Hygiene in Christianity
In some denominations of Christianity, there are a number of regulations involving cleanliness before prayer, observing days of ritual purification, as well as those concerning diet and apparel. The Bible has many rituals of purification in areas ranging from the mundane private rituals of personal hygiene and toilet etiquette to the complex public rituals of social etiquette.
Certain Christian rules of purity have implications for bodily hygiene and observing cleanliness, including sexual hygiene, menstruation and toilet etiquette. In the Coptic Orthodox Church, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church male circumcision is an established practice. Around the time of Tertullian, an early Church Father, it was customary for Christians to wash their hands, face and feet before prayer, as well as before receiving Holy Communion. The rite of footwashing employed a basin of water and linen towels, done in the imitation of Christ.
Christianity has always placed a strong emphasis on hygiene, and water plays a role in the Christian rituals. The Church also built public bathing facilities that were separate for both sexes near monasteries and pilgrimage sites; also, the Catholic popes situated baths within church basilicas and monasteries since the Early Middle Ages. Public bathhouses were common in medieval Christendom larger towns and cities such as Constantinople, Rome, Paris, Regensburg and Naples.
Many Christian monastic communities throughout history have emphasized cleanliness and hygiene as part of their spiritual practice. Protestant Christianity also played a prominent role in the development of the spas in Northern Europe. A major contribution of the Christian missionaries in Africa, Asia and other places was better health care through hygiene and the introduction and distribution of soaps.
Bible
The Bible has many rituals of purification in areas ranging from the mundane private rituals of personal hygiene and toilet etiquette to the complex public rituals of social etiquette. The Bible also has many rituals of purification relating to menstruation, childbirth, sexual relations, nocturnal emission, unusual bodily fluids, skin disease, death, and animal sacrifices. In the Old Testament, ablution was considered a prerequisite to approaching God, whether by means of sacrifice, prayer, or entering a holy place.Old Testament
The Old Testament requires immersion of the body in water as a means of purification in several circumstances, for example:There are also references to hand-washing:
Priests were required to wash their hands and feet before service in the Temple:
Book of Leviticus
With sacrifice and priesthood established, chapters 11–15 in the Book of Leviticus instruct lay people on purity. Eating certain animals produces uncleanliness, as does giving birth; certain skin diseases are unclean, as are certain conditions affecting walls and clothing ; and genital discharges, including female menses and male gonorrhea, are unclean. The reasoning behind the food rules are obscure; for the rest the guiding principle seems to be that all these conditions involve a loss of "life force", usually but not always blood.Ritual purity is essential for an Israelite to be able to approach Yahweh and remain part of the community. Uncleanliness threatens holiness; chapters 11–15 review the various causes of uncleanliness and describe the rituals which will restore cleanliness. One is to maintain cleanliness through observation of the rules on sexual behaviour, family relations, land ownership, worship, sacrifice, and observance of holy days.
Yahweh dwells with Israel in the Holy of Holies. All of the priestly ritual focuses on Yahweh and the construction and maintenance of a holy space, but sin generates impurity, as do everyday events such as childbirth and menstruation; impurity thus pollutes the holy dwelling place. Failure to purify the sacred space ritually could result in God's leaving, which would be disastrous.
New Testament
In the New Testament, washing also occurs in reference to rites of Judaism part of the action of a healing by Jesus, the preparation of a body for burial, the washing of nets by fishermen, a person's personal washing of the face to appear in public, the cleansing of an injured person's wounds, Pontius Pilate's washing of his hands as a symbolic claim of innocence and foot washing, which is a rite within Christian Churches. According to the Gospel of Matthew, Pontius Pilate declared himself innocent of the blood of Jesus by washing his hands. This act of Pilate may not, however, have been borrowed from the custom of the Jews. The same practice was common among the Greeks and Romans.According to Christian tradition, the Pharisees carried the practice of ablution to great excess. The Gospel of Mark refers to their ceremonial ablutions: "For the Pharisees…wash their hands 'oft'" or, more accurately, "with the fist" ; or, as Theophylact of Bulgaria explains it, "up to the elbow," referring to the actual word used in the Greek New Testament, πυγμή pygmē, which refers to the arm from the elbow to the tips of the fingers. In the Book of Acts, Paul and other men performed ablution before entering the Temple in Jerusalem: "Then Paul took the men, and the next day purifying himself with them entered into the temple, to signify the accomplishment of the days of purification, until that an offering should be offered for every one of them."
