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water that is at hand. This fact, however, was (and is) commonly known by devout Catholics.84
The ritual need not be performed in church and can be done in five to ten seconds.
Usually such informal or covert baptism is advised only in extreme circumstances, such
as when death is imminent.
Several factors would have strongly predisposed Freud’s nanny toward baptizing him. The death of Freud’s younger brother Julius would have raised the issue in most concrete terms. For a devout Catholic woman of the time, the death of an unbaptized child who was close to her would have been a most disturbing tragedy. Czech culture has several familiar folk tales in which this occurs and the child’s soul goes to Hell or leads an unpleasant life in a kind of limbo.85 Either the nanny baptized the sickly and obviously dying Julius, thus establishing a precedent for her baptizing Sigmund, or she failed to baptize him, which would have aroused her fears. A Czech custom may have encouraged her as well. In Czech churches, it was traditional for baptismal water always to be present and visible in the baptismal bowl or font throughout the year. This water was commonly blessed on Holy Saturday (the Saturday before Easter).86 In the dimly lit churches of the time, it would have the appearance of black or dark water. Such a possible covert baptism, in church or otherwise, may have had a lasting effect on Freud’s memory; if the nanny had talked about the meaning of baptism, it would have left permanent traces. In any case, Freud in his attendance at services would most probably have witnessed and discussed the baptism of others.87 Whether Freud was covertly baptized must on the basis of present information remain unknown, but that this nanny was consciously trying to influence Sigmund with respect to becoming a Christian is virtually certain. Why else take the child so often to church? Why else instruct him so as to enable him to preach rudimentary sermons? The nanny could easily have felt that she had no greater gift to give her beloved charge than baptism. To exemplify and underline something of the psychology of Freud’s nanny, I relate a story told to me by a Roman Catholic priest of the New York diocese when I mentioned Freud’s nanny to him. (This priest was one of the people who spontaneously raised the issue of a possible baptism.) The story is about the priest’s own mother, who is still living but quite elderly. She arrived in New York City in the 1920s, a young girl fresh off the boat from Ireland. She was and still is a very devout Catholic. Her first job was as governess or nanny for a Jewish couple living in Greenwich Village. This couple had one child, a boy aged about three, when she started her job. Although her employers were of a Jewish background, they were then serious and active Communists, recently back from a trip to Russia. (The nanny recalls a visit to the home by Dorothy Day when she was still a Communist.) As such, the |