Our only evidence for the rites performed before death comes from the deathbed scenes of hagiography (Boglioni 1985). Composed by clerics, the hagiographical texts concentrated on fellow clerics and lay elites. They are valuable sources for determining what was thought desirable at the passing of a bishop or an ascetic, but they do not present an image of what happened at the death of the average Christian. Nor should they be read as normative texts: the saints were presented as exemplars, but no attempt was ever made to enforce an imitation of what was done at their deathbed.
Even beyond those limitations, one has to acknowledge the great variety of the ritual acts performed before death. The writers do not seem to have recognized any obvious norms, and they presented the choice of performing a precise rite more often than not as a personal one intimately linked to the saint’s way of life. Martin, when he had to face the devil, chose several times during his life to lie down in sackcloth and ashes (Sulpicius Severus, Ep. 3. 14, with commentary in Fontaine 1967: 1322-4). Augustine asked for the penitential psalms to be copied and hung on the wall next to his bed, and he wept continuously while reading them (Possidius, V. Aug. 31. 1-2; Rebillard 1994: 213-14).
A modern reader cannot help being surprised by the relative absence of any mention of the viaticum, the giving of the Eucharist to the dying. The only clear example is that of Ambrose of Milan, in the life written by his deacon Paulinus in AD 411-13 (V. Ambrosii. 47. 3). One commentator concludes that in the fourth and fifth centuries, when the first hagiographical texts were composed, the reception of the viaticum was not thought of as a central moment of the deathbed scene (Boglioni 1985: 279). One should go further and ask whether there even was such a rite as the Eucharist for the dying in Late Antiquity. A critical review of the available evidence shows that, even though some clerics did receive the Eucharist just before dying or repeatedly in the days before death, it was not part of a regular ritual. The word viaticum appeared at this time only in the context of the help to be given to those who died while performing public penance (Rebillard 1991; 1994: 200-12 - not known to Volp 2002: 166-72, who reproduces the classical argument of Rush 1941 and 1974). The penitential context of the first regular use of viaticum provides important clues to the development of a Christian ritual of death that betrayed, during the early Carolingian period, a growing concern about salvation (Paxton 1990; Effros 2002: 201-4).
It has sometimes been suggested that, in Late Antiquity, baptism was the true ritual in advance of dying (Janssens 1981: 33; Saxer 1988: 424). There are a few examples of baptism delayed until late in adult life in the fourth and fifth centuries (some of them very famous, like Augustine or the Cappadocians), and even until death (as in the case of Constantine). It would be wrong, however, to imagine that most Christians waited until the last minute to be baptized. Thorough analysis of Augustine’s preaching shows that the delay of baptism was not a pastoral issue in Africa in his time: as one might expect, he urges catechumens to receive baptism during Lent, but the rest of the time he does not distinguish them from other Christians in his sermons (Rebillard 1998). In any case, baptism was delayed until the last minute not as an aid in the process of dying, but as a way of avoiding sin after its reception.
Although arguments e silentio are not strong, it is worth noticing that we do not hear much about the pastoral duty of visiting the sick and the dying in early Christian sources. One can safely conclude that in Late Antiquity there was no Christian rite for the dying and that the presence of the clergy at the deathbed of Christians was at best optional.
World History
