeral that keeps the piece from becoming a performance. No singer has to brace for a high note, and nobody in the pews stops following the prayer to watch a soloist work. The music stays quiet and keeps moving.
Where it goes in a Requiem Mass
The Communion is the natural place. Anima Christi is a thanksgiving after Communion, and the distribution at a Requiem runs long enough to carry a piece of this length without the music running out or overstaying.
It also works at the Final Commendation, sung while the priest incenses the coffin. The text asks to be called, and the liturgy asks the same thing at the same moment. It suits the vigil the evening before, and the reception of the body into church.
It does not work as the recessional. The prayer is inward and quiet, and a coffin leaving a church wants something the congregation can stand up and sing: Abide With Me or How Great Thou Art will do more there. Our complete funeral music guide walks through the whole service in order.
Who sings it, and what it costs
Anima Christi can be sung as a hymn, and some parishes sing it that way at Sunday Mass. At a funeral it is normally the choir or a soloist, with the congregation listening. That is worth having at a funeral: the hymn a family dreads is usually the one they cannot finish, and this asks nothing of them.
A soloist with an organist starts from £450, which is what most families book for a crematorium chapel or a small parish church. Four singers, from £1,150, give you harmony on this and cover the hymns as well. The recording above is a quintet, from £1,400: the second soprano frees one voice for the melody while the other four support it. Prices are on our pricing page, and for a funeral at short notice we can usually confirm availability the same day.
The Latin needs no rehearsal from anyone but us. We bring copies, arrive an hour early, and settle the running order with the priest and the funeral director before the family arrives.
Frequently asked questions
What does Anima Christi mean?
Soul of Christ. The Latin prayer opens Anima Christi, sanctifica me — Soul of Christ, sanctify me — and runs through a sequence of petitions to its closing request: in the hour of my death, call me, and bid me come to you. The English hymn Soul of My Saviour is a metrical translation of the same text.
Is Anima Christi suitable for a Catholic funeral Mass?
Yes. It is a prayer of thanksgiving after Communion from the Roman rite, so it sits naturally at the Communion of a Requiem Mass, and it also works at the Final Commendation. Parishes that restrict secular music at funerals accept it without question.
Does the congregation sing Anima Christi at a funeral?
Normally not. It can be sung as a hymn, and some parishes do, but at a Catholic funeral it is usually the choir or a soloist while the congregation listens. A soloist with an organist starts from £450, a quartet from £1,150, and the quintet in the recording on this page from £1,400.
Should the order of service print the Latin?
We would print the Latin with an English translation beside it. It lets the congregation follow the prayer while the choir sings, and it gives people something to hold at a point in the service where there is nothing else to do.
We’re here if you’d like a hand
If you would like to talk through whether Anima Christi belongs in the service, or how it sits alongside the hymns the parish has suggested, please get in touch. There is no charge for the conversation and no obligation. Most funeral bookings reach us at short notice and we are used to working to a few days.
Tell us about the service you’re planning
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