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T h e F a t h e r s K n o w B e s t
CONFIRMATION
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This Rock
Volume 4, Number 7
 July 1993 
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CONFIRMATION is found in passages such as
Acts 8:14-17, 9:17, 19:6, and Hebrews 6:2, which speak of a laying
on of hands for the purpose of bestowing the Holy Spirit. The Church
Fathers and early Christian writers recognized confirmation as a sacrament
distinct from baptism, even though it may have been given simultaneously
with baptism and did not yet have its modern name. They wrote clearly
about its reception. This "forgotten sacrament" was not
forgotten by the first Christians.
Theophilus of Antioch
"Are you unwilling to be anointed with the oil
of God? It is on this account that we are called Christians: because
we are anointed with the oil of God" (To Autolycus 1:12
[ca. A.D. 181]).
Tertullian
"After coming from the place of washing we are
thoroughly anointed with a blessed unction, from the ancient discipline
by which [those] in the priesthood . . . were accustomed to be anointed
with a horn of oil, ever since Aaron was anointed by Moses. . . .
So also with us, the unction runs on the body and profits us spiritually,
in the same way that baptism itself is a corporal act by which we
are plunged in water, while its effect is spiritual, in that we are
freed from sins. After this, the hand is imposed for a blessing, invoking
and inviting the Holy Spirit" (On Baptism 7:1-2, 8:1
[ca. A.D. 203]).
Tertullian
"No soul whatever is able to obtain salvation
unless it has believed while it was in the flesh. Indeed, the flesh
is the hinge of salvation . . . The flesh, then, is washed so that
the soul may be made clean. The flesh is anointed so that the soul
may be dedicated to holiness. The flesh is signed so that the soul
may be fortified. The flesh is shaded by the imposition of hands so
that the soul may be illuminated by the Spirit. The flesh feeds on
the body and blood of Christ so that the soul too may fatten on God.
They cannot, then, be separated in their reward, when they are united
in their works" (On the Resurrection of the Dead 8:2-3
[ca. A.D. 210]).
Hippolytus
"The bishop, imposing his hand on them, shall
make an invocation, saying, 'O Lord God, who made them worthy of the
remission of sins through the Holy Spirit's washing unto rebirth,
send into them your grace so that they may serve you according to
your will, for there is glory to you, to the Father and the Son with
the Holy Spirit, in the holy Church, both now and through the ages
of ages. Amen.' Then, pouring the consecrated oil into his hand and
imposing it on the head of the baptized, he shall say, 'I anoint you
with holy oil in the Lord, the Father Almighty, and Christ Jesus and
the Holy Spirit.' Signing them on the forehead, he shall kiss them
and say, 'The Lord be with you.' He that has been signed shall say,
'And with your spirit.' Thus shall he do to each" (The Apostolic
Tradition 21-22 [ca. A.D. 215]).
Cyprian
"It is necessary for him that has been baptized
also to be anointed, so that by his having received chrism, that is,
the anointing, he can be the anointed of God and have in him the grace
of Christ" (Epistles 7:2 [A.D. 254/255]).
Cyprian
"Some say in regard to those who were baptized
in Samaria that when the apostles Peter and John came there only hands
were imposed on them so that they might receive the Holy Spirit, and
that they were not re-baptized. But we see, dearest brother, that
this situation in no way pertains to the present case. Those in Samaria
who had believed had believed in the true faith, and it was by the
deacon Philip, whom those same apostles had sent there, that they
had been baptized inside--in the Church. . . . Since, then, they
had already received a legitimate and ecclesiastical baptism, it was
not necessary to baptize them again. Rather, that only which was lacking
was done by Peter and John. The prayer having been made over them
and hands having been imposed upon them, the Holy Spirit was invoked
and was poured out upon them. This is even now the practice among
us, so that those who are baptized in the Church then are brought
to the prelates of the Church; through our prayer and the imposition
of hands, they receive the Holy Spirit and are perfected with the
seal of the Lord" (Ibid. 73:9 [A.D. 254/256]).
The Council of Laodicea
"[T]hose who have been illuminated are, after
baptism, to be anointed with celestial chrism and thus become partakers
in the kingdom of Christ" (Canon 48 [ca. A.D. 343]).
Cyril of Jerusalem
"After you had come up from the pool of the sacred
streams, there was given chrism, the antitype of that with which Christ
was anointed, and this is the Holy Spirit. But beware of supposing
that this is ordinary ointment. For just as the bread of the Eucharist
after the invocation of the Holy Spirit is simple bread no longer,
but the body of Christ, so also this ointment is no longer plain ointment,
nor, so to speak, common, after the invocation. Further, it is the
gracious gift of Christ, and it is made fit for the imparting of his
Godhead by the coming of the Holy Spirit. This ointment is symbolically
applied to your forehead and to your other senses; while your body
is anointed with the visible ointment, your soul is sanctified by
the holy and life-giving Spirit. Just as Christ, after his baptism,
and the coming upon him of the Holy Spirit, went forth and defeated
the adversary, so also with you after holy baptism and the mystical
chrism, having put on the panoply of the Holy Spirit, you are to withstand
the power of the adversary and defeat him, saying, 'I am able to do
all things in Christ, who strengthens me'" (Catechetical
Lectures, 21:1, 3-4 [ca. A.D. 350]).
Cyril of Jerusalem
[David says,] "'You have anointed my head
with oil.' With oil he anointed your head, your forehead, in the God-given
sign of the cross, so that you may become that which is engraved on
the seal, 'a holy thing of the Lord'" (Ibid. 22:7
[ca. A.D. 350]).
Serapion
[Prayer for blessing the holy chrism:] "God of
powers, aid of every soul that turns to you and comes under your powerful
hand in your only-begotten. We beseech you, that through your divine
and invisible power of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, you may effect
in this chrism a divine and heavenly operation, so that those baptized
and anointed in the tracing with it of the sign of the saving cross
of the only-begotten . . . as if reborn and renewed through the bath
of regeneration, may be made participants in the gift of the Holy
Spirit and, confirmed by this seal, may remain firm and immovable,
unharmed and inviolate. . . ." (The Sacramentary of Serapion
25:1 [ca. A.D. 350]).
Pacian of Barcelona
"If, then, the power of both baptism and confirmation,
greater by far than charisms, is passed on to the bishops, so too
is the right of binding and loosing" (Three Letters to the
Novatian Sympronian 1:6 [ca. A.D. 383]).
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