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.— · 220explains
- The Church History of EusebiusCaesarea · 339explains
- The Life of Constantine with Orations of Constantine and EusebiusCaesarea · 339applies
- The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospel of St. JohnConstantinople (Istanbul) · 407applies
- The Life of Paulus the First HermitBethlehem · 420applies
- On Care to Be Had for the DeadHippo Regius · 430explains
- City of GodHippo Regius · 430explains
- The Book of Pastoral Rule, and Selected Epistles, of Gregory the GreatRome · 604applies
Key passages(20)
City of God · Augustine of Hippo
Selected Epistles of Gregory the Great · Pope Gregory the Great
City of God · Augustine of Hippo
Funeral Oration on Meletius · Gregory of Nyssa
On Care to Be Had for the Dead · Augustine of Hippo
On Care to Be Had for the Dead · Augustine of Hippo
The Book of Pastoral Rule, and Selected Epistles, of Gregory the Great · Pope Gregory the Great
The Church History of Eusebius · Eusebius of Caesarea
The Ecclesiastical History of Sozomen · Sozomen
The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospel of St. John · John Chrysostom
The Life of Constantine with Orations of Constantine and Eusebius · Eusebius of Caesarea
The Life of Paulus the First Hermit · Jerome
The Narrative of Joseph. · Apocrypha of the New Testament
Life of Antony. (Vita Antoni.) · Athanasius of Alexandria
The Narrative of Joseph. · Apocrypha of the New Testament
Treatise on the Incarnation (qq[1]-59) · Thomas Aquinas
The Church History of Eusebius · Eusebius of Caesarea
On Care to Be Had for the Dead · Augustine of Hippo