Duties
Seven Spiritual Works of Mercy
Seven duties involving teaching, counsel, correction, patience, forgiveness, comfort and prayer.
- Tradition or school
- Christianity
- Framework type
- Duties
- Authority classification
- Denominational
- Observance
- Recommended
- Research status
- Published and reviewed
- Origin period
- Biblical and patristic foundations with later seven-item systematisation
- Origin region
- Christian Europe and the wider Church
- Attributed origin
- Traditional Catholic synthesis
- Intended audience
- Catholics and other Christians who adopt the works-of-mercy tradition
- Published constituent items
- 7
- Last reviewed
- 28 June 2026
Primary texts and authority
The list draws on multiple biblical teachings and is formally summarised in Catholic catechetical tradition.
Rules, principles or steps
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Instruct Those Who Lack Knowledge
Share useful knowledge with people who need and are willing to receive it.
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Counsel the Doubtful
Offer careful advice to people facing uncertainty or difficult decisions.
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Admonish Wrongdoing
Challenge conduct believed to be seriously harmful or morally wrong.
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Bear Wrongs Patiently
Avoid impulsive retaliation when treated unfairly.
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Forgive Offences
Release destructive resentment where forgiveness is possible and appropriate.
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Comfort the Afflicted
Give presence, sympathy and practical emotional support to people in distress.
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Pray for the Living and the Dead
Remember others in prayer according to Christian belief and practice.
Historical development
The duties became paired with the seven corporal works as a standard account of assistance to spiritual and material need.
Variations
English wording varies between advising and counselling, consoling and comforting, or admonishing and correcting.
Traditional interpretation
The works concern intellectual, emotional, moral and religious forms of care.
Controversies and disputes
Correction and instruction can become intrusive or authoritarian when offered without competence, consent or humility.
Truth By Reason analysis
Comfort, forgiveness and patient restraint can reduce harm. Advice and correction are ethical only when accurate, proportionate and respectful of autonomy.
Ethical themes
Sources
- Catechism of the Catholic Church 2447 — The Works of Mercy Primary source