Baptismal Font

BAPTISMAL FONT. - In Christian antiquity, when the Sacrament of Baptism was administered by immersion, the baptismal font, generally enclosed in a separate building called a baptistery (v.), consisted of a basin which assumed the most varied forms, namely: rectangular, hexagonal, octagonal, circular, cruciform, and even in the shape of a boat. It was usually built with the upper rim at floor level, and had a depth of no more than 75 cm.; one descended into it by two or mostly three steps, rarely four. The water generally did not exceed 30 cm. in height; in all of them the drain hole for the water is found; in some also the inlet, and in monumental baptisteries the water was poured in from stags, lambs, etc.

The walls of the basin were faced with marble slabs or mosaics. Such are the ancient baptismal basins found in Rome (St. Marcellus and St. Chrysogonus), at Grado, at Butrint in Albania, and those very numerous in Roman Africa, as well as recently at el-Ma'mudijjeh west of Hebron.

To the time when baptism by infusion began to be practiced, that is, between the 11th and 12th centuries, belong the oldest baptismal fonts properly so called, placed both inside baptisteries and inside parish churches. For a certain period, however, the two forms of baptism, by immersion and by infusion, continued to coexist, and this also explains the form of the earliest fonts modeled on the medieval fountain, with a large polygonal or circular basin at whose center there often rose the small pillar with the reserve of water and the statuette of the Baptist, and which could serve both for immersion and for baptism by infusion. Examples of this type are the font of S. Giovanni in Verona, datable to around 1200, adorned with eight scenes of the New Testament carved on the slabs of the polygonal basin and referable, in part, to the art of Brioloto, and that of S. Frediano in Lucca (late 12th century), whose circular basin was adorned with stories of Moses by a master Roberto who recalls, "for plastic solidity and robust simplifications" (Toesca), Lombard sculpture. This goes to prove how even baptismal fonts constituted, from that time on, a true and proper object of sculpture, in similarity to the most famous ambos and pulpits. That, moreover, the use of baptism by immersion lasted also in this period is attested by the Dantean verses referring to the font of the Florentine Baptistery (destroyed by Bernardo Buontalenti in 1577 and recently reassembled), consisting of a parapet with an octagonal plan and at whose center is a square enclosure adorned with Romanesque panels with, at the corners, a small basin-shaped well, one of which Dante would indeed have broken, as he narrates (Inf., XIX, 16-21), to save "one who was drowning within it." In the same baptistery of Florence, on the other hand, on the second side to the right, the beautiful marble baptismal font (1370) is a work of the 14th century, with six bas-reliefs relating to baptism and probably the work of Venetian sculptors. A characteristic example of the Gothic period is also that of the cathedral of Orvieto, octagonal and with the great basin of red marble supported by eight crouching lions, while above it the cover is surmounted by the statuette of the Baptist. It is known that the construction of a separate building, the baptistery, for the administration of Baptism ceased definitively with the 14th century, but in some baptisteries, nevertheless, baptismal fonts are also found placed there in the Renaissance era, such as that of the baptistery of Siena, with a hexagonal basin, with scenes carved by Ghiberti, Donatello and Jacopo della Quercia, at whose center rises the beautiful tabernacle by Jacopo with statuettes of prophets within niches and crowned, as usual, by the statue of the Baptist. In the Renaissance font of the cathedral of Pienza, the basin, raised from the ground, has by now assumed the proportions of a large cup to which is joined, by means of a double motif of acanthus leaves, the small quadrangular tabernacle surmounted by a cusp on which rests the statuette of the Precursor. With the rite changed and the proportions of the font diminished, it is natural that this, no longer needing a construction of its own, found a place in the church - and it has been seen in some of the examples that precede - in a secluded place, generally near the entrance. With the spread of the use of side chapels, the baptismal font also ended up occupying one of these chapels, which was adapted and often transformed in function of the new destination. A transformation that is quite notable especially in the Baroque period, during which the sculptural complex of the font becomes an integral part of the architecture of the chapel: a typical example being that of the basilica of S. Pietro in Rome which, placed in a chapel designed by Carlo Fontana, is formed of a great block of porphyry covered with figured and gilded metals after the design of Fontana himself. Another beautiful example of a Baroque font is the bronze one of the cathedral of Osimo, executed in 1610 by P. P. Jacometti, with the massive tabernacle supported by the robust haunches of four "Roman bulls." For the modern age, one recalls the font of the basilica of S. Maria Maggiore in Rome, the work of Giuseppe Valadier, who made it in 1826.

