A free, dignified resource
for the families in your care.
Vigils is a calm, religion-aware funeral planning workspace your bereavement coordinators can hand to any grieving family in your diocese, federation, or council. Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Protestant, and secular templates are built in. It is free for every family, forever, and we do not advertise to them.
Why partner with Vigils
What clergy partners get from a relationship with Vigils.
Religion-aware from day one.
Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Protestant, and secular templates are built in. Each tradition has its own timeline, ritual sequence, and language. Families see their faith reflected, not flattened.
Free for every family in your community.
No paywall on the planning workspace. No fee to your diocese, federation, or council. The optional Planning Pack is a one-time $49 add-on the family chooses or skips. Everything core is free, forever.
Eleven written guides, already published.
Tradition-specific articles on funeral planning, mourning timelines, and ritual practice. Hand the link to a family during a pastoral visit, or link from your bereavement page. They are public and require no account.
No ads, no upsell, no data sold.
Privacy is the product. We do not advertise to your families, share their information, or sell their data. We are not building a lead funnel. We are building a calm place for grieving people.
How it works
From conversation to families using it, in a week.
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Share Vigils with your bereavement coordinators.
A short note to the priests, rabbis, imams, and lay ministers who walk families through loss. We can supply the language and a one-page brief if helpful.
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They link or recommend it to families.
During a pastoral visit, in a follow-up email, or on your bereavement resource page. Vigils sits alongside your existing pastoral care, not in place of it.
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Families plan with structure, in their own faith.
They get a calm, organized workspace at the hardest moment of their lives. Your clergy keep doing what only clergy can do: presence, prayer, and pastoral care.
What clergy get back
More time for presence. Less time on logistics.
Bereavement coordinators stop fielding the same questions.
Where do I write the obituary. How do I plan the visitation. What happens at shiva. When is the burial supposed to be. Vigils answers the logistics so your team can focus on the spiritual care only they can provide.
Families show up more present, less frazzled.
When a family arrives at the funeral mass, the shiva house, or the janazah prayer with the logistics already organized, they have more capacity for the ritual itself. That is the experience your clergy are trying to create.
“When a family loses someone, we want to be present. We do not want to be answering the same logistics questions for the third time that day. A tool like this lets us focus on the soul of the work.”
“Our shul has eight hundred member families. After a death, most of them have never planned a Jewish funeral. A walk-through that knows what shiva is, what kaddish is, and what the timeline looks like is a real gift.”
Resources, already published
Faith-specific guides your families can read today.
Public, free, no account required. Hand the link to a family during a pastoral visit, or link to them from your bereavement page.
Catholic funeral planning
Vigil, funeral mass, rite of committal. Timing, ritual, and the language of the church.
Read the guideJewish funeral planning
Chevra kadisha, burial within 24 to 72 hours, shiva, sheloshim, kaddish through the year.
Read the guideMuslim funeral planning
Ghusl, kafan, janazah prayer, burial as soon as possible. Family roles and the days that follow.
Read the guideSecular funeral planning
For families who are not religiously affiliated. Memorial service formats, eulogy structure, and gathering ideas.
Read the guideFrequently asked
What clergy ask us first.
Is this trying to replace clergy?
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No. Vigils handles logistics: checklists, obituary drafting, photo galleries, the printable program. Clergy handle presence, prayer, and pastoral care. The tool exists so the family arrives at the funeral mass, shiva, or janazah more emotionally present, not less. Vigils is complementary, not a substitute.
What does Vigils charge our community?
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Nothing. There is no fee to the diocese, federation, council, or congregation. The planning workspace is free for every family. The optional Planning Pack is a one-time $49 add-on the family chooses or skips. We do not bill clergy or religious bodies, ever.
Can families use Vigils without creating an account?
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The eleven written guides at vigils.app/resources are fully public and require no account. The collaborative planning workspace, where families build a checklist, draft an obituary together, and invite relatives, requires an email so we can save their work.
How do we share it with our community?
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A short paragraph in your bereavement email template. A line on your funeral planning resource page. A link your bereavement coordinator hands to a family during a pastoral visit. We can provide draft language for any of these. On a 15-minute call, we will walk through what works for your specific structure.
What about denominations or traditions you do not currently list?
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A secular template is available for any family that does not see their tradition reflected. We add traditions on request. If your community follows a tradition we have not yet built for, tell us on the call and we will scope it.
How do you keep family data private?
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We do not sell, share, or advertise to your families. Family records can be deleted on request. We are the data processor, the family is the controller. We will sign whatever data agreement your legal team needs.