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Early Christian Baptisteries: A Short Discussion William Caraher © 2010

Introduction In an Early Christian context (3rd-7th c. A.D.), baptisteries represent an important body of architecture that despite their singular function, defy summary description. A recent survey of baptismal architecture from the Early Christian period has identified over 1000 buildings and this survey is likely to be incomplete.1 The buildings included in this catalogue and dated to the Early Christian period represent both the development and diversity of the ritual and architecture of baptism within the Early Church. The Christian rite itself dates to the earliest Christian scriptures and accounts of pre-baptismal practices and a proper baptismal liturgy pre-date the earliest known Christian architecture. The earliest rites of baptism described in second and third-century texts did not demand a specific location or building for baptistery despite the development of a rich ritual tradition.2 In fact, baptism could occur in rivers or other bodies of water.3 At the same time, however, specific spaces for baptism appeared in some of the earliest known buildings modified for Christian purposes. By the 4th century, free-standing baptisteries provided a distinct architectural and symbolic context for initiation into the Early Christian community across the entire Mediterranean basin. The emergence of elaborately decorated and monumental baptisteries broadcast the authority of the church hierarchy over initiation into the Christian community and reinforced the wealth of the church as an institution. General Description

By the 4th century, the early and close link between the various rituals of baptism and the clergy, ensured that baptisteries were almost always associated with the liturgical space of the church either as a free-standing structures, attached buildings or, less frequently, within the church proper in a space set apart for the performance of the rite. In many cases, complex decorative programs in prestigious materials set baptisteries apart from other spaces of Christian ritual. The specific combination of architecture, features, and decoration of baptisteries showed considerable variation both within and across regions. The considerable differences in the architecture and ritual apparatus even among baptisteries from the same region suggest that the differences between these buildings probably did not reflect variations in the baptismal ritual alone, but rather revealed baptisteries as buildings capable of bearing a wide range of theological, symbolic, and even political meanings.

The variation present in the architecture and decoration of baptisteries also represents the greatest challenge to understanding the function and meaning of these ritually significant places. Few texts clearly relate to a known building and fewer still provide clear evidence as to how these buildings function. The difficulties linking texts to baptisteries and baptismal rituals are compounded by the lack of clear chronology on many of the buildings so it is difficult to ascertain whether baptisteries developed through time or as the result of specific historical influences. The absence of ancient descriptions of the architectural or decorative requirements for baptism makes it challenging to understand why architectural variation existed and whether it was a requirement of ritual, aesthetics, theology or otherwise. Finally, the interaction between the elaborate


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decoration and ritual, theological, and sacred life of the community varied over time and with audience. This serves as a important reminder of the diverse and multivalent character of Early Christian iconology in general as well as how little we know about these important buildings.

The dearth of site specific textual evidence has led scholars to appeal to general patterns in the relationship between ritual and buildings in efforts to understand the physical and symbolic significance of the architecture and decoration of Early Christian baptisteries. Typically these treatments rely upon a generalized description of ritual. Baptism typically followed a period of instruction in the Christian faith, which varied in length and intensity. On the day of the baptism, catechumens, or pre-baptismal converts, would process to the baptistery in particular, typically white, baptismal garb. At the baptistery, the bishop or an appointed member of the senior clergy would administer the rite. First, the presiding clergyman would perform an exorcism on the baptismal candidate and in some cases anointed the convert with oil before baptism itself took place. This purged any active evil from the uninitiated and prepared them to be cleansed from all of their pervious sins during the baptism itself. By the 4th century, the bishop baptized the naked candidate in a purpose-built font, and this ritual marked the moment at which the candidate became a member of the Christian community. Since most preserved fonts were not large enough for full immersion, the bishop or presiding priest likely use affusion, the pouring of blessed water over the head, or aspersion, the sprinkling of water, over the naked candidate. The presence of steps down into most baptismal fonts required the baptismal candidate to step down into the font either to facilitate the application of water by the bishop or to symbolize the decent and rebirth as a Christian. After the baptism, the fully initiated member of the community would proceed to the church itself to experience the full liturgy for the first time as a member of the Christian community. Set days for baptism varied across the Mediterranean, but there was a clear preference for Easter Saturday which allowed the redemption of the sinful through baptism to echo the redemption of the world through Jesus’ resurrection.

