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 BURIAL

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BURIAL

Romanum" provides a separate form of burial for infants and children who have died before they have reached years of discretion. It directs that a special portion of the cemetery should be set aside for them and that either the bells should not be tolled or that they should be rung in a joyous peal. Further, custom prescribes that white and not black should be used in token of mourning. The priest is bidden to wear a white stole over his surplice and a crown of flowers or sweet foliage is to be laid upon the child's brow. The processional cross is carried, but without its staff. The body may be borne to and deposited temporarily in the church, but this is not prescribed as the normal arrangement and in any ease no provision is made for either Office or Mass. One or two psalms of joyous import, e. g. the Laudate pueri Dominum (Ps. cxii), are appointed to be said while the body is borne to the church or to the ceme- tery, and holy water and incense are used to bless the remains before they are laid in the ground. Two special prayers are included in the ritual, one for use in the church, the other by the grave side. The former, which is certainly ancient, runs as follows: "Almighty and most compassionate God, Who upon all little children that have been born again in the fountain of Baptism, when they leave this world without any merits of their own, straightway be- stowest everlasting life, as we believe that Thou hast this day done to the soul of this little one, grant we beseech Thee, O Lord, by the intercession of Blessed Mary ever Virgin and of all Thy saints, that we also may serve Thee with pure hearts here below and may consort eternally with these blessed little ones in paradise, Through Christ our Lord, Amen." On the way back to the church the Canticle Benedieite is recited, and the prayer "Deus qui miro ordine angelorum ministeria hominumque dispensas", which is the collect used in the Mass of St. Michael's day, is said at the foot of the altar. The cross w-ithout the handle which is carried in the procession is con- sidered to be symbolical of an incomplete life. Many other peculiarities are prevalent locally. Thus in Rome in the eighteenth century, as we learn from Catalani, the dead child was generally clothed in the habit known as St. Philip Neri's. This is black in colour but sprinkled all over with gold and silver stars. A tiny biretta is placed upon the child's head and a little cross of white wax in its hands. Minia- ture habits of the different religious orders are also commonly used for the same purpose.

History of our Present Ritual. — With regard to the burial of the dead in the early Christian cen- turies we know very little. No doubt the first Chris- tians followed the national customs of those peoples amongst whom they lived, in so far as they were not directly idolatrous. The final kiss of farewell, the use of crowns of flowers, the intervals appointed for recurring funeral celebrations, the manner of laying out the body and bearing it to the grave, etc., show nothing that is distinctive of the Christian Faith, even though later ages found a pious symbolism in many of these things. Moreover the use of holy water and incense (the latter originally as a sort of disinfectant) was also no doubt suggested by similar customs among the pagans around them. Perhaps we should add that the funeral banquets of the pagans were in some sense imitated by the agapas or love- feasts of the Christians which it seems to have been usual to celebrate in early times (see Marucchi, Elements d'arehekaogie chreHienne, I, 129), also that the anniversary Masses and "months minds" of the Church undoubtedly replaced a corresponding pagan usage of sacrifices. (See Dublin Review, July, 1907, p. 118.) But of the existence of some distinctively religious service we have good evidence at an early date. Tertullian refers incidentally to the corpse of a woman after death being laid out cum oratiune

presbgteri. St. Jerome in his account of the death of St. Paul the Hermit speaks of the singing of hymns and psalms while the body is carried to the grave as an observance belonging to ancient Christian tra- dition. Again St. Gregory of Nyssa in his detailed description of the funeral of St. Macrina, St. Augus- tine in his references to his mother St. Monica, and many other documents like the Apostolical Constitu- tions (Bk. VII) and the "Celestial Hierarchy" of Pseudo-Dionysius make it abundantly clear that in the fourth and fifth centuries the offering of the Holy Sacrifice was the most essential feature in the last solemn rites, as it remains to this day. Probably the earliest detailed account of funeral ceremonial which has been preserved to us is to be found in the Spanish Ordinals lately published by Dom Ferotin. It seems to be satisfactorily established that the ritual here described represents in substance the Spanish practice of the latter part of the seventh century. We may accordingly quote in some detail from "the Order of what the clerics of any city ought to do when their bishop falls into a mortal sickness". After a reference to Canon iii of the seventh Council of Toledo (646) enjoining that a neighbouring bishop should if possible be summoned, the directions pro- ceed: "At what hour soever the bishop shall die W'hether by day or night the bell (Signum) shall at once be rung publicly in the cathedral (ecclesia seniore) and at the same time the bell shall ring in every church within a distance of two miles.

" Then while some of the clergy in turn recite or chant the psalms earnestly and devoutly, the body of the bishop deceased is stripped by priests or deacons. After washing the body ... it is clothed with his usual vestments according to custom, i. e. his tunic, his breeches, and his stockings, and after this with cap (eapello) and face-cloth (sudario). Thereupon is put upon him an alb, and also a stole (orarium) about his neck and before his breast as when a priest is wont to say Mass. Also a cruet is placed in his hand. Then the thumbs of his hands are tied with bands, that is . with strips of linen or bandages. His feet are also fastened in the same way. After all this he is robed in a white chasuble (casulla). Then after spreading beneath a very clean white sheet, the body is laid upon the bier and all the while the priests, deacons and all the clergy keep continually reciting or chant- ing and incense is always burned. And in this wise he is laid in the choir of the church over which he ruled, lights going before and following behind and then a complete text of the gospels is laid upon his breast without anything to cover it, but the gospel itself rests upon a cloth of lambswool (super pallium agnavum — this can hardly be the archiepiscopal pallium in its technical sense) which is placed over his heart. And so it must be that whether he die by night or day the recitation of prayers or chanting of psalms shall be kept up continuously beside him until at the fitting hour of the day Sacrifice may be offered to God at the principal altar for his repose. Then the body is lifted tip by deacons, with the gospel book still lying on his breast, and he is carried to the grave, lights going before and following after, while all who are of the clergy sing the antiphons and responsories which are consecrated to the dead (gum solent de mortuis decantare),

" After this when Mass has again been celebrated in that church in which he is to be buried, salt which has been exorcised is scattered in the tomb by dea- cons, while all other religious persons present sing the antiphon, In sinu Abrahse amici tui conloca cum Domine. And then when incense has a second time been offered over his body, the bishop who has come to bury him advances and opening the dead man's mouth he puts chrism into it. addressing him thus: 'Hoc pietatis sacramentum sit tibi in partici- patione omnium beatorum'. And then by the same