Gilberto Ronci

LITURGY

The baptismal font was always considered blessed from the day on which the water for Baptism was blessed in it; for this reason the Missal and the Ritual entitle this rite: benedictio fontis seu aquae baptismalis. The Roman Ritual has two short formulas: one is to be used only in the case where it must be provided outside the vigils of Easter and Pentecost; the other was granted by Paul III to the Peruvian missionaries, and only by special privilege may it be used in other places. Ordinarily the blessing must be performed on the two indicated vigils; it is preceded by a vigil office and is followed by Baptism.

Examining now the formulas preserved in the different liturgies, one notes 1) that as regards the East, a primitive formula of consecration of the baptismal water is preserved in the Ethiopian liturgy, into which it passed perhaps before 381 when, through the influence of the First Council of Constantinople, the dogma of the Holy Spirit was brought into prominence, and precisely, with a pneumatological expansion, the same formula is later found in the Syriac liturgy. A second formula, likewise earlier than 381, is found in the Greek liturgy, which also had a prayer for the blessing of the water at Epiphany, which was later fused with the preceding ones so as to serve two purposes. The Coptic ritual begins with a very ancient prayer for the consecration of the water and the oil, followed by another, an expansion of the one preserved in the "Testamentum Domini". The Ethiopian ritual contains, besides the Coptic formulary (excluding the Trisagion interpolated later), introduced after the 13th century, also the two formulas cited, earlier than 381 (though with the pneumatological expansion), with the addition of a prayer proper to the blessing of the baptismal water and of the oil. 2) In the West there are the Roman formulary and the Ambrosian one. According to Scheidt these would be two independent translations of a text in another language, perhaps Syriac. Milan, however, would have had it directly from the East because of mutual relations also in the liturgical field: the formula, in fact, appears more complete with the mention of the Syrian Naaman and of the pool of Siloam, missing in the Roman formulary because unfamiliar to the Latins. Rome, without being able to exclude a derivation from Milan, seems more likely to have received it from North Africa.

After a collect of introduction, there follows the consecratory anaphora (undoubtedly the intention in the schema was to imitate the eucharistic anaphora) of the sacred baptismal waters. After a first part of it the priest divides the water in the form of a Cross, as if to fecundate it with the contact of his consecrated hands, as once the Spirit of God (Gen. 1) hovered over the waters of chaos. After another passage the priest lays his hand on the water as if to exorcise it; there follow three signs of the Cross in the water to recall the river that from Eden was then divided into four branches. Then another passage of the anaphora, then the priest breathes three times, always in the form of a cross, on the water, to purify it, and finally (according to a rite that appeared in Rome around the 8th century) he immerses the paschal candle, previously blessed, in the f. b. three times, closing the anaphora with the words: "May the power of the Holy Spirit fill this font and grant to the water the efficacy of regenerating (souls). Here may all stains of sin be wiped away: here may nature, created in your image and therefore restored to the glory of its Creator, strip off its former squalor, so that all who enter this font of sacramental regeneration may be reborn to a new and truly innocent infancy."

The priests, then, sprinkle with the blessed water the faithful present and, on the day of Holy Saturday (in Milan this takes place on Christmas Eve), the dwellings of the faithful. Meanwhile into the f. b. is poured the oil of the catechumens and the chrism (a rite that is not ancient, introduced when, with adult catechumens no longer existing, the special meaning of the oil destined for them also became somewhat confused), to express the Grace of the Holy Spirit that fructifies those waters now ready for Baptism.

The Roman Ritual, in giving the prescriptions for the baptistery, does not have in mind the ancient building but almost solely the f. b., for which it gives special norms. It is the custom today to place it in the first chapel on the left, where tradition places darkness and sin; against these, therefore, the f. b. is raised, from which light and Grace spring. St. Charles (Instruct. fabricae ecclesiae, 18) makes this an obligation. On the f. b., already in ancient times (cf. Lib. Pont.: Pope Hilary, d. in 468; for the Lateran baptistery; Manai, VIII, 1037 for Antioch in 518) a dove was placed, symbol of the Holy Spirit who appeared during the baptism of Jesus, mystically present to fructify the waters of the sacred f. b. In the Middle Ages it was prescribed to place on the f. b. a covering of red silk, then predominantly white, still used although there is no prescription for it in the Ritual.

The Ordo Romanus of St. Amand (L. Duchesne, Origines du culte chrétien, Paris 1925, p. 492), the Gregorian and Gelasian Sacramentaries, Amalarius (PL 105, 1295) warn that, once Vespers of Easter and of the Octave were finished, all would make a procession ad fontes, undoubtedly with the purpose of meditating on the greatness of the Sacrament received there. In Rome this ceremony was preserved until the 13th century, but in Germany, in many places, until the last century, and it is still in use in Paris. The Ambrosian rite ordered such a procession after Lauds and Vespers each day; the relevant formulas have been preserved, but the procession takes place only at Easter and Pentecost and on the two days following each solemnity. See also BAPTISTERY. - See plates XCVII-XCVIII.

Enrico Cattaneo