HistoricalChristian.Faith

The Liturgy of Addai and Mari on purgatory and prayer for the dead

Dates: c. 300 · Wikipedia
Summary: The East-Syriac Anaphora of the Apostles Addai and Mari (also called the Liturgy of the Blessed Apostles) is one of the oldest Eucharistic prayers still in use, the historic liturgy of the Church of the East. In the anaphora the priest offers the oblation expressly "for all the dead that have gone from amongst us" and prays God to "spare the offences and sins of the dead" — the earliest sustained liturgical witness from the Syriac East that the Eucharistic sacrifice is offered on behalf of the departed.

Claims & evidence

The oblation is offered for the departed

O Lord God Almighty, accept this oblation for the whole Holy Catholic Church, and for all the pious and righteous fathers who have been pleasing to Thee, and for all the prophets and apostles, and for all the martyrs and confessors, and for all that mourn, that are in straits, and are sick, and for all that are under difficulties and trials, and for all the weak and the oppressed, and for all the dead that have gone from amongst us.

— The Liturgy of the Blessed Apostles (Anaphora of Addai and Mari), source. The dead are named alongside the living within the one Eucharistic offering: the sacrifice avails "for all the dead that have gone from amongst us." The structure assumes, rather than argues, that the Church's oblation reaches the departed.

A direct intercession that God spare the sins of the dead

O Christ, peace of those in heaven and great rest of those below … Spare the offences and sins of the dead, through Thy grace and mercies for ever.

— The Liturgy of the Blessed Apostles (Anaphora of Addai and Mari), source. More than a commemoration, this is a petition for the remission of the sins of the dead — that God "spare the offences and sins of the dead." The conviction underlying the whole prayers-for-the-dead practice is here made explicit: the living can ask, and God can grant, mercy to the departed after death.

Notes

• Dating is layered, as with all anaphoras: the prayer's written form is later, but its core is widely held to be among the most archaic surviving Eucharistic texts (a third-century, possibly earlier, kernel), which is why it sits here c. 300. It is the Eastern, Syriac counterpart to the Latin practice attested by Tertullian and Cyprian, and to the Greek liturgical witness of Cyril of Jerusalem.
• The liturgies are the strongest leg of the prayers-for-the-dead case precisely because they are communal and standing — not one father's opinion but the praying Church's settled rule, East and West. See the cluster of anaphoras on the timeline: this liturgy, the Liturgy of Saint Mark, and the Liturgy of Saint James.
• The East prays for its dead but never received the Latin satisfactory cleansing fire; this witness belongs to the broadly-attested practice, not to the contested fire — see the cleansing-fire argument and whether prayer for the dead was uncontested.