LIMBO. - From the Latin limbus (= edge, border, hem), it is the place and state of souls who, not having deserved hell, could not, before the redemption, enter heaven (limbo of the Sts. Fathers) or are eternally excluded from it because of original sin not erased.
I. THE LIMBO OF THE HOLY FATHERS
The state and place in which the righteous of the Old Testament found themselves, who, although departing this life in grace and fully purified of their sins, could not enter Paradise, because the Redemption of humanity had not yet been accomplished. Therefore the souls of the righteous, who died before Christ, were in a tranquil state, in serene expectation of the Redemption. This state was called the limbo of the Fathers, or also "Abraham's bosom" (sinus Abrahae: cf. Lk. 16:22), taking the word "bosom" in the same meaning as limbo: as it were a hidden place or harbor of tranquil rest, named after the Patriarch, who was the model of faith in God and as it were the father of believers.
The word limbo appears in theology only after Peter Lombard (d. 1160); the Hebrews called it fē'ōl; in the Greek version of the Bible made by the Seventy, it was translated by the word Hades ('A8yc), and in the Latin version by the word Hell (Infernus), which were the Latin and Greek terms indicating the dwelling place of the dead. The image evoked by these terms is that of a dark place, set in the bowels of the earth, like an immense abyss. Sē'ōl was in the Hebrew language a common term that designated both the dwelling of the righteous ("Abraham's bosom") and the dwelling of the wicked, the Gehenna, as it is called in the Gospel (Mt. 5:22; 23:15; 10:28; Mk. 9:42, 46; 18:9; Lk. 12:15). Subsequently the expression "Abraham's bosom" became synonymous with Paradise. Thus in the liturgy of the dead God is besought to place the souls in "Abraham's bosom" (cf. P. Heinisch, Teologia del Vecchio Testamento, Turin 1950, pp. 307-13). The limbo of the Holy Fathers ceased with the descent of Jesus.
II. DESCENT OF JESUS CHRIST INTO LIMBO
1. Dogma
In the time between his death and Resurrection, the soul of Christ descended into fē'ōl (ad inferos) to bring the fruits of redemption to the souls of the just, who were awaiting the fulfillment of God's promises, in which they believed. Thus Christ, as Redeemer, also shared the lot of the just who had believed in him, going with his soul into fē'ōl to await the hour of his triumph.
The descent of Christ's soul into limbo is an article of faith explicitly set forth in the Creeds from the 4th century onward, as appears from the testimony of Rufinus (Denz-U, 3). Leo the Great in 447 speaks of the descent of Christ into hell as of a dogmatic truth believed by the whole Church and indisputable (Epist. ad Turribium, 17: PL 54, 690). In the Fourth Lateran Council (a. 1215) it was specified that the descent into limbo was with the soul (in anima), in order to condemn the opinion of Abelard, according to whom that descent was to be understood in a purely metaphorical sense, that is, as a simple saving operation accomplished by Christ in the souls of the just; a descent per potentiam, rather than a descent proper to the soul into the same abode of the just of the Old Testament.
This article of faith is contained in Sacred Scripture. St. Peter, proclaiming the Resurrection of Christ to the Judges immediately after Pentecost, said, referring to the prophecy of David (Ps. 15, 19): "Therefore being a prophet David and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his loins one should sit upon his throne, he spoke prophetically of the Resurrection of Christ that he was not abandoned in fē'ōl, nor did his flesh see corruption" (Act. 2, 24-31). In other passages of the New Testament as well there is an allusion to the dwelling of Christ's soul in limbo (Mt. 22, 40; Rom. 10, 6-7; probably in I Pt. 3, 19-20).
As the holy Fathers point out, the doctrine of Christ's descent into limbo harmonizes with the divine plan of Redemption, according to which Christ freely and out of love takes upon himself all the states of troubled human existence, in order to redeem all. Descending into limbo and manifesting himself to the just, the soul of Christ, subsisting in the person of the Word, brought the light of happiness: fē'ōl was transformed into Paradise and the promise made by Jesus to the good thief was fulfilled: "Today you will be with me in Paradise" (Lk. 23, 43).
The effect of Christ's descent into limbo was the liberation of the souls of the just, who had departed this life in the grace of God; just men belonging not only to the Jewish people, but also to the pagan peoples, among whom there could be enlightened persons, believers in the future Redeemer and living according to Grace, as Clement of Alexandria expressly holds (Stromata, 6, 6). It did not have the effect of redeeming those who had died without faith and without grace, condemned by God to hell for their obstinacy in evil. It did not give redemption to children who died with original sin, nor did it free the souls of Purgatory, except those that were already purified and ripe for Paradise (Sum. Theol., 3a, q. 52).
