What are the different architectural designs of the baptistery?

Early baptisteries, in general, were no more than a single room. Others, however, had a second adjacent room where Chrismation was performed by the bishop. Oftentimes, there was a third room used for changing.

Some historians¹²⁷¹ believe that because the sacraments of chrismation and baptism are so closely related, baptisteries were built only in cities at first where the bishop’s throne is located because he was the only one permitted to administer the Mystery of Chrismation.

Until the fourth century, the most commonly used shape of baptisteries was quadrilateral, often with an apse at the end. By the beginning of the fifth century, other shapes began to appear in Europe, such as the hexagonal, the octagonal, and the circular, and sometimes cruciform, i.e., in the shape of a cross (this was probably of eastern origin, introduced in North Africa from there, to Europe.¹²⁷²

The Quadrilateral Design (four-sided): This design resembles the shape of the tombs and Martyria (the tombs of the Martyrs) of the early centuries. The philosophy behind it is that baptism is sharing in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. This is evident from the words of St. Ambrose who speaks of the baptistery “the font, whose likeness is as a kind of sepulchre [tomb].”¹²⁷³ He addresses the baptized saying, “For when you dip, you take on the likeness of death and burial, you receive the sacrament of that cross.”¹²⁷⁴

The Hexagonal Design (six-sided): This design symbolizes the sixth day of the week, Friday, on which our Lord was crucified and buried. Once again it stresses the Fathers’ understanding of baptism as being buried and dying with Christ as the Apostle Paul says, “Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in the newness of life” (Rom. 6:3–4).

The Octagonal Design (eight-sided): This design symbolizes the resurrection day of Christ, which is the eighth day of the week; the first day of the new week. The emphasis here is on baptism as resurrection with Christ.

1270 Origen, Origen: The Song of Songs, Commentary and Homilies Commentary 2.11 (ACW 26:166–168).

1271 John Gordon Davies, The Early Christian Church (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1965): p. 203.

1272 John Gordon Davies, A Dictionary of Liturgy and Worship (NY: Macmillan, 1972), see entries for

“Baptistery” and “Font.”

1273 St. Ambrose of Milan, The Sacraments 3.1.1 (FOTC 44:289).

1274 St. Ambrose of Milan, The Sacraments 2.7.23 (FOTC 44:287).

The Circular Design: This design reminds us that baptism is a new birth (John 3:3). In addition, the circular design emphasizes the fact that the baptized enters the circle of eternity in which the baptized enjoys a life beyond all boundaries in a heavenly atmosphere.

The Cruciform Design: This design proclaims the reality that baptism is also a cross. St. John Chrysostom says, “for Baptism is the Cross. What the Cross and Burial is to Christ, that Baptism is to us.”¹²⁷⁵