Pastor’s Column

BAPTISM OF INFANTS

Apostolic Origin & Patristic Evidence

In the New Testament, we read about “entire households” being baptized (cf Acts 6:33; 1 Cor. 1:16). St. Peter gives us: “Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children” (Acts 2:38-39).

The Church Fathers uniformly taught that infants were to be baptized. The only controversy that ever arose with regards to the baptism of infants was with respect to timing. Some proposed that baptism be administered on the eighth day after birth, because circumcision, which was a type and foreshadowing of baptism, was given on the eighth day to the sons of Israel. But this was immediately rejected. The reason will surprise many: eight days was considered too long to wait!

St. Irenaeus (189 AD): “He [Jesus] came to save all through himself; all, I say, who through him are reborn in God: infants, and children, and youths, and old men.”

Hippolytus (215 AD): “Baptize first the children, and if they can speak for themselves let them do so. Otherwise, let their parents or other relatives speak for them.”

Origen (248 AD): “Every soul that is born into flesh is soiled by the filth of wickedness and sin. . . . In the Church, baptism is given for the remission of sins, and, according to the usage of the Church, baptism is given even to infants.”

“The Church received from the apostles the tradition of giving baptism even to infants.”

St. Cyprian of Carthage (253 AD): “As to what pertains to the case of infants: You [Fidus] said that they ought not to be baptized within the second or third day after their birth, that the old law of circumcision must be taken into consideration, and that you did not think that one should be baptized and sanctified within the eighth day after his birth. In our council it seemed to us far otherwise. No one agreed to the course which you thought should be taken. Rather, we all judge that the mercy and grace of God ought to be denied to no man born.”

St. Gregory Nazianzus (388 AD): “Do you have an infant child? Allow sin no opportunity; rather, let the infant be sanctified from childhood. From his most tender age let him be consecrated by the Spirit.”

St. John Chrysostom (388 AD): “You see how many are the benefits of baptism, and some think its heavenly grace consists only in the remission of sins, but we have enumerated ten honors [it bestows]! For this reason we baptize even infants, though they are not defiled by [personal] sins, so that there may be given to them holiness, righteousness, adoption, inheritance, brotherhood with Christ, and that they may be his [Christ’s] members.”

St. Augustine (400 AD): “What the universal Church holds, not as instituted [invented] by councils but as something always held, is most correctly believed to have been handed down by apostolic authority. Since others respond for children, so that the celebration of the sacrament may be complete for them, it is certainly availing to them for their consecration, because they themselves are not able to respond.”
(408 AD) “The custom of Mother Church in baptizing infants is certainly not to be scorned, nor is it to be regarded in any way as superfluous, nor is it to be believed that its tradition is anything except apostolic.”

To be continued. Quotations taken from Catholic Answers.