We are in the place where Christian life begins, here where the baptismal font stands, in which the “immersion” into Christ takes place that grants new life to the faithful.
The font was carved by the Sienese sculptor Egisto Bellini in 1943, as the inscription along the central panel attests.
The basin, which held the water that has been blessed, the material of the sacrament of baptism as a sign of purification from sin, of death and new life, has the typical octagonal shape. Christ’s Resurrection took place on the first day after the Sabbath (seventh) day, the sacred last day of the week for the Jews because on that day God finished Creation and rested from his work. Numbering a further day after the seventh means manifesting the advent of a new creation, a world forever renewed and healed by Christ. Above the basin is an aedicule in which the Holy Oils are kept, used for the sacraments of baptism and confirmation.
The font is crowned by a small statue of Saint John the Baptist, the one who announced the coming of the Messiah with a baptism of purification in the Jordan River, warning that one would come who would baptize “with fire and the Holy Spirit.”