Why is the baptistery located at the western end of the church nave?
Q662 · The Church Nave
Copts see the baptismal font as a holy altar. It is the door through which the faithful enter into heaven. The baptismal font is the womb of the Church by which she delivers children to the Father by the work of the Holy Spirit by the merits of the blood of the Son. Baptism grants the believers the right to enter into God’s presence, to share in the communion of the Holy Mysteries and to unite with the those in heaven. For this reason our Lord, before His ascension, commanded his disciples to baptize: “Go … make disciples … baptize” (Matt. 28:19). And indeed, the early Church, in obedience to our Lord, stepped forward to preach Christ’s salvation to the world, calling all to be baptized and to experience the crucified, risen life in Christ, and to accept the Messiah’s Spirit. This theological understanding had an influence on the way baptisteries were built, their location, shape, structure, and icons.
With considerable spiritual wisdom, the Didascalia specifies that the baptistery should be built at the northwestern side of the church or at the left hand side of the entrance as one enters. The Spirit declares to those who enter the church that no one can cross over to the company of the believers and receive the Mystery of the Altar without entering first into the baptistery and being born spiritually, which enables the person to be united with the divine sacrifice. The soul that desires to enter the Holy of Holies and share in the divine life with Christ must enter first with the Lord into the waters of the Jordan.
This is what Hermas (second century) saw when he saw the Church as a tower erected on the waters.1263 Bouyer says, “Thus the polarization of the church on the altar to the east was completed by a second polarization of the baptistery in the west, where the passage from the world of darkness to the world of light was accomplished.”1264
Naturally, the baptistery had two doors, one towards the west through which those who will be baptized enter, leaving behind the world of darkness, and the other towards the east through which they pass on to the luminous world of the church to the Eucharist.
This reminds us of the Eve of Resurrection in early ages, when crowds of converts entered the church from the western door of the baptistery (on the left side of the church), and then
1263 The Pastor of Hermas (or Shepherd of Hermas) 1.3.2 (ANF 2:13).
1264 Louis Bouyer, Rite and Man (London: Burns and Oates, 1963): p. 184.
after being baptized, they proceeded to the nave through the internal eastern door of the baptistery. They rose with Christ, bearing within them the Spirit of the risen Lord, and were anointed with the anointing of the Holy Spirit. They would then continue wearing their white clothes for an entire week since they have become a new creation, resembling those in heaven. They were crowned with victorious crowns to conquer the powers of darkness and carried in their hands luminous candles to declare their inner enlightenment.
The Odes of Solomon has a marvelous ode which is simply a brief description of what goes on in the mind and on the tongue of the newly-baptized person upon entering the nave of the church. It says:
“And I rejected the folly cast upon the earth, and stripped it off and cast it from me. And the Lord renewed me with His garment, and possessed me by His light. And from above He gave me immortal rest, and I became like the land that blossoms and rejoices in its fruits. And the Lord is like the sun upon the face of the land. My eyes were enlightened, and my face received the dew; and my breath was refreshed by the pleasant fragrance of the Lord. And He took me to His Paradise, wherein is the wealth of the Lord’s pleasure. I beheld blooming and fruit-bearing trees, and self-grown was their crown.”1265
Returning back to the site of the baptistery, every believer will unavoidably notice the baptistery on entering the church. This will remind him of where he was born, and of the identity of his Father and Mother. More precisely, the sight of the baptistery will inflame his heart with love for his spiritual mother and heavenly Father. On this point Tertullian says, “The baptismal font is the Trinity’s work for the salvation of all humanity. She becomes the mother of all by the Holy Spirit. This is the meaning of the psalm ‘My father and my mother have abandoned me [as Adam and Eve had failed to remain immortal], but the Lord has taken me up’ (Ps. 27:10). He has given me the baptismal font as mother, the Most High became my Father, and the Lord who was baptized for our sake is my Brother.”1266
Perhaps, the baptismal font also bears some relationship with the church’s theological concept of baptism as a vow. In it, the believer commits to renounce Satan and to enter into a covenant with Christ. Every day the Christian goes to church to participate in the Matins and Vesper services, he sees the baptismal font and is reminded of his covenant. This concept is an important theme in the writings of the Alexandrian Fathers, especially Origen who sees baptism as the beginning of the new life1267 that must be renewed daily.1268 He calls this renewal the keeping of the grace of baptism in the Holy Spirit.1269 He explains it by saying
1265 James H Charlesworth, The Earliest Christian Hymnbook: The Odes of Solomon (The Lutterworth Press, 2009) Odes 11.9–10; 15.8; 21.2; 25.8; 1.1–2. See also Jean Daniélou, A History of Early Christian Doctrine Before the Council of Nicaea, Vol. 1 (London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1964): pp. 326–327. 1266 PG 39:692B.
1267 Origen, Homilies on Genesis 13.4 (FOTC 71:192–195).
1268 Origen, Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, Books 1–5 5.8.13 (FOTC 103:359–360).
1269 Origen, Homilies on Jeremiah 2.3.3 (FOTC 97:27).
that the Logos is capable of acting in the baptized soul as in a vine, until its fruit ripens, and gradually reaches the fullness of its sweetness.1270