The Cult of the Dead in Late Antiquity: Towards a New Definition of the Relation between the Living and the Dead
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5617/acta.5689Abstract
Meals for the commemoration of the dead are envisioned here neither as a pagan persistence nor as an assimilation by Christianity of pagan’s practices. It is argued that the Church did not try either to forbid these meals, as long as they were not offered for the martyrs or to interfere in a sphere, the care of the dead, which was not relevant to its authority. It is suggested that the reason why the Church did not take care of the memory of the dead is that it did not offer any aid for the salvation of the dead who were not baptized nor to those who did not merit this aid during their life. It is thus a very long process, and not a continuous one, which sees the Church caring for the memory of the dead and becoming part of the relation between the living and the dead.
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