Baptised before birth? (General)

by jhopkins , Saturday, June 29, 2019, 02:17 (2010 days ago) @ probinson

This post comes with a caveat in that my memory may be fallible on this point... I recall learning somewhere* that people with a precarious pregnancy could be very scared that the soul of their unborn child would end up in an unpleasant place if the child died before birth, and therefore before being baptised (i.e. were stillborn).

The remedy was to organise a baptism prior to birth. I am not sure what the process was like - i.e. the application of holy water couldn't occur in the usual way if the baby was still inter-uterine. This may be a possible explanation for what you have found.

* I think I learned this in jurisprudence - a paper in my law degree - in 1967! We were tutored by a Marist brother, and the themes that year were abortion and homosexuality and the response of the state to those two issues through the use of the law.