We drown children who at birth are weakly and abnormal.
– Seneca, De Ira, 1.15
Deformed infants shall be killed.
– Cicero, De Legibus, 3.8, referencing the Twelve Tables of Roman Law
As to exposing or rearing the children born, let there be a law that no deformed child shall be reared; but on the ground of number of children, if the regular customs hinder any of those born being exposed, there must be a limit fixed to the procreation of offspring, and if any people have a child as a result of intercourse in contravention of these regulations, abortion must be practiced on it.
– Aristotle, Politics 7.1335b
Hilarion [a solider on duty] to his sister Alis very many greetings, likewise to my lady Berous and Apollonarion. Know that we are still in Alexandria. Do not be anxious; if they really go home, I will remain in Alexandria. I beg and entreat you, take care of the little one, and as soon as we receive our pay I will send it up to you. If by chance you bear a child, if it is a boy, let it be, if it is a girl, cast it out. You have said to Aphrodisias ‘Do not forget me.’ How can I forget you? I beg you then not to be anxious. The 29th year of Caesar, Pauni 23.
– Hilarion, P.Oxy. 4.744
Both the custom of exposure (meaning, to abandon a newborn child as “exposed” to the elements) and outright ritual murder were acceptable practices for unwanted children in ancient Rome. The reasoning for such actions varied, the most common being poverty, gender, and social pressure or shame. Disabled or weak children were, by law, put to death. It was encouraged for parents to abandon both girls and children whom they could not support financially.
Popular locations for newborn children to be left included the side of the road, the woods, the shore of the Tiber river, manure piles, or specified locations–by city markers or in caves. The location where a child was left might be a hint as to the parents’ intention. Parents who left their children in a public place likely hoped that they would be adopted by a stranger, though ultimately their fate was seen as left to the gods.
Rescued orphans were often raised as prostitutes, slaves, or jesters. Adoption as such was, at the time, generally not an act of charity but of commerce. Exposed children were sometimes left with unique tokens (i.e., a family crest or heirloom) in hopes that the parent might someday meet them again and be reunited.
Other children were left in less hopeful positions, being brought to trash heaps or caves where they would starve or be taken by animals, all of this under the guise of strengthening Roman society.
Exposure itself was part of Rome’s mythological founding, Romulus and Remus having been raised by a she-wolf before being adopted by the shepherd Faustulus. Romans, therefore, saw no cause for grief in the practice and expected the gods to do what they wished with the unwanted child. In fact, the Latin expositio infers a sense of “offering up,” as if to a deity.
Carthaginians] offered up their own children, and those who had no children would buy little ones from poor people and cut their throats as if they were so many lambs or young birds; meanwhile the mother stood by without a tear or moan.
– Plutarch, Moralia 2.171D
Nor was it in the power of the father [in Sparta] to dispose of the child as he saw fit [as acceptable elsewhere]. He was obliged to carry [the newborn] child before certain men at a place called Lesche; these men were some of the elders of the tribe to which the child belonged; their business was to carefully view the infant, and, if they found it stout and well made, they gave order for its rearing and allotted to it one of the nine thousand shares of land above mentioned for its maintenance, but, if they found it puny and ill-shaped, ordered it to be taken to what was called the Apothetae [“depository”], a [large cave] under Mt. Taygetus; as thinking it neither for the good of the child itself, nor for the public interest, that it should be brought up, if it did not, from the very outset, appear to be healthy and vigorous.
– Plutarch Lives: Lycurgus 16
A Roman did not have a child; he took a child. Immediately after birthing, if the family decided not to raise the child… he was simply abandoned.
The Christian Response
Not all people under ancient Roman rule accepted this practice, however. Namely, Christians actively rejected it by sacrificing their own goods and time to help those babies whom they could. If an abandoned child were discovered and their life could be preserved, it would be adopted by someone within the church. If someone heard unanswered wailing or saw a bundle of squirming cloth in a dunghill, that benevolent soul would gather up the rejected child and bring them into their home. In the many cases where the baby was too far gone, it would be shown the respect of burial. Within the catacombs of ancient Rome are hundreds of tiny grave markers, memorials to children lost to exposure.
Rather than being raised in servitude or for sexual exploitation, these undesirables were taken in and taught the gospel. This was during a time when the common populace would have seen weak children as a detriment to society as a whole. Rome’s iron fist did not applaud anything that would threaten its dominating power. Yet Christ teaches us that His strength is shown by our weakness, His power shown by our frailty, and His character shown by our sacrifice.
Christians have always placed a high value on human life. Our Savior was born to impoverished parents (Luke 2:22-24, cf Leviticus 12:8). Some of Mary’s contemporaries saw her as a fornicator–a cause for social shame (see Matthew 1:18-19 for Joseph’s original response to her pregnancy, and John 8:41 for the sustained belief by the Pharisees). But neither poverty nor social status is, in the mind of a Christ-follower, a reason for a human to be discarded.
