INSUFFLATION. — Like exsufflation, insufflation is an ancient ecclesiastical ceremony still used today in the solemn administration of Baptism, in the blessing of the sacred chrism and of the oil of the catechumens, and in the consecration of the baptismal font. It has a twofold significance: negative and exorcistic, as the expulsion of the evil spirit (exsufflation with cold breath), and positive and sanctifying, as the imparting of the Holy Spirit (insufflation with warm breath, breathing); in the formulas, the two purposes are sometimes combined, as in the present Ordo Baptismi parvulorum.
The rite of blowing upon the catechumen, before admission to Baptism, derives from the ancient practice of driving demons out of the possessed and the sick by means of the breath. In this way catechumens, considered to have fallen into the slavery of the demon, are exorcised by blowing; this practice is found in Jerusalem (s. Cirillo, Procatech., 9 [of 347]), in Africa (Tertulliano, Apol., 23: PL 1, 415;
s. Agostino, Contra Jul., I, 50, 60, 4: PL 45, 1073, 1081, 649), among the Donatists (s. Agostino, Contra Cresc., II, 5, 7), and in Rome between the 5th and 6th centuries (Giovanni Diacono, Epist. ad Senarium: PL 59, 401-402). This practice is not found, however, in the Roman Sacramentaries, nor in Ordo Rom. VII; it is found instead in the Ordo Romanus antiquus of the 10th century, sometimes accompanied or preceded by the sign of the Cross, a rite already attested in the so-called Missale di Bobbio, of Gallican origin (8th century): «Post hec [signa Crucis] insufflabis in os eius ter et dices: III. accipe spiritum sanctum in corde retenias» (ed. E. A. Lowe, London 1920, no. 233). In the Pontificale Romane Curiae of the 13th century it is prescribed: «Hic ad modum crucis alet in faciem cathechizandi et dicat ei: Iohannes, accipe Spiritum Sanctum per istam insufflationem et Dei benedictionem. Pax tibi!» (M. Andrieu, Le Pontifical romain, II, Vatican City 1940, p. 514).
The oils of the chrism and of the catechumens are likewise exorcised by blowing during the blessing on Holy Thursday, a rite described in the Ordo of s. Amando: «Exolat in eam pontifex tribus vicibus» (L. Duchesne, Origines du culte chrétien, 5th ed., Paris 1925, p. 487); in Ordo Romanus I, no. 31: «Pontifex... halat ter in ampullam chrismatis... insufflat ter... et similiter halat in ipsam, sed tacite...» (PL 78, 952). The other bishops present also take part in the rite according to Ordo Romanus X, nos. 10, 11: «Halet ter in illam; halent etiam in ipsam omnes episcopi qui assistunt ibi» (ibid., 1012).
The breaths into the baptismal water have the same purpose as the insufflation of the catechumens: exorcism and sanctification. This rite is of Gallican origin; this is attested by the Missale Gothicum (ed. C. Mohlberg, Augsburg 1920, no. 259: «Deinde insufflas acqua[m] per tres vices») and by the Gelasian Sacramentary of the 8th century (Gellone, St. Gall). In Rome (it is absent, for example, from the Gregorian Sacramentaries, in Amalarius, and in the Ordo Romanus antiquus), it is found in Ordo Romanus X (no. 21: PL 78, 1016); however, it did not become generally customary until the Roman Missal of Pius V. BIBLICA.: Fr. J. Dölger, Der Exorzismus im altchristlichen Taufritual, Paderborn 1909, pp. 63 ff., 118 ff.; Ad. Franz, Die kirchlichen Benediktionen im Mittelalter, I, Freiburg 1909, pp. 50 ff., 334 ff.; II, ibid. 1909, p. 541 ff.; J. Braun, Ein unverstandenes und missdoutetes Zeichen im Ritus der Taufwasserweihe, in Stimmen der Zeit, 137 (1940), p. 217 ff.; Ph. Oppenheim, Commentationes in ritum baptismalem, Turin-Rome 1943, pp. 93-102; M. Righetti, Manuale di storia liturgica, II, Milan 1946, pp. 150, 170; Ed. Stommel, Studien zur Epiklese der römischen Taufwasserweihe, Bonn 1950, p. 50 ff. Pietro Siffrin