IMPRECATION. - A wish for some evil, material or spiritual, directed against oneself or against others.
In pagan antiquity there was much abuse of imprecation, especially inviting the infernal deities to turn misfortunes against designated persons. One recalls the imprecatory prayers of Thyestes against Atreus, of Ateius against Crassus, of Drusus against Tiberius.
Imprecations were also used to replace legal sanctions or, in conjunction with these, to impose certain duties more severely, such as respect for tombs, treaties and wills.
A particular form of written imprecation was the defixio, which takes its name from the analogy with the fixing of a point to which the misfortune was compared. It is found among almost all ancient peoples and consisted in a magical attempt to cause harm and torments to enemy persons by writing, generally on a lead tablet, words (dirae) such as the following: "may she never find Persephone favorable." The formulas of imprecation were often affixed to the house of those whom one wished to harm, or shut up in tombs or engraved on the sepulchral slab.
Christians too made use of the latter, who, in order to prevent violations, placed expressions such as: "male iaceat, insepultus iaceat, cum Iuda partem habeat si quis sepulchrum hunc (sic) violaverit" (Armellini, v. bibl.). The only example of a Christian defixio is the one found at Trai in Dalmatia in the 6th century: it has, however, no magical or malefic value, but an anti-magical and almost exorcistic one against the unclean spirit called "spirete tartaruce." Those imprecations that can be registered among the figures of rhetoric constitute a separate category.
In the Bible too, especially in the Psalms (e.g., 128, 6), in the Prophets and even in the Gospel (e.g., Lk. 6, 24), expressions are found that at first sight appear imprecatory. St. Thomas holds that such expressions have an indicative sense and are more prophetic threats than words of hatred and vengeance, while in other cases the Angelic Doctor judges that the desire expressed is directed not at evil but at the fulfillment of God's justice and the cessation of sin (Sum. Theol., 2ᵃ-2ᵃᵉ, q. 25, a. 6, ad 3). In this he expresses the common conviction of the Fathers (cf., e.g., St. Hilary "Cognitionis fuit sermo non voti": In Ps., 12, 8 13; PL 9, 717, and St. Augustine "Haec eis futura praedixit non quasi ut evenirent optavit": In Ps., 34, 1, 9; PL 36, 328).
Moral judgment: imprecation, when it has no blasphemous coloring, is a sin contrary to the love of neighbor or at least a sin of anger; and it is grave if the following conditions are met: 1) that the evil wished is truly desired; 2) that it is grave or is held to be such; 3) that it is wished with full deliberation.
The imprecation of a determinate evil takes on the moral species of the evil desired (Sum. Theol., 2ᵃ-2ᵃᵉ, 6, 76, a. 5, ad 2). Often, however, the imprecations uttered in a burst of anger are not deliberately approved: for this reason the imprecation remains in general not gravely imputable. An imprecation takes on a particular gravity and malice when it is directed at persons who have a right to special respect, or at persons toward whom peculiar duties exist, such as relatives and superiors: "Qui maledixerit patri suo et matri, morte moriatur" (Lev. 20, 9).
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