Funeral Sermon and Prayer

The Funeral Sermon and Prayer (Hungarian: Halotti beszéd és könyörgés) is the oldest known and surviving contiguous Hungarian text, written by one scribal hand in the Latin script and dating to 1192–1195.

The importance of the Funeral Sermon resides from being the oldest surviving Hungarian and as such also the oldest Uralic, text — although individual words and even short partial sentences appear in charters, such as the founding charter of the Veszprém valley nunnery (997–1018/1109) or the founding charter of the abbey of Tihany (1055).

The work was written after a Latin version, which has been identified and can be found in the very codex.

However, the Funeral Sermon and Prayer is a new composition based on it, rather than a mere translation.

In this transcription we follow Hungarian editing tradition, where the ſ is retained, but ʒ is replaced by its modern equivalent.