During his years in Düsseldorf, Schumann was deeply engaged in the composition of cantatas, oratorios, and other religious and semi-religious works, as conductor as well as composer. He had written to a friend that religious music was the highest possible ideal for a composer, and while he did specify that the present work was intended for concert performance as well as for church services, this and his last work, the Requiem, Op. 148, are expressions of his growing spiritual fervor as well as his involvement with and inspiration by similar works. While the work's sense of mysticism is definitely of the Romantic era, there is also a certain stately simplicity reminiscent of Bach's St. Matthew Passion (a work which Schumann conducted shortly before he began work on this piece). There are only three keys used, and the structure is symmetrical—almost to the point of repetitiveness. While he wrote it in only nine days in early 1852, in 1853, Schumann added the more emotional Offertorium for the soprano soloist, which with its sparse orchestration (organ, cello, strings), and direct melodiousness is reminiscent of his lieder. As in his Requiem for Mignon and final Requiem Mass, the solo voices are used sparingly, except for this single, lied-like segment.

Only the Kyrie and Gloria were performed during his lifetime (at a concert performance under his own direction), and it was not performed in its entirely until 1861 or published until 1862.

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