The transcendent meaning of Christian refrigerium: between water and Hell

Abstract

The meaning of refrigerium was two-fold for early Christians: material and physical, derived from a previous pagan tradition (to 'refresh' the corpse), and also ethereal and preternatural, the result of an internal etymological development ('to reach eternal salvation'). Modern historiography has paid more attention to the former meaning than to the latter, as though it was the genuine, or at least the more common, significance of the term. This paper aims to describe the semantic context of this second meaning of the Christian refrigerium, and also its religious relevance, which was significantly greater than the that of the first. This analysis will also help to describe the symbolic nature of water for early Christians.