Confirmation Photos

Confirmation at St. John the Baptist, R.C. Church in Wading River, New York; the Most Reverend John C. Dunne presiding.

(Notes from the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1917 now in the public domain)

We read in the Acts of the Apostles (8:14-17) that after the Samaritan converts had been baptized by Philip the deacon, the Apostles "sent unto them Peter and John, who, when they were come, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost; for he was not yet come upon any of them, but they were only baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus; then they laid their hands upon them, and they received the Holy Ghost".

Again (19:1-6): St. Paul "came to Ephesus, and found certain disciples; and he said to them: Have you received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? But they said to him: We have not so much as heard whether there be a Holy Ghost. And he said: In what then were you baptized? Who said: In John's baptism. Then Paul said: John baptized the people with the baptism of penance . . . Having heard these things, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had imposed his hands on them, the Holy Ghost came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied".

From these two passages we learn that in the earliest ages of the Church there was a rite, distinct from baptism, in which the Holy Ghost was conferred by the imposition of hands (dia tes epitheseos ton cheiron ton Apostolon), and that the power to perform this ceremony was not implied in the power to baptize.

In passing from Holy Scripture to the Fathers we naturally expect to find more definite answers to the various questions regarding the sacrament. From both their practice and their teaching we learn that the Church made use of a rite distinct from baptism; that this consisted of imposition of hands, anointing, and accompanying words; that by this rite the Holy Ghost was conferred upon those already baptized, and a mark or seal impressed upon their souls; that, as a rule, in the West the minister was a bishop, whereas in the East he might be a simple priest.

The Fathers considered that the rites of initiation (baptism, confirmation, and the Holy Eucharist) were instituted by Christ, but they did not enter into any minute discussion as to the time, place, and manner of the institution, at least of the second of these rites.

In examining the testimonies of the Fathers we should note that the word confirmation is not used to designate this sacrament during the first four centuries; but we meet with various other terms and phrases which quite clearly refer to it. Thus, it is styled "imposition of hands" (manuum impositio, cheirothesia), "unction", "chrism", "sealing", etc. Before the time of Tertullian the Fathers do not make any explicit mention of confirmation as distinct from baptism. The fact that the two sacraments were conferred together may account for this silence.

Tertullian (De Bapt., vi) is the first to distinguish clearly the three acts of initiation: "After having come out of the laver, we are anointed thoroughly with a blessed unction [perungimur benedictâ unctione] according to the ancient rule . . . The unction runs bodily over us, but profits spiritually . . . . Next to this, the hand is laid upon us through the blessing, calling upon and inviting the Holy Spirit [dehinc manus imponitur per benedictionem advocans et invitans Spiriturn Sanctum]."

Again (De resurr, carnis, n, 8): "The flesh is washed that the soul may be made stainless. The flesh is anointed [ungitur] that the soul may be consecrated. The flesh is sealed [signatur] that the soul may be fortified. The flesh is overshadowed by the imposition of hands that the soul may be illuminated by the Spirit. The flesh is fed by the Body and Blood of Christ that the soul may be fattened of God."

And (Adv. Marcion., i, n. 14): "But He [Christ], indeed even at the present time, neither rejected the water of the Creator with which He washes clean His own, nor the oil with which He anoints His own; . . . nor the bread with which He makes present [repræsentat] His own very body, needing even in His own sacraments the beggarly elements of the Creator," Tertullian also tells how the devil, imitating the rites of Christian initiation, sprinkles some and signs them as his soldiers on the forehead (signat illic in frontibus milites suos -- De Præscript., xl).

Another great African Father speaks with equal clearness of confirmation. "Two sacraments", says St. Cyprian, "preside over the perfect birth of a Christian, the one regenerating the man, which is baptism, the other communicating to him the Holy Spirit" (Epist. lxxii).

"Anointed also must he be who is baptized, in order that having received the chrism, that is the unction, he may be anointed of God" (Epist. lxx).

"It was not fitting that [the Samaritans] should be baptized again, but only what was wanting, that was done by Peter and John; that prayer being made for them and hands imposed, the Holy Ghost should be invoked and poured forth upon them. Which also is now done among us; so that they who are baptized in the Church are presented to the bishops [prelates] of the Church, and by our prayer and imposition of hands, they receive the Holy Ghost and are perfected with the seal [signaculo] of the Lord" (Epist. lxxiii).

"Moreover, a person is not born by the imposition of hands, when he receives the Holy Ghost, but in baptism; that being already born he may receive the Spirit, as was done in the first man Adam. For God first formed him and breathed into his face the breath of life. For the Spirit cannot be received except there is first one to receive it. But the birth of Christians is in baptism" (Epist. lxxiv).

Pope St. Cornelius complains that Novatus, after having been baptized on his sickbed, "did not receive the other things which ought to be partaken of according to the rule of the Church--to be sealed, that is, by the bishop [sphragisthenai ypo tou episkopou] and not having received this, how did he receive the Holy Ghost?" (Eusebius, H.E., vi, xliii).