The Historical Development of the Sacrament of Confirmation in the Church

I. Introduction

The Sacrament of Confirmation is often the “forgotten” sacrament. Everyone knows of its existence yet they do not know what purpose it serves. In this article, I will discuss the history and development of Confirmation throughout the Church's life. I will begin with Sacred Scripture and move on through and up to the present day. The divergences in the practice of administering these Sacraments between the East and West will also be discussed. My purpose is to give a broad history of the Sacrament since an in-depth one would require more space. I also intend to show that while our understanding of Confirmation has developed the mission that it calls us to has not.

II. Confirmation in Sacred Scripture

Although not explicitly called Confirmation, the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost is a foretaste of the Sacrament of Confirmation. After Jesus had Ascended into Heaven, Body and Soul, He sent the Spirit to strengthen the Apostles to continue to preach and spread the Gospel. St. Luke describes the scene:

When the day of Pentecost had arrived, they [the Apostles] were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house they were sitting. And divided tongues of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.1

From here, the Apostles proceed to preach to a number of Jews visiting from across the world, being able to speak to them in their own native tongue. St. Peter then uses this opportunity to act as a witness to and preach the Gospel given by Jesus Christ. Scott Hahn points out that Pentecost was intended for the entire Church – this is realized in the sacrament of Confirmation:

It's clear from the Acts of the Apostles that Pentecost was an event intended for the entire Church, not just an elite, and not just for a day. It would be extended through time ̶ institutionalized ̶ by the sacraments. The gift of the Spirit came with Baptism but was somehow completed by another rite. “Now when the Apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit; for it had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 8:14-17)2

While discussing Pentecost it would be wise to address the common misconception that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are given when one receives Confirmation. This view, however, is false. The gifts of the Holy Spirit3 are given at Baptism and are strengthened at Confirmation; so much so that the Church recognizes those Confirmed as witnesses to the Catholic Faith. In the Acts of the Apostles, St. Peter makes it clear when exactly one receives the Holy Spirit: “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”4 [emphasis mine] The Catechism clarifies this by stating that “Confirmation brings an increase and deepening of baptismal grace...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...”5 Once again, the Catechism summarizes this point: “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.”6 Pentecost then sets the stage for the Fathers of the Church to develop a more in-depth understanding of Confirmation.

III. Confirmation in the Early Church

Following the direct teaching of the Apostles, as noted above in Scripture, the members of the early Church developed a rite for the reception of the sacrament of Confirmation. The rite consisted mainly of the imposition of hands and anointing with oil. Anointing is and was symbolic of a kind of consecration. Prophets, kings, and priests, were often anointed signifying their new ministry or job.7

Confirmation was, however, never celebrated individually. It was always celebrated with the other sacraments of initiation: Baptism and Eucharist. Peter Stravinskas notes that the reception of the sacraments of initiation has developed since the early times of the Church:

In the early Church, the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist were all received together, forming a unified rite of Christian initiation. This sequence is still followed by the Eastern rites of the Church, so even babies are baptized, chrismated (confirmed), and communicated (although a child's “second Communion is often delayed to the age of reason).8

We will revisit the reception of the sacraments of Initiation further below when we treat the differences between the way in which the East and West celebrate the sacraments.

St. Cyril of Jerusalem gives us one of the most in-depth views of Confirmation in the early Church with his many Catechetical lectures. He calls it “Chrism” because of the oil that anoints the catechumens' heads. He points out that the anointing with Chrism is different from that of Baptism and the purpose of the anointing:

And you were first anointed on the forehead, that you might be delivered from the shame, which the first man who transgressed bore about with him everywhere; and that with unveiled face ye might reflect as a mirror the glory of the Lord. [2 Corinthians 3:18] Then on your ears; that you might receive the ears which are quick to hear the Divine Mysteries, of which Esaias said, The Lord gave me also an ear to hear [Isaiah 50:4]; and the Lord Jesus in the Gospel, He that has ears to hear let him hear. [Matthew 11:15] Then on the nostrils; that receiving the sacred ointment ye may say, We are to God a sweet savour of, Christ in them that are saved. [2 Corinthians 2:15] Afterwards on your breast; that having put on the breast-plate of righteousness, you may stand against the wiles of the devil. For as Christ after His Baptism, and the visitation of the Holy Ghost, went forth and vanquished the adversary, so likewise ye, after Holy Baptism and the Mystical Chrism, having put on the whole armour of the Holy Ghost, are to stand against the power of the adversary, and vanquish it, saying, I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. [Philippians 4:13]9

It is key to note that Cyril says that the purpose of this Chrism or Confirmation, is to do battle with the Devil and conquer him. It is putting on the “whole armor of the Holy Ghost.” While Baptism incorporates one into the Mystical Body of Christ, Confirmation is the sacrament of doing battle with the Enemy; it is the sending forth of the Christian to proclaim and be a witness of the Gospel message and in so doing defeat the Ancient Foe.

