Angelus News | April 19-26, 2019 | Vol. 4 No. 15

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
“The Baptism of St. Augustine,” by Benozzo
Gozzoli, 1464-1465.
The baptistery under the Duomo in Milan, Italy, where Saint Augustine was baptized as an adult by
Saint Ambrose. The baptism occurred during the Easter Vigil of A.D. 387.
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
so that what will come about,
taller in height,
and greater in strength,
and more attractive in shape,
and wealthier in workmanship,
can be seen through the small and
provisional sketch.
What the congregation witnessed at
the vigil was the completion of God’s
great work of art, in their own sight
and in their lives.
New Christians
It was at the vigil each year that the
Church welcomed converts. Through
the first three centuries, most converts
were adults who had been raised
to worship the gods of the Roman,
Greek, and Egyptian cults.
The practice of Christianity was
illegal until A.D. 312 and was punishable
by death. Many believers perished
as martyrs, and others suffered
discrimination if they were known to
be Christian.
The deterrents to faith were great,
and the Church made clear the
possible consequences to anyone who
asked for baptism. Some candidates
underwent years of preparation before
their reception at the Easter Vigil.
All of them — in fact, everyone
attending the vigil — prepared for the
day by fasting. The “Didascalia” restricted
the diet of the faithful to bread,
water, and salt for Monday through
Thursday of Holy Week. And, as if
that weren’t rigorous enough, it called
for no food whatsoever on Friday and
Saturday.
Christians also prepared by bathing,
usually on Holy Thursday. Through
those centuries there was no running
water or household plumbing. A bath
was considered a luxury. But Christians
would indulge in it during Holy
Week, to ready themselves for the great
feast.
Candidates for baptism were especially
encouraged to wash, so that they
wouldn’t muddy the sacramental pool
when they were immersed.
Spitting at Satan
The ancient rites of baptism were
elaborate, involving a procession from
outside the church to various stations
within the church. The movement,
of course, symbolized the individual’s
journey toward God.
Since Christians always worshipped
facing east, the candidates would
begin by facing west. In that direction,
opposite God, was the devil; and the
former pagans would explicitly reject
him “to his face.”
The rite differed from region to
region. In some churches the converts
spat in the devil’s direction. In others
they exhaled in order to drive him
away. And then they processed inside
for the sacrament of baptism.
Baptized naked
It is Christian doctrine that baptism
signifies birth to a new life. So
converts underwent this second birth
just as they had undergone their first:
completely naked.
It wasn’t as scandalous as it sounds.
The churches were segregated by sex,
and modesty was scrupulously respected.
Female candidates were obscured
by a screen that blocked the view of
everyone, including the bishop who
baptized them.
He first poured water over the top
of the screen. Then, at the anointing,
he poured oil over the top onto the
woman’s head. The bodily anointing,
for women, was completed by holy
women, called “deaconesses,” who
were commissioned for the task.
In the fourth century, Saint Cyril of
Jerusalem recalled the moment for his
class of newly baptized Christians.
“As soon, then, as you entered, you
put off your tunic,” he said, “and this
was an image of putting off the old
man with his deeds (Colossians 3:9).
Having stripped yourselves, you were
naked, in this also imitating Christ,
who was stripped naked on the cross,
and by his nakedness put off from
himself the principalities and powers,
and openly triumphed over them on
the tree.”
14 • ANGELUS • April 19-26, 2019