Pass by Rome’s Church of Santa Maria dell’Orazione e Morte, and you can’t help but notice a sinister stone plaque depicting a winged skeleton. Draped from his hands is a banner which reads: Hodie Mihi, Cras Tibi (“My turn today, your turn tomorrow”). This is what we call a Memento Mori, a reminder of death, recurrent in art and literature since Classical Antiquity.
But what is the history behind Memento Mori? Where did it first originate, and what can it teach us today? Let’s delve into its origins and meanings across different eras.
What Does Memento Mori Mean?
Memento Mori is a phrase made up of two Latin verbs, meminī, meaning “to remember” or “to bear in mind”, and morī, meaning “to die”. Since memento is what we call the imperative form of the verb, the best literal translation would be as a command: “you must remember to die”. But since this is clunky in English, a more flowing translation might be “be mindful of death.”
Memento Mori in Ancient Rome
It’s fitting that Memento Mori should be in Latin, which many consider a dead language. There’s no doubt the Romans were acutely aware of their own, individual mortality. Roman generals (imperators) celebrating triumphs over vanquished foes would parade in a chariot through the Roman Forum to the adulation of the crowd, their faces painted red in imitation of Jupiter. But behind them would stand a lowly slave, who would whisper in their ear “Remember, you are only mortal”, a reminder to stay humble on this, the proudest day of their lives.
Everyday Romans also showed an acute awareness of their mortality. This is particularly evident in funerary practices, where elaborate tombs and inscriptions often included Memento Mori symbols, such as skulls, hourglasses, and wilting flowers.
This acceptance of life’s impermanence even made its way into Roman philosophy, especially among the Stoics. Figures like Seneca, the ill-fated tutor of the emperor Nero, and Marcus Aurelius, the “philosopher-emperor” who spent most of his reign at war, would reflect on mortality as a necessary reminder of life’s brevity. By keeping the thought of death close, they believed one could cultivate a life filled with purpose and clarity, a concept deeply rooted in Stoic thought that remains influential even today.
Perhaps the most poignant Memento Mori in Rome appears on the Appian Way, an ancient consular road running southeast from Rome. This ancient road is lined with tombs, from grandiose mausoleums and modest tombs fronted by portraits of the dead who rest there to the ancient catacombs – vast subterranean warrens where Rome’s early Christians were buried.
But we have evidence to suggest that they viewed their Empire as everlasting. In Virgil’s Aeneid, an epic story about Rome’s foundation and the go-to textbook for anybody learning Latin in antiquity, Jupiter orders the protagonist, Aeneas, to found a city (Rome) from which would emerge an everlasting, never-ending empire (imperium sine fine).
It would not be farfetched to suggest that the Romans saw their culture and imperial influence as something that would not just survive them but might even last forever. Visit Rome today, and judge for yourself how much of ancient Rome endures in the city and its people.
Memento Mori in the Middle Ages
As Europe emerged from the Dark Ages and into the medieval era, Memento Mori continued to echo through art, religion, and daily life, taking on even darker and more intricate forms. This period saw the rise of the Danse Macabre, or “Dance of Death,” a theme that illustrated death leading people of all classes in a final procession. Plagues and wars had swept through Europe, and mortality became a part of everyday reality, shaping how people understood the fragility of life.
In religious art, Memento Mori became a vivid symbol of the Christian belief in humility and the afterlife. Churches displayed paintings and sculptures of skulls and skeletal figures as reminders of sin, repentance, and salvation. In Rome, these symbols were particularly elaborate, with churches like Santa Maria dell’Orazione e Morte turning human remains into haunting artworks. These displays of bones were both spiritual reminders and public art, bridging faith with the starkness of death.
See Santa Maria dell’Orazione e Morte on our Rome Ghost Tour
The Modern Meaning of Memento Mori
Today, in a world often preoccupied with longevity and preservation, Memento Mori holds a unique relevance. As you stand before the plaque at Santa Maria dell’Orazione e Morte on a Rome Ghost Tour, the phrase becomes a personal invitation to reflect on life’s transient beauty. Though the phrase may have ancient roots, its message is as timely as ever: rather than avoiding the thought of mortality, we might embrace it as a call to live fully, cherishing each moment as fleeting and precious.
In a city as historic as Rome, surrounded by the shadows of empires and echoes of past lives, Memento Mori is a reminder not to fear death but to respect it, to live with an awareness that makes every laugh, every conversation, and experience shared with loved ones even more meaningful. To remember that we must die is, perhaps, the most profound call to truly live.
