33. The baptismal font

You are standing before the parish baptismal font. For more than four hundred years, thousands of people from Sant Cugat have been baptised here.

Baptism is the first of the Church’s sacraments. For this reason, baptismal fonts have traditionally been placed near the entrance of temples. It is an architectural symbol reminding us that, through Baptism, we enter a new life: the life of the Church.

Dating from 1572, this font is carved from Girona stone. It originally stood in the former parish church of Saint Peter, on the site now occupied by the Old Market, known locally as the Mercat Vell.

In 1833, the First Carlist War broke out, and the old parish church of Saint Peter was requisitioned as a military barracks. As a result, the parish community had to come down to the monastery to celebrate the sacraments.

When the war ended, the confiscation of Church property led to the expulsion of the monks from the monastery. The monastic church then became the new parish church of Sant Cugat, and the baptismal font you see before you was brought here as well.

You may have noticed its distinctive shape. Like most baptismal fonts, it is octogonal,and this feature carries a profound meaning.

According to the Book of Genesis, God created the world in seven days. But the early Church Fathers understood Christ’s Resurrection as the eighth day of creation, because through the Risen Christ, creation enters into a new life and reaches its fulfilment.

For this reason, the font has eight sides: through Baptism, we share in the new life of the Risen Christ and, in a sense, enter into this eighth day.

Now look closely at the figures surrounding the font. You can identify Saint Peter by his keys, Saint Paul by his sword, and Mary Magdalene, the first witness to Christ’s Resurrection, by the jar of perfume she carries to anoint his body.

Look carefully at the saints’ halos and you will notice an unusual detail: they are shaped like scallop shells, the traditional device used to pour water over the head of the person being baptised.

But there is one final detail that you may not have noticed.

Move a little closer and examine the stone carefully. You will see tiny white fossils, circular and oval in shape. These are nummulites, marine organisms that lived around forty million years ago and became fossilised within this rock.

It is remarkable to think that this very stone holds the memory of creatures that vanished millions of years ago. At the same time, for centuries, it has stood as a witness to the new and abundant life that we all receive through Baptism.