History
Early Christianity
has always placed a strong emphasis on hygiene, and water plays a role in the Christian rituals. Early Christian clergy condemned the practice of mixed bathing as practiced by the Romans, such as the pagan custom of women naked bathing in front of men; as such, the Didascalia Apostolorum, an early Christian manual, enjoined Christians to bathe themselves in those facilities that were separated by sex, which contributed to hygiene and good health according to the Church Fathers, such as Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian.The Church also built public bathing facilities that were separate for both sexes near monasteries and pilgrimage sites; also, the popes situated baths within church basilicas and monasteries since the Early Middle Ages. Pope Gregory the Great urged his followers on the value of bathing as a bodily need. Around the time of Tertullian, an early Church Father, it was customary for Christians to wash their hands, face and feet before prayer, as well as before receiving Holy Communion. The rite of footwashing employed a basin of water and linen towels, done in the imitation of Christ.
Middle Ages
Eastern Christendom
Great bathhouses were built in Byzantine centers such as Constantinople and Antioch. Constantinople offered numerous bathhouses to its citizens, but the Baths of Zeuxippus were particularly popular, even monks and members of the clergy could be seen there. For a relatively small fee, any member of the public could gain admission to the bath complex. The Baths of Zeuxippus were also close to the Great Palace grounds. This suggests their great popularity, since such a significant location would have attracted many people. The Baths were also close to the square of the Augustaeum and the basilica of Hagia Sophia.Although Byzantine bathhouses were primarily used for public bathing, people could also exercise and enjoy a variety of recreational activities there. Attendants were paid to oversee the activities, enforcing opening and closing times and the rules of conduct. Men and women were not allowed to bathe together; they would either use separate baths, or bathe at different times of day.
The Byzantine Bath of the Upper Town was one of several in Thessaloniki —the 14th-century writer Nikephoros Choumnos claims that Thessaloniki had more baths than inhabitants—but is the only surviving in Thessaloniki and the largest and most complete of the Byzantine baths surviving elsewhere in Greece: one in Agkistro, five ruined public baths—two in Corinth, one in Sparta, one in Paramythia, one in Ioannina Castle—and one each in the monasteries of Kaisariani and Zoodochos Pigi.
Believing that on the Feast of Epiphany water becomes holy and imbued with special powers, Eastern Orthodox cut holes in the ice of lakes and rivers, often in the shape of the cross, to bathe in the freezing water. Christianity strongly affected the development of holy wells in Europe and the Middle East, and its water are known for its healing properties.
Western Christendom
The popes allocated to the Romans bathing through diaconia, or private Lateran baths, or even a myriad of monastic bath houses functioning in eighth and ninth centuries. The popes maintained their baths in their residences which described by scholar Paolo Squatriti as "luxurious baths", and bath houses including hot baths incorporated into Christian church buildings or those of monasteries, which known as "charity baths" because they served both the clerics and needy poor people.File:Jörg Breu - Augsburg - Summer.JPG|thumb|Public bathing in Augsburg, Germany, by Jörg Breu the Elder, c. 1531
Public bathhouses were common in medieval Christendom larger towns and cities such as Paris, Regensburg and Naples. There were about twenty-six public baths in Paris in 1272. Many Christian monastic communities throughout history have emphasized cleanliness and hygiene as part of their spiritual practice. Catholic religious orders of the Augustinians' and Benedictines' rules contained ritual purification, and inspired by Benedict of Nursia encouragement for the practice of therapeutic bathing; Benedictine monks played a role in the development and promotion of spas. Protestant Christianity also played a prominent role in the development of the British spas.
In Pope Nicholas V commissioned building a bath palace in Viterbo, and the construction at the Bagno del Papa was continued on through the reigns of several popes after Nicholas V. The Vatican accounts mention payments "for building done at the bath palace of Viterbo" during the reigns of Calixtus III, Paul II, and Sixtus IV. There also is evidence Pope Pius II was responsible for the addition of a western wing to the building.
Contrary to popular belief bathing and sanitation were not lost in Europe with the collapse of the Roman Empire. Soapmaking first became an established trade during the so-called "Dark Ages". The Romans used scented oils, among other alternatives. By the 15th century, the manufacture of soap in Christendom had become virtually industrialized, with sources in Antwerp, Castile, Marseille, Naples and Venice. In the 17th century the Spanish Catholic manufacturers purchased the monopoly on Castile soap from the cash-strapped Carolinian government.