The last rites are the last prayers and ministrations given to many Catholics when possible shortly before death. The last rites go by various names and include different practices in different Catholic traditions. They may be administered to those awaiting execution, mortally injured, or terminally ill.
Read more about Last Rites: In The Roman Catholic Church, In The Orthodox Church
Famous quotes containing the word rites:
“As if the musicians did not so much play the little phrase as execute the rites required by it to appear, and they proceeded to the necessary incantations to obtain and prolong for a few instants the miracle of its evocation, Swann, who could no more see the phrase than if it belonged to an ultraviolet world ... Swann felt it as a presence, as a protective goddess and a confidante to his love, who to arrive to him ... had clothed the disguise of this sonorous appearance.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)