Against Baptism by Affusion

Encyclical Letter of Archbishop Nikifor (Theotokis) of Slaviansk and Kherson

1754 A.D.

 

By virtue of my office, I am obliged to watch over everything that pertains to Christian teaching, that this teaching may be preserved sound and uncorrupted. And first of all, I direct your attention to holy baptism, which is the door of all the Sacraments, the beginning of our salvation, the remission of sins, and reconciliation with God. It is the gift of adoption, because in baptism we become sons of God and co-heirs with Christ, putting on Christ our Lord, according to the word of the holy Apostle Paul: “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal. 3:27). Without this no one can be saved: “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God” (John 3:5).

Reflecting on this holy Mystery, I must tell you that:

1. The very word or name of it in the original language in which the God-enlightened Evangelists handed down to us the glad tidings signifies immersion, and not pouring or sprinkling (the Greek word “βάπτισμα” — I immerse, I baptize with water).

2. The first lawgiver of baptism, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, having entered into the River Jordan and immersing Himself, was baptized.

3. Likewise also the Apostle Philip baptized the eunuch: “and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him” (Acts 8:38).

4. The Orthodox Church, according to apostolic tradition, has always baptized by immersion. This is evident from the 50th Apostolic Canon: “If any bishop or presbyter perform not three immersions… let him be deposed…”; from the second Mystagogical Catechesis of St. Cyril of Jerusalem: “You made the saving confession and, having been thrice immersed in the water…”; and from the words of St. Basil the Great: “By three immersions and the same number of invocations the great Mystery of Baptism is accomplished.”

5. Immersion in water, and moreover a threefold immersion, and likewise a threefold rising from the water, was established not arbitrarily and not by chance, but as an image of the mystery of the three-day Resurrection of Christ. “The water,” says St. Basil the Great, “represents the sign of death, receiving the body as into a tomb. The bodies of those being baptized are in some manner buried in the water, mystically depicting the putting off of the fleshly body, according to the word of the Apostle: ‘In Him also ye are circumcised… with the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ; being buried’” (Col. 2:11–12).

6. The Orthodox Church everywhere baptizes by threefold immersion in water and by rising from the water. Thus the Greek Church baptizes; thus the Arabic, Bulgarian, Serbian, Wallachian, and Dalmatian Churches baptize; thus also the Russian Church baptizes throughout all Great Russia. Each of these Churches has a vessel in which they thrice immerse the infants being baptized, naked, with the invocation of the names of the Most Holy Trinity (as indicated in the 49th Apostolic Canon: “If any bishop or presbyter baptize not according to the Lord’s ordinance, into the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit… let him be deposed”). And that throughout all Little Russia infants were formerly baptized in the same manner, there is no doubt. Saint Vladimir received the faith and borrowed all the church rites from the Greeks, who both formerly and now baptize by immersion. After this it seems strange that those who had Greek teachers and were baptized by Greeks are now baptized not by immersion.

However, I think, and not without reason, that baptism by means of pouring began first in Kiev, and afterward throughout all Little Russia. Such a departure occurred from the time when the Uniates took possession of the Kiev Metropolia.

In the Roman Church, until the twelfth century, baptism was performed by immersion; afterward they began to baptize not only by pouring but also by sprinkling. From this it follows that among all the Orthodox, only the Little Russians, having abolished immersion, baptize by means of pouring. And this has given occasion to the schismatics to reproach us with having, by neglecting the tradition of the holy Apostles, which is maintained without change in the whole Orthodox Church, followed the custom of the Papists, who among various improper alterations dared also to alter holy baptism. “I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things and keep the traditions just as I delivered them to you” (1 Cor. 11:2). “Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle” (2 Thess. 2:15). Thus wrote the divine Apostle Paul. And St. Basil the Great clearly says: “There is danger when someone dies without baptism or when anything delivered in the performance of baptism is omitted.”

Why then do we make omissions in so important a matter? Why do we not preserve this holy apostolic tradition, as it is preserved by the whole Orthodox Church? What reason, what excuse shall we offer for this? Perhaps someone will say that it is dangerous to immerse infants in water. But this would be cunning. The life of His Imperial Highness, the Right-Believing Sovereign Tsarevich and Grand Duke Paul Petrovich, and of his august children is very precious; nevertheless, without any fear, by the goodness of God, they were baptized by threefold immersion in a rather deep vessel, which I myself saw in the court church. Finally, if anyone should say that cold water in wintertime may be harmful to the health of infants, he must know that no law commands that the water used in baptism be cold and frozen; one may take water that is kept in a room.

It seems that what I have said to you, beloved children in Christ and most honorable priests, is sufficient — sufficient that you should no longer baptize by pouring, but should baptize as is prescribed, by immersion; that you, before others in Little Russia, may show this holy example and, for your service and zeal in preserving in the Church the most ancient apostolic tradition, may be deemed worthy to receive from God a reward. Nevertheless, lest anyone neglect this our decree under the pretext that there was no clear command from us concerning it, we, by our pastoral authority, command all our ecclesiastical administrations:

1. To take care that in every church there be constructed a vessel of silver or copper or of some other suitable material, which would have the shape of a bell or of a censer, narrower at the bottom and wider at the top, with a depth of not less than one arshin, and with a width proportionate to its depth, so that it would be fit for use.

2. To order everywhere the priests that over the above-mentioned vessel with water the customary prayers be read, and that in the sanctified water they baptize infants by threefold immersion, invoking at each immersion one of the three names of the Most Holy Trinity, as is performed in the East and in Great Russia.

3. Strictly to command that the sanctified water, after the completion of baptism, not be poured out somewhere outside into an unclean place, but that it be carefully and with due reverence poured into the piscina, that is, where the priests wash their hands; and that the vessel itself not be used for any other purpose, but be kept in the church among the other sacred vessels.

To those who obey and willingly desire to fulfill this our command we promise God’s blessing, eternal glory, and our pastoral blessing.

 

Russian source: Вера и Жизнь [Faith and Life], Chernihiv, Ukraine, 1995, Nos. 2–4 (9–11), pp. 33–34.

Online: https://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Nikifor_Feotokis/protiv-oblivatelnogo-kreshhenija/