Christians took in these exposed children to save them, though often they could do nothing more than bury them, as the tombs of many children and inscriptions in the catacombs attest (Diehl II, 142–143).
– Encyclopedia of Ancient Christianity referencing E. Diehl’s Inscriptiones Latinae Christianae Veteres
Again, sometimes foundlings which heartless parents have exposed in order to their being cared for by any passer-by, are picked up by holy virgins, and are presented for baptism by these persons, who neither have nor desire to have children of their own.
– Augustine, Epistle to Boniface
One Christian noted that from the abundance of rescued girls, the church was losing its equilibrium and was unable to find enough husbands! This outflow of love was natural for the church, being in alignment both with her theology and her reborn heart. Christianity has always opposed both abortion and infanticide. Both Scripture and early post-Biblical texts show this clearly.
For it does not belong to the same person to regard the very fetus in the womb as a created being, and therefore an object of God’s care, and when it has passed into life, to kill it; and not to expose an infant, because those who expose them are chargeable with child-murder, and on the other hand, when it has been reared to destroy it.
– Athenagoras, A Plea for the Christians 35, 177 AD
Although this practice of saving doomed children began organically within the early church, it was also made official by repeated councils throughout the centuries. One such declaration was at the Council of Vaison (442 AD), which said that abandoned children should find refuge in a church. Even during the tumultuous collapse of the Roman Empire, children were not forgotten by the Bride of Christ.
Thanks to the Christian Emperor Valentinian in 374 AD, The Justinian Code included protection for unborn and newly born children from abortion and early death by exposure: “Those who expose children, possibly hoping they would die, and those who use the potions of the abortionist, are subject to the full penalty of the law–both civil and ecclesiastical–for murder.” This 180° turn from the pagan Roman practice only a few generations before shows both the Christian heart and Christian action when it comes to protecting the vulnerable.
The Bride Remains the Same
Soon before the Justinian Code, churches started organizing early forms of orphanages, which were often placed within monasteries. An unwanted child could be anonymously left in a box at the entrance–much like the baby boxes available today at some hospitals. From there, they would be raised in the monastery or have a home found for them. A far cry from leaving one’s child in the wild to die, parents could know that at least their baby would be warm, fed, and safe. Perhaps the light of the gospel even began to shine in some parents’ hearts, who saw the church doing what their government and society would not.
Orphanages cemented their place in society throughout the centuries up until the present day, as the church continues her call to care for the weak and vulnerable. Some individual heroes, such as George Müller in 19th-century England or Lee Jong Rak (featured in the documentary The Drop Box) in 21st century South Korea, saved thousands of children almost all on their own–but they were not anomalies. They were consistent both with Christ’s desire and with the historic church practice of helping children in need. Churches today around the world continue to build, repair, and financially support orphanages. Missionaries who visit these orphanages are sometimes asked to do nothing other than hold the small children, giving love in what manner it can be received, and bolstering their development.
Today, Christians are more likely to be familiar with the foster care and child welfare system than the general public. Adoption is on our hearts and minds. While the number of individual Christians adopting has declined since 2017, a healthy number of churches (44% according to the above poll, linked) still show active involvement with and practical support for those looking to adopt.
Practicing Christians are also more than twice as likely to adopt as the general public within America (5% vs 2%, respectively), with Americans accounting for half of adoptions worldwide. Being affluent, it is expected that Americans can shoulder the financial strain associated with raising a child. Of course, ability does not always translate into action. We should not overlook America’s Christian heritage and remaining (though diminishing) Christian morality as a cause for this commitment.
Why We Care
There are three central reasons Christians have, from the very conception of the church up until the present day, cared for little ones.
- God cares for the helpless, and we want to be like Him.
“He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing.” – Deuteronomy 10:18
“But you, God, see the trouble of the afflicted; you consider their grief and take it in hand. The victims commit themselves to you; you are the helper of the fatherless.” – Psalm 10:14
“A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.” – Psalm 68:5
- God commands that we do not ignore the destitute.
“Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.” – Isaiah 1:17
“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” – James 1:27
“They [the church leaders] only asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.” – Galatians 2:10
- Adoption is an image of our own salvation. We were left alone, destined to spiritually die, and He rescued us.
“But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.” – Galatians 4:4-5
“The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’” – Romans 8:15
The church has always cared about orphans. From rescuing babies out of the trash in ancient Rome, to establishing a system of orphanages throughout the Middle Ages, to today’s leading the charge in adoption, Jesus’ Bride loves and sacrifices for little ones. Because we were loved, and because we know each person is made in God’s image, we cannot and have not stood by while death loomed over such precious innocence.
Please pray about God’s will for you in continuing this spiritual legacy. If you are interested in adopting or helping someone else to do so, talk to your pastor or visit adopt.org for more information.
Photo Credit: Unsplash
