Catholic Church In the teaching of the Catholic Church, confirmation, known also as
chrismation, is one of the seven
sacraments instituted by Christ for the conferral of sanctifying grace and the strengthening of the union between the individual and God. The
Catechism of the Catholic Church in paragraphs 1302–1303, states: {{Blockquote|It is evident from its celebration that the effect of the sacrament of Confirmation is the special outpouring of the Holy Spirit as once granted to the
apostles on the day of
Pentecost. From this fact, Confirmation brings an increase and deepening of baptismal grace: • it roots us more deeply in the divine filiation which makes us cry, "Abba! Father!" (Romans 8:15); • it unites us more firmly to Christ; • it increases the gifts of the Holy Spirit in us; • it renders our bond with the Church more perfect; • it gives us a special strength of the Holy Spirit to spread and defend the faith by word and action as true witnesses of Christ, to confess the name of Christ boldly, and never to be ashamed of the Cross: In the Catholic Church, the sacrament is customarily conferred only on persons old enough to understand it, and the ordinary minister of confirmation is a
bishop. "If necessity so requires", the diocesan bishop may grant specified
priests the faculty to administer the sacrament, although normally he is to administer it himself or ensure that it is conferred by another bishop. In addition, the law itself confers the same faculty on the following: "According to the ancient practice maintained in the Roman liturgy, an adult is not to be baptized unless he receives Confirmation immediately afterward, provided no serious obstacles exist." Administration of the two sacraments, one immediately after the other, to adults is normally done by the bishop of the diocese (generally at the
Easter Vigil) since "the baptism of adults, at least of those who have completed their fourteenth year, is to be referred to the Bishop, so that he himself may confer it if he judges this appropriate" However, if the bishop does not confer the baptism, then it devolves on the priest whose office it then is to confer both sacraments, since, "in addition to the bishop, the law gives the faculty to confirm to the following,... priests who, in virtue of an office which they lawfully hold, baptize an adult or a child old enough for catechesis or receive a validly baptized adult into full communion with the Church." In
Eastern Catholic Churches, the usual minister of this sacrament is the parish priest, using olive oil consecrated by a bishop (i.e.
chrism) and administering the sacrament immediately after baptism. This corresponds exactly to the practice of the early Church, when at first those receiving baptism were mainly adults, and of the non-Latin Catholic Eastern Churches.
Rite of confirmation in the West The main reason why the West separated the sacrament of confirmation from that of baptism was to re-establish direct contact between the person being initiated with the bishops. In the Early Church, the bishop administered all three sacraments of initiation (baptism, confirmation and Eucharist), assisted by the priests and deacons and, where they existed, by deaconesses for women's baptism. The post-baptismal chrismation in particular was reserved to the bishop. When adults no longer formed the majority of those being baptized, this chrismation was delayed until the bishop could confer it. Until the 12th century, priests often continued to confer confirmation before giving Communion to very young children. After the
Fourth Lateran Council, Communion, which continued to be given only after confirmation, was to be administered only on reaching the age of reason. Some time after the 13th century, the age of confirmation and Communion began to be delayed further, from seven, to twelve and to fifteen. In the 18th century, in France the sequence of sacraments of initiation was changed. Bishops started to impart confirmation only after the first Eucharistic communion. The reason was no longer the busy calendar of the bishop, but the bishop's will to give adequate instruction to the youth. The practice lasted until Pope
Leo XIII in 1897 asked to restore the primary order and to celebrate confirmation back at the age of reason, a change that lasted less than two decades. In 1910, his successor, Pope
Pius X, showing concern for the easy access to the Eucharist for children, in his Letter lowered the age of first communion to seven. That was the origin of the widespread custom in parishes to organise the First Communion for children at . The 1917 Code of Canon Law, while recommending that confirmation be delayed until about seven years of age, allowed it be given at an earlier age. Only on 30 June 1932 was official permission given to change the traditional order of the three sacraments of Christian initiation: the Sacred Congregation for the Sacraments then allowed, where necessary, that confirmation be administered
first Holy Communion. This novelty, originally seen as exceptional, became more and more the accepted practice. Thus, in the mid-20th century, confirmation began to be seen as an occasion for professing personal commitment to the faith on the part of someone approaching adulthood. However, the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1308) warns: "Although Confirmation is sometimes called the 'sacrament of Christian maturity,' we must not confuse adult faith with the adult age of natural growth, nor forget that the baptismal grace is a grace of free, unmerited election and does not need 'ratification' to become effective." On the
canonical age for confirmation in the Latin Church Catholic Church, the present
1983 Code of Canon Law, which maintains unaltered the rule in the 1917 Code, lays down that the
sacrament is to be conferred on the faithful at about the
age of discretion (generally taken to be about 7), unless the
episcopal conference has decided on a different age, or there is a danger of death or, in the judgement of the
minister, a grave reason suggests otherwise (canon 891 of the Code of Canon Law). The Code prescribes the age of discretion also for the sacraments of Reconciliation and first Holy Communion. In some places the setting of a later age, e.g. mid-teens in the United States, 11 or 12 in Ireland and early teens in Britain, has been abandoned in recent decades in favor of restoring the traditional order of the three sacraments of Christian initiation.