The image of Confirmation as a seal is also commonly found in the writings of the Church Fathers. St. Ambrose in his treatise On the Mysteries reminds the newly initiated Christian that he has been sealed by the Holy Spirit: “And then remember that you received the seal of the Spirit...”10 The imagery of the seal implies that one is now associated with the Church. As rulers and governors would apply the seal of their ring to wax on a letter so that the receiver would know who it was from, so too the Church seals her members with Confirmation in order to tell the world that they are in the world but not of the world.

IV. Confirmation in the Medieval Church

During the Scholastic period, many questions were raised regarding the sacraments. Many scholars began asking questions like “How many sacraments are there?” “Is Confirmation actually a sacrament?”, etc. By far the greatest Scholastic thinker of the time was St. Thomas Aquinas, OP. In his Summa Theologica, he treats the subject of Confirmation rather extensively. Here we will offer a brief overview of what he taught.

Aquinas states that the Confirmation was not bestowed by Christ but rather promised by Him in John 16:7.11 The sacred Chrism used during Confirmation is most fitting because Christ was sealed with the same oil.12 Confirmation confers an indelible mark on the soul and therefore can only be received once.13 The sacrament can only be given to those who have already received the sacrament of Baptism.14 It is fitting that the confirmand be anointed on the forehead.15 The ordinary minister of the sacrament is the bishop.16 Aquinas also understood Confirmation as the fulfillment of Baptism:

And this sacrament of Confirmation is, as it were, the final completion of the sacrament of Baptism; in the sense that by Baptism man is built up into a spiritual dwelling, and is written like a spiritual letter; whereas by the sacrament of Confirmation, like a house already built, he is consecrated as a temple of the Holy Ghost, and as a letter already written, is signed with the sign of the cross.17

Haynes rightly observes that “When the Council of Florence, [1439] therefore, identified Confirmation as a Sacraments in itself, it was merely recognizing what was already generally taught and believed.”18 During the Protestant rebellion, the Council of Trent also reaffirmed the Church's belief that Confirmation was indeed a sacrament stating that “[I]n Confirmation is contained the true and proper nature of a Sacrament has always been acknowledged by the Catholic Church...”19 Thus, during the medieval period, the Church affirmed that Confirmation was indeed a Sacrament that followed Baptism and completed it. The celebration of the sacrament was also dealt with as Aquinas largely wrote on the way in which it was celebrated.

V. Confirmation in the Modern and Contemporary Church

A more modern understanding of the Sacrament of Confirmation comes from the Venerable Fulton J. Sheen. In his book, These are the Sacraments, he writes that Confirmation is the fulfillment of two instances in the Bible: first the descent of the Holy Spirit at Jesus' Baptism in the Jordan and second, the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. He writes:

[T]he sacrament of Confirmation is particularly a participating in the second anointing of Our Lord, that of the coming of the spirit in the Jordan, which ordained Him to the mission of preaching the apostolate. This reached its culmination on Pentecost, when He filled His Church-His Mystical Body-with His Spirit. Pentecost is to the New Testament what the gift of the law is to the Old Testament, only it is more perfect.20

Sheen understands the descent of the Holy Spirit at His Baptism in the Jordan as a precursor to the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Church at large after His Ascension into Heaven.

The Second Vatican Council also spoke on the purpose and importance of the sacrament of Confirmation. It reiterated that the ordinary minister of the sacrament is a bishop: “They [bishops] direct the conferring of baptism, by which a sharing in the kingly priesthood of Christ is granted. They are the original ministers of confirmation...”21 It also states that “Through their baptism and confirmation all are commissioned to that apostolate by the Lord Himself.”22 Lumen Gentium finally summarizes what the Church's Tradition has previously taught; mainly that those who are baptized “are more perfectly bound to the Church by the sacrament of Confirmation, and the Holy Spirit endows them with special strength so that they are more strictly obliged to spread and defend the faith, both by word and by deed, as true witnesses of Christ.”23 The Catechism of the Catholic Church promulgated by Pope St. John Paul II in 1997, offers a succinct definition of Confirmation as understood today:

Confirmation perfects Baptismal grace; it is the sacrament that gives the Holy Spirit in order to root us more deeply in the divine filiation, incorporate us more firmly into Christ, strengthen our bond with the Church , associate us more closely with her mission, and help us to bear witness to the Christian faith in words accompanied by deeds.24

Once again, Sheen, the Catechism, and the Second Vatican Council point out what the Church has been saying the purpose of Confirmation is: taking on the mission of preaching the Gospel and becoming witnesses of that Gospel.

VI. Differences in East and West

It would seem appropriate here to mention that the order of administration of the Sacraments of Initiation differs between the Eastern Church (Greek) and the Western Church (Latin). There are certain developmental reasons why the East and West differ in their administration of Confirmation. We will first treat the East and then the West.

In the East, the ordinary minister of the sacrament is a priest. The traditional order of the sacraments of Initiation is preserved in the East. The process was to have a child or adult baptized, confirmed, and then given a drop of the Precious Blood. The reasons for this is so that the child can be given a great amount of grace that will eventually help them as their life goes on. Christoph Schönborn summarizes this: “The Eastern Church has preserved the inner unity of the three 'sacraments of initiation' in a very clear way by always administering baptism, confirmation (which is called myron in the East because of the sweet-smelling oil), and Communion together, whether the recipient is a child or an adult (CCC 1292).”25

In the West, the ordinary minister is a bishop. The order and age in which the sacraments are received are different as well. Most children are baptized, receive their First Holy Communion at the age of reason (about 7 years old), and then receive Confirmation later as an adolescent or teenager.26 The idea behind this is that the child is at an age in which he or she is prepared to become a willing witness to the Gospel. This largely came about due to missionary efforts.

