Some people are confused, probably by the Dimonds, on the Baptism of Blood. Baptism of Blood is not a Sacrament with form and matter, as some have misunderstood from flowery or metaphorical texts in perhaps one Father (St. Cyprian?). Baptism of Blood produces the plenary sacramental effect of Baptism without being itself an external Sacrament in form and matter, and without imprinting the Baptismal Character. Below, I post some of the texts of the Church Fathers on BOB, and welcome further ones, for study:
As can be seen, the Church Fathers taught Our Lord revealed Baptism of Blood in at least Three Places.
(1) First, where He expressly promised salvation to those who lay down their life for Him or for His Teaching (as also the Baltimore Catechism says the Church Teaches BOB because of this passage),
"He that findeth his life, shall lose it: and he that shall lose his life for me, shall find it." (Mat 10:39).
(2) Second, where He said He had another Baptism to be baptized with, referring to His bitter Passion and Cruel Martyrdom, which itself also proves Martyrdom is a kind of Baptism. Indeed, in holy Baptism, we are buried and die with Christ, and it has its efficacy from His death. So Martyrdom is Baptism of Blood.
"And Jesus said to them: You know not what you ask. Can you drink of the chalice that I drink of: or be baptized with the baptism wherewith I am baptized?" (Mark 10:38).
(3) Third, in pouring out Blood and Water from His Sacred Heart, the Lord Jesus Christ (as He also explained to St. Catherine) showed the Baptism of Blood (and also the triune or threefold Baptism, which St. John refers to as Baptism of the Spirit in his epistle), which always inseparably with it obtains the full effect of Baptism of Water in remitting sins.
Jn 19:34:
"But one of the soldiers with a spear opened his side, and immediately there came out blood and water."1 Jn 5:
5Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? 6This is he that came by water and blood, Jesus Christ: not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit which testifieth, that Christ is the truth. 7And there are three who give testimony in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. And these three are one. 8And there are three that give testimony on earth: the spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three are one.While Martyrdom is the Greatest Act of Love,
"Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends." (Jn 15:13), the most a man can do for God, Baptism is any Act of Love of God or Contrition.
So the Doctrine of the Baptism of Desire, which is a legitimate doctrinal development from Baptism of Blood, is already implicitly revealed in it. But that's a subject for another thread. This thread is about BOB in the Fathers.
Now, for the texts. From: http://www.baptismofdesire.com/ I post three to begin with, from Saints Basil, Cyril and Hippolytus.· St. Hippolytus of Rome (3rd century): Canons of Hypolytus, Can. XIX: Concerning Catechumens: "Catechumens, who by the unbelievers are arrested and killed by martyrdom, before they received baptism, are to be buried with the other martyrs, for they are baptized in their own blood."
·
St. Basil, Church Father and Doctor of the Church (4th Century): Treatise De Spiritu Sancto, Chapter XV: "And ere now there have been some who in their championship of true religion
have undergone the death for Christ's sake, not in mere similitude, but in actual fact, and so have needed none of the outward signs of water for their salvation, because they were baptized in their own blood. Thus I write not to disparage the baptism by water, but to overthrow the arguments of those who exalt themselves against the Spirit; who confound things that are distinct from one another, and compare those which admit of no comparison."
· St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Doctor of the Church (4th Century): First Catechetical Lecture Of Our Holy Father Cyril, Archbishop of Jerusalem, To Those Who Are to Be Enlightened, Delivered Extempore at Jerusalem, As an Introductory Lecture To Those Who Had Come Forward for Baptism, Lecture III on Baptism: "If any man receive not Baptism, he hath not salvation; except only Martyrs, who even without the water receive the kingdom. For when the Saviour, in redeeming the world by His Cross, was pierced in the side, He shed forth blood and water; that men, living in times of peace, might be baptized in water, and, in times of persecution, in their own blood. For martyrdom also the Saviour is wont to call a baptism, saying, Can ye drink rite cup which I drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?
These three passages clearly explain Baptism of Blood, and show that it is not about Water being miraculously supplied or Blood being the form.
They show, on the basis of the three passages in Sacred Scripture mentioned earlier, that the Baptism of Blood can save even without Baptism of Water.
Next, when some of the Fathers say Martyrs alone are to be considered as certainly having obtained salvation, especially in the external forum, this was because, as St. Robert would later explain, the doctrine of Baptism of Desire was not considered absolutely certain yet. And also because, the internal disposition of perfect contrition required had not yet been perfectly formulated and theologically explained in those times, as it was in later times by the Church, by Her Doctors, Catechisms, Theologians etc.
Topic: What the Church Fathers really say on the Baptism of Blood. (Read 1568 times)