Revived for paradise

Abstract

Infant baptism originated when St Augustine proclaimed the doctrine of original sin in 412 c.e. Neonates stillborn or deceased before baptism were declared to go down to hell and were buried outside of sacred ground. From the 15th century, parents carried those infants to respite sanctuaries in remote mountain chapels, where miraculous images were believed to revive the infant in order to allow baptism and Christian burial. Monasteries made fortunes with the parents’ anguish, and in 1528 the abuse of the Oberbüren image ignited reformation and iconoclasm. From 1740, Pope Benedict XIV opposed the sanctuaries, declaring invalid their apparent signs of life: skin colour change, change from rigidity to flexibility, blood flowing from the nose, sweat on the skin, cessation of a cadaveric smell, and the movement of a feather held at the infant’s mouth. Only crying and sounds of respiration remained valid signs of revivification. Centuries of debate shed light on the difficulty of distinguishing stillborn from liveborn before the stethoscope became available. Respite sanctuaries illustrate the failure of the doctrine of original sin, which was never accepted by the faithful.