chrisom

The chrisom was a white baptismal robe with which, in mediæval times, a child, when christened, was enveloped.

In Graunt’s “Bills of Mortality,” cited in Johnson’s Dictionary, we read: “When the convulsions were but were but few, the number of chrisoms and infants was greater.”

When children died within the month they were called chrisoms.

At her churching a woman was expected to make some offering to the church, such as the chrisom or alb thrown over the child at christening.

He died like a lamb, or, as men call it, like a chrisom child, quietly and without fear.'