Christian Burial
The dead laid in the earth like seed, awaiting the morning of bodily resurrection
Christian burial is the custom of laying the dead to rest with prayer, often in consecrated ground, in expectation of the resurrection of the body. Early believers buried their dead in the catacombs, and writers like Tertullian and Minucius Felix witness to the practice. Inhumation was the early norm. Today Catholic and Protestant churches generally permit cremation, while the Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox traditions continue to discourage it.
How it traveled
- The Narrative of Joseph.— · c. 220 CEexplains
- The Church History of EusebiusCaesarea · c. 339 CEexplains
- The Life of Constantine with Orations of Constantine and EusebiusCaesarea · c. 339 CEapplies
- The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospel of St. JohnConstantinople (Istanbul) · c. 407 CEapplies
- The Life of Paulus the First HermitBethlehem · c. 420 CEapplies
- On Care to Be Had for the DeadHippo Regius · c. 430 CEexplains
- City of GodHippo Regius · c. 430 CEexplains
- The Book of Pastoral Rule, and Selected Epistles, of Gregory the GreatRome · c. 604 CEapplies
Key passages(20)
Each passage is tagged by what it does with the idea: explains it, applies it in practice, redefines it with a new meaning, or challenges it. Relevance shows how directly the passage is about this idea.
City of God · Augustine of Hippo
Chapter 13.—Reasons for Burying the Bodies of the Saints. Nevertheless the bodies of the dead are not on this account to be despised and left unburied; least of all the bodies of the righteous and fa
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Selected Epistles of Gregory the Great · Pope Gregory the Great
Epistle III. To Januarius, Bishop of Caralis (Cagliari). Gregory to Januarius, &c. The most distinguished lady Nereida has complained to us that your Fraternity does not blush to exact from her a h
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City of God · Augustine of Hippo
Chapter 12.—Of the Burial of the Dead: that the Denial of It to Christians Does Them No Injury. Augustin expresses himself more fully on this subject in his tract, De cura pro mortuis gerenda. Furth
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Funeral Oration on Meletius · Gregory of Nyssa
Funeral Oration on Meletius Meletius, Bishop of Antioch, died at Constantinople, whither he had gone to attend the second Œcumenical Council, a.d. 381. Of the “translation” of the remains to his own
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On Care to Be Had for the Dead · Augustine of Hippo
5. Yet it follows not that the bodies of the departed are to be despised and flung aside, and above all of just and faithful men, which bodies as organs and vessels to all good works their spirit hath
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On Care to Be Had for the Dead · Augustine of Hippo
6. If this be true, doubtless also the providing for the interment of bodies a place at μνημεῖον which we call a Memorial or Monument: because in their tongue the memory itself, by which we remember,
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The Book of Pastoral Rule, and Selected Epistles, of Gregory the Great · Pope Gregory the Great
Agapitus, abbot of the monastery of St. George, informs us that he endures many grievances from your Holiness; and not only in things that might be of service to the monastery in time of need, but tha
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The Church History of Eusebius · Eusebius of Caesarea
Chapter XVI.—Story in Regard to Astyrius. Astyrius also is commemorated on account of his pious boldness in connection with this affair. He was a Roman of senatorial rank, and in favor with the emper
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The Ecclesiastical History of Sozomen · Sozomen
Chapter XXXIV.—Death of Constantine the Great; he died after Baptism and was buried in the Temple of the Holy Apostles. The emperor had already divided the empire among his sons, who were styled Cæsa
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The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospel of St. John · John Chrysostom
Ver. 38. “After this came Joseph of Arimathæa, being a disciple.” Ver. 38–40. “And after this Joseph of Arimathæa, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that h
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The Life of Constantine with Orations of Constantine and Eusebius · Eusebius of Caesarea
The military officers, too, of the highest rank, the counts, and the whole order of magistrates, who had been accustomed to do obeisance to their emperor before, continued to fulfill this duty without
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The Life of Paulus the First Hermit · Jerome
16. Then having wrapped up the body and carried it forth, all the while chanting hymns and psalms according to the Christian tradition, Antony began to lament that he had no implement for digging the
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The Narrative of Joseph. · Apocrypha of the New Testament
The Narrative of Joseph. ———————————— Narrative of Joseph of Arimathæa, That Begged the Lord’s Body; In Which Also He Brings In the Cases of the Two Robbers. Chapter 1. I am Joseph of Arimathæa, w
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Revelation of Moses. ———————————— Account and life of Adam and Eve, the first-created, revealed by God to His servant Moses, when he received from the hand of the Lord the tables of the law of the c
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Life of Antony. (Vita Antoni.) · Athanasius of Alexandria
89. It is worth while that I should relate, and that you, as you wish it, should hear what his death was like. For this end of his is worthy of imitation. According to his custom he visited the monks
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41. The whole country marvelled and the fame of the great miracle was in everyone’s mouth, even at Salonæ. In Dalmatia, three miles from Diocletian’s great palace (Spalatro). The southern promontory
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The Narrative of Joseph. · Apocrypha of the New Testament
Chapter 4. And I Joseph begged the body of Jesus, and put it in a new tomb, where no one had been put. And of the robber on the right the body was not found; but of him on the left, as the form of a
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Treatise on the Incarnation (qq[1]-59) · Thomas Aquinas
Reply to Objection 1: With regard to Christ's death, His patience and constancy in enduring death are commended, and all the more that His death was the more despicable: but in His honorable burial we
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The Church History of Eusebius · Eusebius of Caesarea
48. “And Christ was glorified greatly in those who had formerly denied him, for, contrary to the expectation of the heathen, they confessed. For they were examined by themselves, as about to be set fr
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On Care to Be Had for the Dead · Augustine of Hippo
22. Which things being so, let us not think that to the dead for whom we have a care, any thing reaches save what by sacrifices either of the altar, or of prayers, or of alms, we solemnly supplicate:
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