On the Baptism and Communing of Infants: The Letter of John of Antioch to Theodore of Ephesus (998/999)
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Jackson Shepard
Duke University
The text translated below is a short letter, preserved in a single manuscript, concerning the Church’s tradition of offering the sacraments of baptism and the eucharist to infants. Published with a French translation and helpful introduction by Vassa Kontouma, it is offered here to readers due to its historical and theological interest.[1]
The letter, written by John III Polites, Patriarch of Antioch, is addressed to the bishop of Ephesus, Theodore, and dates from 998/999. Apparently, the latter had asked Polites about the theological basis for offering the sacraments to children. Vassa Kontouma argues that the letter was written by Polites while Patriarch of Antioch but still residing in Constantinople. Since the Patriarch of Constantinople (Sisinios II) had died, John Polites handled this episcopal correspondence in his capacity as former chartophylax.[2]
John offers an uncompromising response, showing no sympathy for the questioning of infants’ sacramental participation. Having established the inviolability of Church tradition, John provides a barrage of scriptural citations that collectively bolster support for the practice, ranging from Christ’s own childhood to his interactions with children in the Gospel. Readers will be especially interested in John’s optimism about the moral lives of children. Unlike many adults, he claims, children can keep their baptism undefiled. Moreover, John Polites’ understanding of unwritten tradition is noteworthy. He seems to regard something as an unwritten tradition if it is an ancient practice that the Fathers did not condemn. That a practice was not prohibited is a sign of its tacit acceptance by the Church. As in St Basil and St John Damascene earlier, this label is restricted to liturgical tradition.[3]
Most of the scriptural references provided below have been lifted from Kontouma’s edition. As for Kontouma’s references to other ecclesiastical literature, I have provided only those which are cited (sometimes incorrectly) in the original text.
On the Baptism and Communing of Infants: The Letter of John of Antioch
Translation by Jackson Shepard, PhD student at Duke University
Question
A letter sent by John, bishop of Antioch, to the most holy bishop Theodore of Ephesus, who asked him if those who do not know what baptism is due to the immaturity of age and who, since they are unable to speak, answer by means of their sponsor, “I renounce Satan and unite myself to Christ” and the following—if it is pleasing to God that such ones who are immature in age be thus baptized and share in divine communion. For some of our people are scandalized at these things since the Lord was not thus baptized and did not ordain this.
Response
Neither you nor those around you ought to lend an ear to this question which has recently sprung up, since it is illegitimate and foreign to the Orthodox faith and has not been stirred up by the great and catholic and apostolic Church, which canonizes the Orthodox faith for all. For regarding a matter which neither the divine councils, both ecumenical and local, nor the other divine Fathers prohibit, how do certain false christs and false teachers now force it open and hasten to unsettle the boundaries of the Fathers and not listen to the one who says, Everyone who unsettles the boundaries of the Fathers is accursed (cf. Prov 22:28), and likewise also the divine Apostle Paul who says, If anyone preaches a Gospel to you other than the Gospel which we have received, even if it is an angel from heaven, let him be anathema (Gal 1:8)? For indeed, the catholic and apostolic Church of God received many things not only in writing but also without writing, as the divine Paul himself says, So brothers, hold to the traditions which we have handed down to you, whether written or unwritten (cf. 2 Thes 2:15).[4]
For prohibiting infants who bear the divine seal of the Holy Spirit from the reception of the divine and holy mysteries is among the most absurd and forbidden things. It is nowhere found to be prohibited, but rather there is a long tradition which urges that infants become participants in divine baptism and communion due to the uncertainty of life, as the God-bearing and most theological men who were revealers of heaven, Basil the Great and Gregory, moved by the Spirit, wrote and handed down.[5] For to say that [infants] do not perceive what is being received is completely foolish. For they also do not perceive the gift of divine baptism since they are immature in age, but they are not for this reason without a share of divine grace.
But if he should say, “The sponsors reply concerning these things at the time of the baptism,” what is significant about this? For it is not the sponsors but the coming of the Spirit that illumines and sanctifies the infants, as the divine Chrysostom says.[6] For even our Lord Jesus Christ was circumcised at eight days old and was brought into the temple according to the law at forty days old, and he was immature in the flesh according to his humanity, but he advanced little by little in stature and grace (cf. Luke 2:52), lest he seem to be a phantasm. And in the maturity of his age and at the beginning of his preaching of the Gospel, he loved the infants more, since they were free from every evil. For taking Ignatius the God-bearer into his arms while he was still an infant, he said to the disciples, Unless you turn and become like this child, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven (cf. Matt 18:3).[7] And elsewhere: Let the children come to me, for to them belongs the kingdom of heaven (cf. Luke 18:16). And the blessed David, seeing from afar with prophetic vision, said, Out of the mouth of infants and sucklings you have prepared praise (Ps 8:2). For the one with whom the fathers were indignant, to him the children who knew no evil brought praise. And the infants who were killed at the birth of Christ on account of his holy name were shown to be protomartyrs, even if they did not know for whom they shed their blood. And moreover, as the saying of the Lord goes, He has hidden all these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to infants (cf. Matt 11:25).
Therefore, it seems to me audacious that you separate infants from Christ, whom he himself receives into his arms and wants to come to him, and that you prohibit them from becoming participants in the divine eucharist and communion, as he himself says, The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him (John 6:56). For indeed, some who are mature in age, although they seem to participate with perception, end up being less initiated than the infants and participate in these things unto judgment, as the divine apostle says (cf. 1 Cor 11:29). And what else is necessary for me to say, since I have also other proofs by the grace of Christ? Nevertheless, give an opportunity to a wise man, and he will be wiser (Prov 9:9). That the infants participate in divine communion is a long tradition, since they are pure and do not participate in the defilements of the world, inasmuch as they carry their holy baptism undefiled.
Do not seek anything more, nor busy yourself with this—whoever the instigator may be—and do not desire to remove nor add to the tradition of the Church. For indeed, whoever hastens to shake up the long tradition of the Church, whether written or unwritten, will not be able to benefit even from the blood of martyrdom, as Chrysostom makes very clear in his commentary on the Acts of the Apostles.[8]
May the God of peace give peace to us all and support us in oneness of mind for his divine will, for to him belongs glory unto the ages of ages.
[1] For the Greek text along with an introduction and translation in French, see Vassa Kontouma-Conticello, “Baptême et communion des jeunes enfants: la Lettre de Jean d’Antioche à Théodore d’Éphèse (998/999),” Revue des études byzantines 69 (2011): 185-204.
[2] Kontouma-Conticello, “Baptême et communion,” 189-90.
[3] See Basil, On the Holy Spirit 27.66 (SC 17:478-80) and John of Damascus, On the Orthodox Faith 89 (Kotter: 2:208).
[4] Cf. John of Damascus, On the Orthodox Faith 89 (Kotter, 2:208).
[5] Cf. Basil of Caesarea, Exhortation to Baptism (PG 31:441c); Gregory of Nazianzus, Oration 40.17 (SC 358:232-234).
[6] Cf. John Chrysostom, Baptismal Catechesis 2 (SC 50:147).
[7] The identification of St Ignatius of Antioch with the child whom Christ embraced can be dated to the ninth century. See Kontouma-Conticello, “Baptême et communion,” 191 n. 43.
[8] Cf. John Chrysostom, Commentary on Ephesians (PG 62:85).