A (;
French for "burning chapel") is a chapel or room in which the corpse of a
sovereign or other exalted personage lies in state pending the
funeral service. The name is in allusion to the many candles which are lighted round the
catafalque
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 funeral or memorial service. Following a Roman Catholic Requiem Mass, a catafalque ...
. This custom is first chronicled as occurring at the obsequies of
Dagobert I
Dagobert I ( la, Dagobertus; 605/603 – 19 January 639 AD) was the king of Austrasia (623–634), king of all the Franks (629–634), and king of Neustria and Burgundy (629–639). He has been described as the last king of the Merovingian dyna ...
(602–638).
References
Death customs
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