This basic outline of liturgical practice accounts for many of the most common features that appear in baptisteries. In almost all baptisteries the font represented the main focus of the ritual as well as the architecture and decoration. The close contact between baptisteries and the liturgical space of a church allowed the baptized easy access to space of Christian liturgy. In more elaborate baptisteries, chambers communicating directly with the room where the font was located are regularly identified as the spaces for exorcism or anointing. Larger spaces in particular grandiose structures are often read as places for the instruction of catechumens.

While requirements of the ritual had a clear influence on the internal arrangement of the building, it would be wrong to see baptisteries as a kind of functional architecture. In fact, the elaborate design of most Early Christian baptisteries almost certainly had symbolic significance that added meaning to the ritual of baptism. Throughout the Mediterranean, the dominant architectural form in most baptisteries was the centrally planned room which contained the font. The rooms could be square, hexagonal, octagonal or even circular and covered with a dome. Some scholars have argued that the dome represented the dome of heaven or the centrally planned shape echoed earlier tombs. In the latter case, the ritual of baptism physically mimicked rebirth as the catechumen enters the tomb in order to exit reborn and free from sin. The parallel with


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the Christian Passion narrative is clear. Parallels between tomb architecture and baptisteries may also evoke martyrs shrines which were important monuments of Early Christian devotion and perhaps appealing places for baptism. Square or rectangular baptisteries, numerically the most common form, sometimes featured apsidal exedrae to evoke the shape of contemporary church buildings. In general, baptisteries represented particularly elaborate forms of architecture in the Early Christian world and stood out in church and episcopal complexes where they served as physical anchors to the pre-baptismal processions, symbolically suitable environments for the rites, and persistent reminders of membership in the Christian community.4 The architecture also provided suitable platform for complex and dynamic decorative programs with further bolstered the status of the church and its leaders.

The centerpiece of baptismal ritual and architecture was the font. Fonts varied significantly with the most common shape being round, but different forms were not uncommon. Like most aspects of baptismal architecture, the shape of fonts undoubtedly carried significant symbolic weight. Cruciform fonts, for example, could represent functional design as the catechumens walked through the font on one axis and the presiding clergy stood to either side of them on the other. The cruciform font could also have obvious theological significance: physical immersion in the cross led to spiritual rebirth. Likewise, octagonal fonts replicated the octagonal form of baptistery buildings and may have reinforced and echoed the mystical significance of the number eight.5

The font also represented the main focus of the decorative themes present in the buildings which naturally revolved around the central open space of the building. While there are several detailed studies of single buildings, much of the scholarship has focused on unlocking the symbolic significance of the mosaic decorations and attempting to find some common themes in the decoration in building spread across the Mediterranean. Biblical scenes are common. Old Testament scenes often involve episodes of redemption and involve water such as Jonah and the whale, Noah, Moses striking the rock, and and imagery evoking Psalm 62 and Pslam 23. New Testament scenes, include Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan or images of Jesus as the good shepherd leading his flock to the church.

Also common are decorations in a more symbolic vein. Water features prominently in the decoration of baptisteries with the Jordan River, fountains, and vessels, particularly overrunning canthari being particularly common. Animals also feature regularly especially doves and deer which appear respectively in the baptism story of Jesus and Psalm 62 in association with water. Animals, fish, birds, and vegetation like vines, trees, and flowers may evoke Christian paradise or Biblical Eden. Some scholars have seen parallels between baptismal iconography and the iconography used in a funerary context and this would reinforce a link between baptismal rebirth and physical death. Finally, some mosaics may include apotropaic symbols, like so-called Solomon’s knots, eye-shaped symbols, and even crosses which guarded the place and participants from evil at a vulnerable moment of passage.

In some cases, inscriptions complement iconography and ritual in baptisteries. Sometimes these texts are little more than brief quotes from the Psalms, the Gospels or references to paradise. Some larger texts are preserved such as the lengthy inscription in verse form Lateran baptistery dated to the 5th century which uses water imagery to draw parallel between the incarnation and the baptismal rite. These texts seemed to have


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served not only to make the purpose of the building clear, but also to explicate aspects of the baptismal rite or invoke the same array of allegorical images presented in decoration. Case Studies

The earliest-known Christian baptistery derives from the Christian Building at Dura Europos.6 The Christian building was a modified house from a Roman border town in the Syrian desert which was abandoned after a siege is 256 A.D. The modification of the house suggests that it functioned as a place of assembly for the 3rd century Christian community. The southern wing of the peristyle house was expanded to accommodate a congregation of over 50 people and the northern wing of the building preserved a small, but elaborate baptistery. This space communicated with a room along the western side of the peristyle thought to be reserved for catechumens, or candidates for Christian initiation, who would be able to listen to the services in the assembly room but not be physically present. Frescoes decorated the walls of the baptistery, and, while there are imperfectly preserved, they likely represent Biblical scenes associated with the resurrection and salvation. A rectangular font under an aedicula or canopy dominates the western part of the room. In this arrangement, the catechumen would have stepped down into a font that was not deep enough to allow for full immersion. The ritual, decoration, and furnishings seem to evoke the descent and resurrection from the tomb which would become a common theme for baptismal imagery later in Christian history.

