The Latin question ''Quem quaeritis?'' (

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

for ''"Whom do you seek?"'') refers to four lines of the medieval

Easter Easter, also called Pascha ( Aramaic: פַּסְחָא , ''paskha''; Greek: πάσχα, ''páskha'') or Resurrection Sunday, is a Christian festival and cultural holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in t ...

liturgy that later formed the kernel of the large body of medieval

liturgical drama Liturgical drama refers to medieval forms of dramatic performance that use stories from the Bible or Christian hagiography. The term has developed historically and is no longer used by most researchers. It was widely disseminated by well-known the ...

, which is also known as Visitatio sepulchri ("Visit to the tomb"). It was introduced into the liturgy in the tenth century, as a new genre of liturgical ceremony:Nils Holger Petersen, "Les textes polyvalents du Quem quaeritis à Winchester au xe siècle", ''Revue de musicologie'', 86.1 (2000:105–118), with extensive bibliography in notes. Translation: The lines were then followed by a sung chorus of Alleluias. The ''Quem Quaeritis?'' was an exchange of one question, one answer, and one command between the

Angel An angel is a spiritual (without a physical body), heavenly, or supernatural being, usually humanoid with bird-like wings, often depicted as a messenger or intermediary between God (the transcendent) and humanity (the profane) in variou ...

s at Christ's tomb and

the three Marys The Three Marys (also spelled Maries) are women mentioned in the Gospel, canonical gospels' narratives of the crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. The Gospels refer to several women named Mary. At various points of Chris ...

, the

Virgin Mary Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...

Mary Magdalene Mary Magdalene (sometimes called Mary of Magdala, or simply the Magdalene or the Madeleine) was a woman who, according to the four canonical gospels, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers and was a witness to crucifixion of Jesus, his cr ...

, and Mary, the sister of Lazarus. The specific question "Quem quaeritis?" "Whom do you seek?" is not in fact in

Luke 24 Luke 24 is the twenty-fourth and final chapter of the Gospel of Luke in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The book containing this chapter is anonymous, but early Christian tradition uniformly affirmed that Luke the Evangelist composed thi ...

, where it is implied but omitted: "Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen". The actual question is directly expressed in

John 18 John 18 is the eighteenth chapter of the Gospel of John in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. This chapter records the events on the day of the Crucifixion of Jesus, starting with the arrest of Jesus the evening before (in Judaic calcula ...

:7 under a different context: "Iterum ergo interrogavit eos: Quem quæritis? Illi autem dixerunt: Jesum Nazarenum." In the

canonical gospels Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the second century AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message was reported. In this sen ...

it is Mary Magdalene,

Joanna Joanna is a feminine given name deriving from from . Variants in English include Joan, Joann, Joanne, and Johanna. Other forms of the name in English are Jan, Jane, Janet, Janice, Jean, and Jeanne. The earliest recorded occurrence of th ...

, Mary (the mother of James), and "other women" who were present at this event. Although short, this excerpt of text would later snowball into a huge body of religious medieval plays, and evolve into various genres, such as

and

mystery play Mystery plays and miracle plays (they are distinguished as two different forms although the terms are often used interchangeably) are among the earliest formally developed plays in medieval Europe. Medieval mystery plays focused on the represe ...

s. The plays that can trace their genealogy to the ''Quem Quaeritis?'' lasted for about 650 years, until the end of the

Protestant Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the papacy and ...

References

{{Reflist 10th-century Christian texts Medieval drama Latin religious words and phrases Easter liturgy The Three Marys