The great baptismal font in front of the statue of Mary dates from 1240. Eight hundred years. Isn’t it breathtaking trying to grasp how many people have been baptised there over time? The size of it is large enough to fully submerge the child in the water, as was the custom. The water was heated to the right temperature with the help of hot stones.
Baptismal font of paradise and angels
The baptismal font in red and grey limestone is in the musselcup style, also called a font of paradise. During the 13th and 14th centuries, these became an important export from Gotland to countries around the Baltic Sea. The font in Visby Cathedral is the most impressive of all those that remain on the island. The children who are baptised here nowadays are given a little angel which is placed in the tree next to the font.
Everyone is part of a story
Water is symbolic both as an agent of chaos and a giver of life. The baptism is also a promise that we are never alone. We are admitted into the church and into a community that reaches beyond the borders of time and space. We are united in a story of life where darkness never gets the last word.