Effects of confirmation The Catholic Church teaches that, like baptism, confirmation
marks the recipient permanently, making it impossible to receive the sacrament twice. It accepts as valid a confirmation conferred within churches, such as the
Eastern Orthodox Church, whose
Holy Orders it sees as valid through the
apostolic succession of their bishops. But it considers it necessary to administer the sacrament of confirmation, in its view for the only time, to Protestants who are admitted to full
communion with the Catholic Church. One of the effects of the sacrament is that "it gives us a special strength of the Holy Spirit to spread and defend the faith by word and action as true witnesses of Christ, to confess the name of Christ boldly, and never to be ashamed of the Cross". The same passage of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church also mentions, as an effect of confirmation, that "it renders our bond with the Church more perfect". This mention stresses the importance of participation in the Christian community. The "soldier of Christ" imagery was used, as far back as 350, by St Cyril of Jerusalem. In this connection, the touch on the cheek that the bishop gave while saying "" () to the person he had just confirmed was interpreted in the Roman Pontifical as a slap, a reminder to be brave in spreading and defending the faith: "" (). When, in application of the
Second Vatican Council's Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, the confirmation rite was revised in 1971, mention of this gesture was omitted. However, the French and Italian translations, indicating that the bishop should accompany the words "Peace be with you" with "a friendly gesture" (French text) or "the sign of peace" (Italian text), explicitly allow a gesture such as the touch on the cheek, to which they restore its original meaning. This is in accord with the Introduction to the rite of confirmation, 17, which indicates that the episcopal conference may decide "to introduce a different manner for the minister to give the sign of peace after the anointing, either to each individual or to all the newly confirmed together".
Tradition In some regions it is customary for the person being confirmed to choose the name of a saint, which they adopt as their confirmation name. The saint whose name is taken is henceforth considered to be a
patron saint.
