medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Dillon" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: [M-R] saints of the day 15. August
> On Sunday, August 14, 2005, at 8:12 pm, Phyllis wrote:
>
>> Today (15. August) is the feast day of:
>
>> Simplician (d. 401) Simplician was a priest of Milan, a
>> correspondent of Augustine of Hippo---who praised his learning and
>> faith. He served as bishop of Milan for the last three years of
>> his life.
>
> This is the S. who is credited with the conversion, in about 355, of
> Marius Victorinus and who in 374 baptized St. Ambrose and instructed
> him in Christian theology . . .
I'm sorry that this appears so late, but this bring up a point that I have
wondered about for quite a while. I had heard it was quite common for
converts to be baptized near the end of their lives, a la Constantine. One
problem with that though is, in that case, there would no clerics, like
Ambrose or Augustine, to do the baptizing. I have also heard that deathbed
baptisms made sense in that, there would be no time for a person to commit
any more sins. So, might anyone know what factors would go into a person's
decision to get baptized in healthy times, or near the end?
> Dear list members,
>
> From time to time, some of you have written to me off-list about how
> sometimes people join the list and ask very specific questions for no
> obvious reason, and then vanish. . . . Please, when you write to the list,
> give us a bit of context about your query. . . .
So that I can stay in George's good graces, the context of my question is
solely an interest in history. I am a grad student, albeit at RPI, but I
did get a BA in history from UConn. My undergrad thesis was in early
Christian history, and I hope someday to resume my studies in that area.
Thanks,
-John
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