When it is said
Anyone can pray it at any time, and it is short enough for someone very weak or near death to say, or for those at the bedside to say with them.
The Orthodox hear it read on the evening of Holy Thursday, in the Gospels of Christ’s Passion.
Where it comes from
Author known
The thief on the cross
Two criminals were crucified with Jesus. One of them mocked Him and told Him to save Himself and them. The other rebuked him and asked if he did not fear God. He admitted that the two of them deserved their punishment, but Jesus had done nothing wrong. Then he turned to Jesus with this prayer, and Jesus promised him Paradise that same day (Luke 23:42-43).
In the Church’s services
The Church keeps his words in many services. At a burial the Beatitudes are sung with “Remember us, O Lord, when Thou comest into Thy kingdom.” In the prayer before Communion each believer promises, “like the thief will I confess Thee.” On Great Friday the Church sings that Christ gave “the wise thief” Paradise “in one moment”.
What the words mean
“Lord” or “Jesus”?
Greek copies of Luke differ in the thief’s words. The Greek text published by the Patriarchate of Constantinople in 1904 reads “Remember me, Lord”, as the King James Version and the Church’s hymns do. Other copies read “Jesus, remember me”, and modern Bibles such as the Berean Standard Bible follow them.
The Patriarchal Greek text (1904), on Elpenor; The SBL Greek New Testament (2010), with its notes on other editions, on eBible.org
The Scripture in it
Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom!” And Jesus said to him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.
In Greek
μνήσθητί μου, Κύριε,
ὅταν ἔλθῃς ἐν τῇ βασιλείᾳ Σου.
From Luke’s Gospel in Greek (23:42), in the Patriarchal text of 1904, on Elpenor (ellopos.net).