Media vita in morte sumus (Latin for "In the midst of life we are in death") is a Gregorian chant, known by its incipit, written in the form of a response, and known as "Antiphona pro Peccatis" or "de Morte".[1] The most accepted source is a New Year's Eve religious service in the 1300s.[1] Reference has been made to a source originating in a battle song of the year 912 by Notker the Stammerer, a monk of the Abbey of Saint Gall: however, the Synod of Cologne declared in 1316 no one should sing this without prior permission of the residing bishop.[1]