Eastern Churches The
Eastern Orthodox,
Oriental Orthodox and
Eastern Catholic churches refer to this sacrament (or, more properly,
Sacred Mystery) as chrismation, a term which western rite Catholics also use; for instance, in Italian the term is . Eastern Christians link chrismation closely with the
sacred mystery of baptism, conferring it immediately after baptism, which is normally on
infants. The
sacred tradition of the Orthodox Church teaches that the Apostles themselves established the practice of anointing with
chrism (consecrated oil) in place of the laying on of hands when bestowing the sacrament. As the numbers of
converts grew, it became physically impossible for the apostles to lay hands upon each of the newly baptized. So the Apostles laid hands upon a vessel of oil, bestowing the Holy Spirit upon it, which was then distributed to all of the
presbyters (priests) for their use when they baptized. The same chrism is in use to this day, never being completely depleted but newly
consecrated chrism only being added to it as needed (this consecration traditionally is performed only by the
primates of certain
autocephalous churches on
Great Thursday) and it is believed that chrism in use today contains some small amount of the original chrism made by the apostles. When Catholics and traditional Protestants, such as Lutherans and Anglicans, convert to Orthodoxy, they are often admitted by chrismation, without baptism; but, since this is a matter of
local episcopal discretion, a bishop may require all converts to be admitted by baptism if he deems it necessary. Depending upon the form of the original baptism, some Protestants must be baptized upon conversion to Orthodoxy. A common practice is that those persons who have been previously baptized by triple immersion in the name of the Trinity do not need to be baptized. However, requirements will differ from jurisdiction to jurisdiction and some traditional Orthodox jurisdictions prefer to baptize all converts. When a person is received into the church, whether by baptism or chrismation, they will often take the name of a saint, who will become their
patron saint. Thenceforward, the
feast day of that saint will be celebrated as the convert's
name day, which in traditional Orthodox cultures is celebrated in lieu of one's birthday. The Orthodox rite of chrismation takes place immediately after baptism and clothing the "newly illumined" (i.e., newly baptized) in their
baptismal robe. The priest makes the
sign of the cross with the
chrism (also referred to as
myrrh) on the brow, eyes, nostrils, lips, both ears, breast, hands and feet of the newly illumined, saying with each
anointing: "The seal of the gift of the
Holy Spirit. Amen." Then the priest will place his
epitrachelion (stole) over the newly illumined and leads them and their
sponsors in a procession, circling three times around the
Gospel Book, while the choir chants each time: "As many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Alleluia" (Galatians 3:27). The reason the Eastern Churches perform chrismation immediately after baptism is so that the newly baptized may receive Holy Communion, which is commonly given to infants as well as adults. An individual may be
baptized in extremis (in a life-threatening emergency) by any baptized member of the church; however, only a priest or bishop may perform the mystery of chrismation. If someone who has been baptized
in extremis survives, the priest then performs the chrismation. The Catholic Church does not confirm converts to Catholicism who have been chrismated in a non-Catholic Eastern church, considering that the sacrament has been validly conferred and
may not be repeated. In the
Eastern Orthodox Church the sacrament may be conferred more than once and it is customary to receive returning or repentant apostates by repeating chrismation.
Lutheran Churches ,
Sweden, 2011.
Lutheran confirmation is a public profession of faith prepared for by long and careful
catechetical instruction. In English, it is called "affirmation of baptism", and is a mature and public profession of the faith which "marks the completion of the congregation's program of confirmation ministry". The
German language also uses for Lutheran confirmation a different word () from the word used for the sacramental rite of the Catholic Church (). The Rite of Confirmation of the Lutheran Churches includes: Lutheran Churches treat confirmation as a
rite, not as a dominical sacrament of the Gospel, considering that only
Baptism,
Eucharist and
Confession and Absolution can be regarded as sacraments. Some popular Sundays for this to occur are
Palm Sunday,
Pentecost and
Reformation Sunday (last Sunday in October).
Anglican Communion , suffragan bishop in Europe, administering an Anglican Confirmation at the
Mikael Agricola Church in Helsinki Article 25 of the 16th-century
Thirty-nine Articles lists confirmation among those rites "commonly called Sacraments" which are "not to be counted for Sacraments of the Gospel" (a term referring to the dominical sacraments, i.e. baptism and the
Holy Eucharist), because they were not directly instituted by Christ with a specific matter and form, and they are not generally necessary to salvation. In Anglicanism, confirmation is the culmination of
catechetical instruction provided to the candidate, an emphasis made prominent under the guiding reformer of the
Protestant Reformation in England,
Thomas Cranmer. Under the influence of
Martin Bucer, the 1548 Catechism emphasized confirmation "as an examination of those who have been instructed in the articles and commandments of the faith and are ready to make a profession of the promises made on their behalf at Baptism." The 1662
Book of Common Prayer of the
Church of England employs the phrase "ratify and confirm" with respect to these vows which has led to the common conception of confirmation as the renewal of baptismal vows. As with
Lutheran theology, the Anglican prayer book makes it "clear that Baptism involves full initiation into the church, including the gift of the Holy Spirit" and "Confirmation involves prayer for the 'daily increase' of a gift already given." Similarly, the American
Episcopal Church recognizes that "those who have previously made a mature public commitment in another Church may be received by the laying on of hands by a Bishop of this Church, rather than confirmed." Furthermore, at its General Convention in 2015 a resolution advancing presbyteral confirmation was referred to committee for further review.
