Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Vol. 7 (Augustine: Gospel and Epistle of John)

CATECHETICAL INSTRUCTION. xiii

That this remark was addressed not to the Catechumens, but to such of the Faithful (baptized Christians) as happened to be present among his audience, appears from what he says elsewhere: "So you likewise, though not daring before your Baptism to wrestle with the adversaries, yet after you have received the grace, and are henceforth confident in the armour of righteousness, must then do battle, and preach the Gospel, if you will."

The more systematic instruction of those who had been already admitted to the order of Catechumens was entrusted to persons appointed to this special duty. Thus, Origen "was in his eighteenth year when he took charge of the Catechetical School at Alexandria," which "was entrusted to him alone by Demetrius, who presided over the Church." St. Augustine’s treatise, De Catechizandis Rudibus (On Catechizing the Uninstructed), was addressed to Deogratias, who, being a Deacon at Carthage and highly esteemed for his skill and success as a Catechist, felt so strongly the importance of the work and his own insufficiency that he wrote to Augustine for advice as to the best method of instructing those who were brought to him to be taught the first elements of the Christian Faith.

The final training of the φωτιζόμενοι (those being enlightened), or candidates for Baptism, was undertaken in part by the Bishop himself, but chiefly by a Priest specially appointed by him. Of the part taken by the Bishop, mention is made in a letter to his sister Marcellina (Ep. xx.): "On the following day, which was the Lord’s day, after the Lessons and Sermon, the Catechumens had been dismissed, and I was delivering the Creed to some candidates (Competentes) in the Baptistery of the Basilica."

Of this "delivery of the Creed," which was usually done by a Presbyter (priest), we have examples in St. Augustine’s Sermons In traditione Symboli (On the tradition of the Creed), chapters 212–214, each of which contains a brief recapitulation and explanation of the several articles of belief. In Sermon 214, after a short introduction, we find the following note inserted by the preacher himself: ["After this preface the whole Creed is to be recited, without interposing any discussion. ‘I BELIEVE IN GOD THE FATHER ALMIGHTY,’ and the rest that follows. Which Creed, you know, is not wont to be written: after it has been said, the following discussion is to be added."]

From the opening words of Sermon 214 and 216, "ad Competentes" (to the candidates), it is evident that these were delivered by St. Augustine as the first-fruits of his ministry very soon after he had been reluctantly ordained Priest (A.D. 391). Two other examples of addresses to Candidates for Baptism are the Catecheses I., II., πρὸς τοὺς μέλλοντας φωτίζεσθαι (to those about to be enlightened), delivered at Antioch by St. Chrysostom while a Presbyter.

Another duty often undertaken by the Bishop was to hear each Candidate separately recite the Creed, and then to expound to them all the Lord’s Prayer.

§ 3. Catechumens. The term Catechumen denoted a person who was receiving instruction in the Christian religion with a view to being in due time baptized. Such persons were either converts from Paganism and Judaism, or children of Christian parents whose Baptism had been deferred. For though the practice of Infant-Baptism was certainly common in the Early Church, it was not compulsory nor invariable. "In many cases Christian parents may have shared and acted on the opinion expressed by Tertullian in the second century, and by Gregory Nazianzen in the fourth, and thought it well to defer the Baptism of children, cases of grave sickness excepted, till they were able to make answer in their own name to the interrogations of the baptismal rite."