Haynes points out that the bishop was the usual overseer of the sacraments until the Church began to grow with Constantine's Edict of Milan legalizing Christianity. Confirmation was celebrated by the bishop and since their dioceses were small, the confirmands only had to wait a little while before he came around for Confirmations. As the Church grew, the time in which the bishop could come grew as well. Haynes writes:

But as the customs of Rome were extended to the whole Western Church which was rapidly spreading all over Europe, the separation between the two parts of the rite increased from weeks to years. While the immediate three-fold initiation continued as the norm in the East, infants, children and adult converts in the West celebrated Baptism and Eucharist apart from Confirmation.27

The Catechism briefly explains the benefits of celebrating the sacrament of Confirmation differently in the Church in the East and the West, mainly that they symbolize different aspects of the faith:

The practice of the Eastern Churches gives greater emphasis to the unity of Christian initiation. That of the Latin Church more clearly expresses the communion of the new Christian with the bishop as guarantor and servant of the unity, catholicity and apostolicity of his Church, and hence the connection with the apostolic origins of Christ's Church.28

VII. Conclusion

As has been seen in this article, the sacrament of Confirmation has a long-standing history in the Church. The Apostles have handed down the sacrament to the present day since Pentecost. As has been seen, Confirmation has undergone developments that have helped us to better understand the sacrament while at the same time not damaging the mission originally given to the Apostles. While there are differences in the way the sacrament is celebrated in the East and West the purpose for which one receives it remains the same. Those who receive Confirmation are called to not only boldly proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ Crucified but also to act as living witnesses of the Gospel message as well.

Bibliography

Aquinas, Thomas. Summa Theologica. Accessed via https://www.newadvent.org/summa/4072.htm

Ambrose, St. On the Mysteries. Accessed via https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3405.htm

Callan, Charles J. and McHugh, John A. Trans. Catechism of the Council of Trent for Parish Priests. South Bend, IN: Marian Publications, 1976.

Catholic Church. Catechism of the Catholic Church. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana; Washington, D.C.: United States Catholic Conference, 2000.

Cyril, St. Catechetical Lectures. Accessed via https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/310121.htm

Hahn, Scott. Signs of Life. New York, NY: Image Books, 2018.

Haynes S.J.C., Scott A. “The Historical Development of the Sacrament of Confirmation” Antiphon: A Journal for Liturgical Renewal, Volume 15, Number 3, 2011, pp. 249-261.

Paul VI, Promulgator. Dogmatic Consitution on the Chruch: Lumen Gentium. November 21, 1964. Accessed via https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-

ii_const_19641121_lumen-gentium_en.html

Schönborn, Christoph. Living the Catechism of the Catholic Church Volume 2: The Sacraments. San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 2000.

Stravinskas, Peter M.J. Understanding the Sacraments. San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 1997.

Sheen, Fulton J. These Are the Sacraments. New York, NY: Image Books, 1964.

Endnotes

1 ESV Acts of the Apostles 2:1-4.

2 Hahn, Signs of Life, 60.

3 The gifts of the Holy Spirit are seven in number: Wisdom, Knowledge, Counsel, Understanding, Fortitude, Piety, and Fear of the Lord. These gifts have their Scriptural foundations in Isaiah 11:2: “And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord.”

4 Acts 2:38.

5 CCC, 1303.

6 CCC, 1302.

7 See 1 Samuel 10:1, 16:12-13.

8Stravinskas, Understanding the Sacraments, 20.

9 Cyril, Catechetical Lecture 21: On Chrism (Accessed via: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/310121.htm)

10 Ambrose, On the Mysteries: Chapter 7 (https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3405.htm)

11 Aquinas, Summa Theologica III, Q.72, Art, 1.

12 Ibid., Art. 2.

13 Ibid., Art. 5.

14 Ibid., Art. 6.

15 Ibid., Art. 9.

16 Ibid., Art. 11.

17 Ibid., Art. 11.

18 Haynes, 254.

19 McHugh and Callan, Trans. Catechism of the Council of Trent for Parish Priests, 199-200.

20 Sheen, These are the Sacraments, 50.

21 Paul VI Promulgator, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church: Lumen Gentium, (November 21, 1964), 26. Hereafter, LG.

22 LG, 33.

23 LG, 11.

24 CCC, 1316.

25 Schönborn, Living the Catechism of the Catholic Church Volume 2: The Sacraments, 70.

26 It should be noted that if an adult goes through the Rite for Christian Initiation of Adults in the West, they are first baptized, confirmed, and then receive Holy Communion at the Easter Vigil Mass when they are received into the Church. Thus, the traditional order is kept in the West during the Easter Vigil.

27 Haynes, S.J.C., Antiphon, 252.

28 CCC, 1292.