Prayers pro remedio animae at 14th-century Kotor

Abstract

With the growing belief in the reality of purgatory in medieval times, the hope was also rising of the salvation of the souls dwelling in that abode. By the fourteenth century the concept of purgatory had already been developed, and prayers, services and charitable acts came to be regarded as the most efficient aid to the souls of the dead. The hopes that people coping with the imminence of death placed in the effectiveness of prayers and masses pro remedio animae, and the belief in the existence of purgatory will be discussed by using the example of Kotor in the first half of the fourteenth century, on the basis of wall-paintings and wills.