The northern Italian city of Ravenna preserves two monumental baptisteries: the Arian baptistery and the Orthodox or Neonian baptistery. C. Kostof has treated the latter church in a monograph length study.7 The baptistery dates to the early 5th century with a later, mid-5th century renovation. Like so many Italian baptisteries, the building is a free-standing octagon. The interior of the building is well-appointed with a circular or octagonal font set into the floor. The octagonal elevation of the baptistery rests atop a square base with arcuated apsidal niches at the corners and rectangular niches on the sides. These arches support a series of heavily decorated and heavily restored zones depicting prophets or teachers in plaster, mosaics evoking traditional Christian and Biblical themes including Jonah, Daniel in the Lion’s den, and Christ giving the law. The dome depicts in mosaic the Gospel books, the 12 apostles in procession, and in the central medallion, Christ’s baptism by John the Baptist. The decoration of this space evokes both the historical and the symbolic aspects of baptism through the interplay between New and Old Testament imagery – like the baptism of Christ and the onlooking prophets and teachers– and more symbolic imagery such as vegetal patterns and animals alluding to Christian paradise.

These elaborately decorated baptisteries stand among a rather small group of well-preserved buildings, but the majority of baptisteries in the Mediterranean stand as little more than ruins. We can only speculate on the elevation and decoration of the elaborate 5th/6th century Lechaion baptistery which stands to less than 2 m in height on the coast of the Gulf of Corinth near Corinth, Greece.8 The baptistery stands to the north of a massive three-aisled basilica and consists of a pair of centrally planned buildings joined on their western sides by a north-south oriented rectangular building with apses on its short ends. The baptistery proper is an octagonal space with a central font and an eastern apse. To the north of this building stands the remains of another centrally planned structure, with a square core and apsidal projections one each side. The apsidal hall suggests a space for


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educating catechumens and the northern of the two centrally planned structures may represent a space for the pre-baptismal preparations or anointing. The baptistery itself evokes martyria and tombs in Italy and North Africa, and this may allude to the function of the church and baptistery as a martyr shrine. If the building is dedicated to St. Leonidas and his companions who were drowned for their faith nearby, then this might explain the significance of this site as a place of baptism. Conclusions

The vast array of images and the large number of baptisteries across the Mediterranean revealed the dynamic character of baptismal space. The monumental character of the baptisteries likely made clear the importance of this rite of passage to membership in the Christian community, served to attract new converts to their group, and likely reinforced the growing prestige of the church. The centralized plan of many baptisteries evoked funerary architecture and stood out as a distinct form of architecture in the Early Christian Mediterranean. Moreover, the centralized plan focused attention on central font and the singular, individualized encounter experienced at the moment of conversion. The interplay between ritual, architecture, and decoration while never precise or unambiguous nevertheless reveals the rich symbolic world surrounding Early Christian practices and membership in the Christian community. 1S. Ristow, Frühchristliche Baptisterien (Münster Westfalen: Aschendorffesche

Verlagsbuchh., 1998).

2 M. E. Johnson, The rites of Christian initiation (Liturgical Press, 2007), ##-##

3 Didache, 7.1-3.

4 A. J. Wharton, Refiguring the Post Classical City: Dura Europos, Jerash, Jerusalem,

and Ravenna (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 105-131

5 S. Kostof, The Orthodox Baptistery of Ravenna (New Haven: Yale University Press,

1965), 50.

6 Carl Kraeling, The Excavations at Dura-Europos: The Christian building. Vol. 8 Pt. 2

(New Have: Dura-Europos Publications, 1967).

7 S. Kostof, The Orthodox Baptistery of Ravenna (New Haven: Yale University Press,

1965).


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8 I. E. Volonakes, Τα Παλαιοχριστιανικά Βαπτιστήρια τἢς Ελλάδος. (Athens:

Archaiologikē hetaireia 1976), 65-66.

early christian baptisteries working

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