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Updated: June 29, 2025
"Lastly, I look upon them as children of the Church, at least in disposition, since they are willing to be instructed; and as my brethren in hope, since they also are called to inherit eternal life. In the early days of the Church it was customary to give the title of brethren to catechumens, even before their baptism."
He proves also that since the fifth and sixth centuries the bishop and priests used to breathe three times over the chrism and oil of catechumens, and to salute them with the words "Ave sanctum chrisma: ave sanctum oleum". Our Saviour breathed on His apostles, when He said 'Receive ye the holy Ghost': and hence his ministers breathe over the chrism, by which the Holy Ghost is conferred in confirmation, and over the oil of catechumens, which is used in other sacred rites.
The Didache, which was used as a book of catechetical instruction for catechumens, does not specifically mention usury; the forcing of the repayment of loans from the poor who are unable to pay is strongly reprobated; but this is not so in the case of the rich.
It was the fashion to baptize converted Jews in batches for the greater glory procuring them from without when home-made catechumens were scarce, sometimes serving them up with a proselyte Turk. But in view of the importance of the accession, and likewise of the closeness of Epiphany, it was resolved to give Joseph ben Manasseh the honor of a solitary baptism.
The discretion of parents often suspended the baptism of their children till they could understand the obligations which they contracted: the severity of ancient bishops exacted from the new converts a novitiate of two or three years; and the catechumens themselves, from different motives of a temporal or a spiritual nature, were seldom impatient to assume the character of perfect and initiated Christians.
Writing in the seventeenth century Bishop Bossuet expressly affirms this edifying theory of the Midsummer bonfires, and he tells his catechumens that the Church herself participated in the illumination, since in several dioceses, including his own diocese of Meaux, a number of parishes kindled what were called ecclesiastical fires for the purpose of banishing the superstitions practised at the purely mundane bonfires.
As there was not room in the mission-house to contain all the Esquimaux, wood was cut down to build a large meeting-hall. Some appeared deeply impressed by the word of God, particularly Manamina, his sister Alingana, and Akaplack, who were received as catechumens.
"The baptism of the catechumens!" exclaimed the Patriarch; "but this looks a good deal too much like earnest!" Hastily calling a servant, he bade him go down to the shore and bring up the band of boys who were playing there.
The poor man, who had fasted, and now listened to his bishop standing, was faint from hunger and felt his legs tremble under him. He thought it better to run away than to fall down exhausted at the feet of the learned preacher. With his knowledge of men, Augustin carefully studied the kind of people his catechumens were, and adapted his instructions to the character of each.
If he were dealing with fashionable people who had a taste for literature, he did not fail to exalt the beauties of the Scripture, although, he would say, they had there a very trifling attraction compared to the truths contained in it. Of all the catechumens, the hardest to deal with, the most fearsome in his eyes, were the professors the rhetoricians and the grammarians.
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