Duše nevinná stává se andělem. Dětské hroby jako prostředek komunikace mezi světem pozemským i záhrobním
An innocent soul becomes an angel. Children’s graves as a means of communication between the earthly world and the netherworld

Summary/Abstract: Graves of infants and children belong to a specific category of medieval and modern-age burial culture. The relationships between survivors and deceased children have been complex throughout the Christian period presenting, in many respects, an unresolved issue, in which the fundamental Christian rules and the simple emotional relationship of parents to children were in conflict. An expression of this relationship can be seen in a number of written, iconographic, and archaeological sources in past societies and it represents an interesting topic for a widely-focused interdisciplinary study. The graves of new-born infants are one of the few groups that had a privileged position in the cemetery; the only other such category being perhaps people outcast from Christian society. It is on the example of the graves of children that we can observe the transformations of funeral customs and the grave as a means of different systems of communication — between the world of the living and the dead, between the dead, and between the survivors.

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