A catafalque is a raised bier, box, or similar platform, often movable, that is used to support the casket, coffin, or body of a dead person during a Christian burial or memorial service.
Etymology
According to Peter Stanford, the term originates from the
Italian language catafalco, which means
scaffolding.
However, the
Oxford English Dictionary says the word is "of unknown derivation; even the original form is uncertain; French pointing to -fald- or -falt-, Italian to -falc-, Spanish to -fals." The most notable Italian catafalque was the one designed for
Michelangelo by his fellow artists in 1564.
An elaborate and highly decorated roofed surround for a catafalque,
common for grand funerals of the
Baroque era, may be called a
castrum doloris.
Papal catafalques
Large processions have followed the catafalques of popes. The households of the cardinals carried the catafalque of Pope Sixtus V in 1590. The bier, decorated with gold cloth, was followed by "confraternities,
, students of seminaries and colleges, orphans and
".
In 1963, a million people filed past the catafalque of Pope John XXIII, which had been carried in procession to St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.
In Catholic Liturgy, the catafalque is either an empty casket or a wooden form made to look like a casket that is covered by the black pall and surrounded by six unbleached (orange) candles (when they are available); it is a symbolic representation of the deceased or a monument erected to represent the faithful departed. When it is present, the priest sings the absolution for the deceased as if the body was present.
Notable catafalques
Other than religious leaders such as popes, famous people have lain in state or been carried in procession to their burial place on a catafalque.
Voltaire
Thirteen years after his death, the remains of
Voltaire were transferred on a catafalque to the Panthéon in Paris, a building dedicated to the great men of the French nation. It bore the inscription: "Poet, philosopher, historian, he made a great step forward in the human spirit. He prepared us to become free."
Abraham Lincoln
The Lincoln catafalque,
first used for United States President
Abraham Lincoln's funeral in 1865, has been used for all those who have lain in state in the
Capitol Rotunda since Lincoln's death, the most recent of which were Capitol Police Officer Billy Evans on April 13, 2021, and U.S. Senator
Bob Dole on December 9, 2021. It has recently been used at the state funeral for
Jimmy Carter in the Capitol rotunda in January 2025. It was later moved to the portico of the Court for public viewing. When not in use, the catafalque is kept on display in the Exhibition Hall at the United States Capitol Visitor Center. Commentators noted that the structure of the original pine timbers and boards has been reinforced, albeit being left "original".
[According to Robert Cromie in his book The Great Chicago Fire, copyright 1958, Lincoln's catafalque was in Woods' Museum in Chicago and was burned in the Great Chicago Fire in 1871. However, Lincoln had funeral ceremonies during stops at several major cities as his remains were taken by train from Washington to Springfield, Illinois for burial. Cromie probably meant the catafalque used for ceremonies held at Chicago, rather than the one built for his state funeral in DC and retained at the U.S. Capitol.]
See also
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