BIOTHANATI (from bio, violence, and thanatos, death), in some medical writers, denotes those who die a violent death. The word is also written, and with more propriety, biathanati; sometimes biathananti.
In a more particular sense, it denotes those who kill themselves, more properly called autothanati. In this sense it is that the word is used both by Greek and Latin writers. By the ancient discipline of the church, they were punished by denying them burial, and refusing all commemoration of them in the prayers and offices of the church.