Calvin interpreted the descent into limbo as if Christ had suffered the pains of hell, so that we might be preserved from them. The same Calvin, like all the Protestants after him, gave a metaphorical meaning to Christ's descent into limbo; rationalists maintain that this Christian belief was derived from the myths of paganism (Hercules, Orpheus); in reality, between the Christian doctrine of Christ's descent into hell and the pagan myths there is only some extrinsic resemblance. The Christian dogma is already foreshadowed in the Old Testament, where it speaks of the just who descend into fē'ōl with the hope of Redemption in awaiting "He who will be sent" (Gen. 40, 10).
Bibliography12 works
Marcolino Daffara
2. Art
The representation of this subject in Christian art began relatively late. Literary testimonies date it back to ca. the 6th century, when its first known figuration appears on one of the sculpted columns of the ciborium of St. Mark in Venice. Later, in the 8th century, the representation of Christ descending to the l. is in a fresco of S. Maria Antiqua in Rome. This already links up with the Byzantine and Byzantinizing iconography that would last until the 13th century and beyond, as demonstrated by the psalter of the Chlondof collection and others of the same type (9th-10th centuries; cf. Kondakof [v. bibl.]) of Paris and the contemporary ones already in the Imperial Library of St. Petersburg and in the Vatican (Urb. lat. 2), or else the scenes in frescoes and mosaics (often included in the cycle of the Passion) such as the mosaic of Daphni, particularly interesting for the unusual freedom in the interpretation of the theme, the fresco in the lower church of S. Clemente in Rome (11th century), the mosaics of Monreale, Torcello and Venice (12th century) as well as, down to the present day, in Byzantine and Russian iconostases. The principal source of these artists is the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, which establishes a scheme of composition in a succession of episodes where, in general, the moment of the appearance of Christ is represented, stretching out his hand to Adam flanked by Eve: to these, who are the only figures of the earliest miniatures, are later added Satan bound, sometimes David and Solomon, and the righteous ones liberated. In Northern Europe, where the first known works are not earlier than the 11th century, this scheme is instead abandoned, as shown by the Antependium of Klosterneuburg and the Psalter of Hermann of Thuringia, and there is a tendency to make it become an episode of the Last Judgment (e.g., St. James of Guérens).
The production, abundant especially in the 11th-13th centuries, then tends to diminish in the following centuries until being completely neglected after the 1500s. Among the most beautiful figurations of the 15th century, mention should be made of the fresco of Blessed Angelico in the Convent of S. Marco; in the 16th century Dürer and Bronzino still treat this subject.
Bibliography3 works
Maria Donati
III. THE LIMBO OF CHILDREN
There still exists, according to theology, the limbo of children, that is, the state and the place of unbaptized children who died before the use of reason, without the remission of original sin. Being unable, by reason of their age, to make acts of faith and contrition (Baptism of desire), these cannot be freed from original guilt except by means of Baptism, conferred in fide Ecclesiae; not receiving it, they are not "born again of water and the Holy Spirit" (Jn 3:5) and therefore are not admitted into the Kingdom of God; they will have no other punishment, however; indeed, according to the common opinion of theologians, they will enjoy a certain natural beatitude. As St. Thomas puts it, "they will be happy in partaking abundantly of the divine goodness in natural perfections" (II Sent., d. 33, q. 11, a. 2; cf. d. 45, q. 1, a. 2; Sum. Theol., suppl., q. 79, a. 4). This theological conception, although not explicit in Sacred Scripture, is founded on the justice of God, which cannot inflict personal punishments on one who has no personal sins. Therefore the lot of children who die without Baptism, as St. Gregory of Nyssa observes (PG 46, 177-80), must be distinguished from that of adults who have, through their own fault, neglected Baptism; nevertheless they will not be admitted to supernatural happiness, as the Pelagians thought, against whom the Council of Carthage in 418 (Denz-U, 102 note 4) and St. Augustine (De anima et eius origine, 12, 17: PL 44, 505) pronounced. The limbo of children lasts eternally, since those who have died with only original sin are fixed in that state forever. This doctrine was clarified by the great theologians of the 13th century. - See plates XC-XCI.