Methodist Churches In the
Methodist Church confirmation is defined by the
Articles of Religion as one those "Commonly called Sacraments but not to be counted for Sacraments of the Gospel", also known as the "
five lesser sacraments". The
Methodist Worship Book declares that:
By Water and Spirit, an official United Methodist publication, states that "it should be emphasized that Confirmation is what the Holy Spirit does. Confirmation is a divine action, the work of the Spirit empowering a person 'born through water and the Spirit' to 'live as a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ'." The Methodist theologian
John William Fletcher saw confirmation as a
means of grace. Furthermore, confirmation is the individual's first public affirmation of the grace of God in baptism and the acknowledgment of the
acceptance of that grace by faith. For those baptized as infants, it often occurs when youth enter their 6th through 8th grade years, but it may occur earlier or later. For youth and adults who are joining the Church, "those who are baptized are also confirmed, remembering that our ritual reflects the ancient unity of baptism, confirmation (laying on of hands with prayer), and Eucharist." Candidates to be confirmed, known as confirmands, take a class which covers Christian doctrine, theology, Methodist Church history, stewardship, basic Bible study and other topics. While the Holy Spirit strengthens the believer in confirmation, in Methodist theology, it is through
entire sanctification that a believer is
baptized (filled) with the Holy Spirit, thus being made perfect in love and wholly devoted to God, cleansed of original sin (the carnal nature), and empowered to accomplish all to which they are called. John Fletcher saw the attainment of entire sanctification as being the goal of the vows made at the ordinance of confirmation. The
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) confirmation process is a profession of faith that "seeks to provide youth with a foundational understanding of our faith, tradition and
Presbyterian practices".
Irvingian Churches In the
New Apostolic Church, the largest of the
Irvingian denominations, Confirmation is a rite that "strengthens the confirmands in their endeavour to keep their vow to profess Jesus Christ in word and deed". Following the recitation of the vow, "young Christians receive the confirmation blessing, which is dispensed upon them through laying on of hands".
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints When discussing confirmation,
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) uses the term
ordinance owing to their origins in a Protestant environment, but the actual doctrine describing their ordinances and their effects is sacramental. Church ordinances are understood as administering grace and must be conducted by properly ordained clergy members through
apostolic succession reaching back through Peter to Christ, although the line of authority differs from Catholics and Eastern Orthodox. Baptism by water is understood as representing the death of the old person and their resurrection from that death into a new life in Christ. Through baptism by water, sin and guilt are washed away as the old sinner dies and the new child of Christ emerges. Confirmation is understood as being the baptism by fire wherein the Holy Spirit enters into the individual, purges them of the effects of the sin from their previous life (the guilt and culpability of which were already washed away), and introduces them into the church as a new person in Christ. Through confirmation, the individual receives the
Gift of the Holy Ghost, granting the individual the permanent companionship of the Holy Ghost as long as the person does not wilfully drive him away through sin. The ceremony is significantly simpler than in Catholic or Eastern Orthodox churches and is performed by an ordained clergyman as follows: • Lays his hands upon the individual's head and states the person's full name. • States that the ordinance is performed by the authority of the
Melchizedek Priesthood. • Confirms the person a member of the LDS Church. • Bestows the gift of the Holy Ghost by saying, "Receive the Holy Ghost." • Gives a
priesthood blessing as the Spirit directs. • Closes in the name of Jesus Christ. Other actions typically associated with confirmation in Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy, such as the reception of a Christian name, anointing of body parts with chrism, and the clothing of the confirmant in a
white garment or chiton are conducted separately as part of a ceremony called the
Initiatory. ==Confirmation name==