Funeral in Rome

Our funeral agency has gained forty years of experience in the organization of funerals in Rome and province, always satisfying its clients, who are guaranteed bespoke and well thought out services.

Our funeral service in Rome skillfully manages a wide range of personal needs, from the simplest and austere to the most sought after and prestigious, ensuring always the best possible level of quality possible. Our main objective is to ensure maximum clarity and transparency in prices, always balanced and personalized according to each persons needs.

Le Croci funeral home , as far as  funerals in Rome is concerned, has also distinguished itself over time for its respect and sensitivity in dealing with such a painful moment, the agency becoming synonymous with reliability and seriousness. The services offered by our agency are  of quality and handled impeccably from every point of view, earning us great esteem in our field.

Our organization of funerals in Rome,  ranges from the processing of paperwork to the type of transport preferred,  to the choice of materials and the setting up of the funeral chamber, ensures total respect for the wishes of the deceased and loved ones.

We have also been collaborating for years with trusted florists, who, at the client's request, prepare cushions and personalized floral decorations to be placed in the funeral chamber and on the hearse.

Le Croci funeral home  organizes funerals every day of the year,  including holidays, and provides the needed assistance and support  24 hours a day.

Funerals in Ancient Rome

Funerals in ancient Rome represented for everyone, even the poorest, a fundamental principle , which for the Romans was to bury the dead with dignity. The fate of the soul of the deceased fell on family and friends, if a corpse was not buried, or the funeral was not celebrated according to the specific ritual, it was thought that the soul of the deceased could not find peace and continued to wander the earth distressing the living.

The funerals of the poor or those of children were hurried and were held at night; on the other hand, the funerals of adults of the large families whose expenses were borne by the relatives or the State were held during the day.

The funeral, even for the poor, was usually carried out by  funeral directors, called Libitinarii. The word Libitinari comes from Libitina, goddess of funerals to whom money was paid  for every person who died.

These "funeral homes " had at their service a considerable number of  staff who were employed in various services; the pollinctores, who prepared the corpse for viewing , the vespillones, who put the deceased onto the bier and carried them to the pyre or to the grave, and the dissegnatores who ordered and directed the funeral ceremony in the grandiose funerals.

The funeral rites in Ancient Rome consisted of four fundamental parts: 

• Public lying in state of the deceased
  One of the family members took the dying man's last breath with a kiss and closed his eyes, repeating his name three times. The women had the task of anointing the body of the deceased with perfumed ointments and were called "Funerae". If the Funerae were not present, then the men from the funeral parlours took over and took care of everything until the ashes or corpse was laid down.
• The procession
  After the lying in state , on the eighth day was the procession (if the deceased was an important person) organized by the "dissignatores".
  The procession went through the whole city and stopped in the Forum where the funeral eulogy took place in the speakers gallery The procession was preceded by flute players, mimes and dancers, but also by women who were paid to shout and cry.
• The eulogy
  The eulogy, the commemoration of the deceased, was given by the son or a very close relative. The "laudation funebris" higlighted the value and feats that the deceased had accomplished during his life with the aim of bringing emotion to the the crowd.
• The cremation or burial ceremony
  Numerous archaeological testimonies document how cremation and burial have been practiced in Rome since the most ancient periods of the city. While in the archaic age inhumation was mostly commonly practiced, cremation is shown throughout the Republican age up to the middle imperial age, but being expensive it was reserved only for the wealthiest citizens.

A precise law explicitly prohibited cremation and burial of the deceased in the urban area, which is why the deceased was accompanied to the cemetery outside the pomerio (delimitation of the boundaries of the city by means of a sacred line). As a result of this law, in Rome and throughout the Roman world, cemeteries developed outside the city walls, along the streets leaving the city.

From the middle of the 1st century B.C., a columbarium building (today known as a loculus or niche) was built to house the burials of a family. Those who participated in the guild paid their fees in advance to the college, and  bought the loculus for themselves or  relatives.