A History of the Catechumenate
The Catechumenate from 350 to 420: Part 1

What were the stages of the catechumenate in the years between 350 and 420? The following survey shows clearly that the catechumenate proper weakened and that a new structuring of Lent was implemented to remedy it.

The vocabulary then employed seems to indicate that the catechumenal structure was still vital. Some homilies show that conversion was conceived as a journey in four stages: first, when we were pagans, we were converted by the proclamation of the Gospel; then we became catechumens; then there was the intensive formation of the elect during Lent; then we were baptized. This is the obvious sense of what Gregory of Elvira writes about Noah's Ark:

The Lord ordered Noah to make an ark with three rooms as a figure of the Church. First the word of the Law penetrates into the catechumen as through the entry of a body. Then the mystery of the sacrament enters into the competens to hide itself in the secret of his soul as in a linen shop. In the third place, in the faithful, the Holy Spirit arrives at the summit via the degrees of virtue as in the upper floors of a house. ²⁸

This is also expressed in the picturesque and very beautiful text of Augustine comparing the new Christian to wheat that is threshed, gathered, ground into flour, kneaded, and finally made into bread:

You have been led to the threshing floor of the Lord, you have been ground by oxen, that is, by those who have announced the Gospel to you. Once catechumens, you were garnered. You have been given names, you have begun to be milled by fasts, by exorcisms. Afterwards, you came to the fountain, you have been baptized, you have become one single body. You have been baked by the fire of the Holy Spirit, and you have become the bread of the Lord. ²⁹

Thus the same stages are spoken of as in the third century and always with the same vocabulary. But what reality was behind this way of speaking?

Was There Still an Entry into the Catechumenate?
We recall how seriously admission to catechesis was taken during the third century, the examination that permitted the postulant to enter the Church after having proved the quality of his approach. In the fourth century, it seems that the rite still existed but that it rarely represented the sanction of a profound and sincere conversion.

It was customary for parents to present their children to the priest so they could become catechumens. The essential rite was the signing, ³⁰ which in Africa was accompanied by the tasting of salt. ³¹ The practice with adults, however, requires closer examination.

There are quite a number of documents that witness to the existence of the rite itself—the sign of the cross with an imposition of hands—but it seems they were only interested in miraculous conversions. ³² The role of the Church and of Christians seems to have been quite insignificant.

Three works from the East indicate that the practice attested to by Hippolytus was still in force: these are the Canons of Hippolytus (Egypt, ca. 360), the Testament of our Lord Jesus Christ (Syria, fourth century), and the Apostolic Constitutions (Syria, fourth-fifth century), which speak of an entrance examination for the catechumenate. But these three documents were directly based on the Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus. They recall an ideal but do not witness to a practice except in the few details in which they differ from their source. ³³

There is only one document that can be considered a witness of value: De catechizandis rudibus of Augustine. He described the rite of entry into the catechumenate in these terms:

After the instruction you should ask him whether he believes these things and desires to observe them. And when he answers that he does, you should of course sign him, with due ceremony, and deal with him in accordance with the custom of the Church. ³⁴

The administration of this rite supposes a preliminary profession of faith: the candidate had to signify his adherence to the presentation of the whole of the Christian message, which he had just heard, and to renounce the service of idols. ³⁵

Thus the principle was secure, but we must recognize that there was not always sufficient evangelization. If some had personally read the Scriptures, ³⁶ many others came without any preparation, and sometimes even with defective motives. ³⁷ How could a pre catechesis that was reduced to a meeting that did not exceed two hours work an effective transformation?

The situation had certainly changed with respect to the preceding century. If, despite the great amount of patristic literature we have from the fourth century, we have so few witnesses to a serious admission examination for the catechumenate, it is because, from this time on, the rite was conferred too readily. It was used as a lure, while it should have sanctioned a conversion! And without a true conversion, it was an empty gesture. It is easy to see why such "catechumens" were so little concerned with forming themselves for baptism.

What Remained of the Catechumenate Itself?
The duration of catechesis varied a great deal. The catechumens with a slight degree of conviction postponed baptism indefinitely. Those who did decide to proceed were baptized rather quickly.

At the beginning of the fourth century in Spain, ³⁸ as we have seen, the bishops still required two years. But around the year 400, it seems there was no specified minimum. Moreover, the catechumenate, properly speaking, no longer existed. The catechumens participated or not in the Liturgy of the Word according to the degree of their conviction. They were not closely supervised by the-authorities in structured groups. The Church seemed to be more preoccupied with "pushing" spiritless candidates to baptism than with moderating, with a long period of testing, the zeal of the rare candidate who was in too much of a hurry. And if a candidate was particularly well disposed, he was accepted for initiation very quickly. ³⁹

Nevertheless, the Church continued to maintain in principle the necessity of a certain amount of time for the catechumenate, as Augustine states:

What, moreover, is all that time for, during which they hold the name and place of catechumens, except to hear what the faith and pattern of Christian life should be, so that first they may prove themselves and then eat of the Bread of the Lord and drink of the Chalice... This training actually goes on during all that time which the Church has beneficially appointed for the candidates for admission to the catechumenate. Their study, too, becomes far more earnest and intensive during the period in which they are called competentes, that is, when they have already given in their names for the reception of baptism. ⁴⁰

Thus the principle. But what was the reality? The catechumens who were unconvinced were not obliged to attend sermons often, if one can judge from the content of the sermons given at the beginning of Lent. And to those who had submitted their names for baptism, it was still necessary to preach conversion, purity of intention, and transformation of morals!

As the terms he used in his Procatechesis indicate, Cyril of Jerusalem addressed himself to candidates who probably never followed a serious catechumenate. Even if they had attended a few instructions, they certainly had yet to grasp the vital exigencies of the Word of God:

For we, Christ's ministers, have received each one of you. If you think of us as, figuratively, his door—keepers, then we have left the door unfastened. There has been nothing to stop you coming here with your soul covered in the mire of sins, with purpose anything but pure... Let us say that your soul is wrapped in avarice. When you come back, let it wear a different dress: I do not mean on top of the old one, but with the old one taken off. Strip off, I beg, fornication and uncleanness and put on that brilliant robe, self-discipline.... You have a long period of grace, forty days for repentance... You were called catechumen, which means one into whom something is dinned from without. You heard of some hope, but you did not know what. You heard mysteries without understanding anything. You heard Scriptures without plumbing their depth. It is not dinned in, any more, but whispered. ⁴¹

Only thirty days before the baptism, John Chrysostom was still obliged to invite the candidates to thorough moral conversion. Would he have done this if the prior catechumenate had been lived seriously?

Young athletes, the stadium is open, there are the spectators on the tiers of the amphitheatre, in front of them is the leader of the games. Then, there is no middle ground, either you fall like a coward and leave covered with shame, or you act bravely and win the crown and the prize. In the same way, these thirty days are the time of struggle, of apprenticeship, of exercise. ⁴²

Indeed, this transformation of life is urgent! The orator feels it and he is eager to see concrete results, for, six days later, he says:

It has only been a few days, my brothers, since I have spoken to you and I come already to claim the fruits of my instructions. Indeed, we speak not only for your ears, but for your spirits, in order that they may retain our words and that you let (us) see it through your I works, or rather not us, but God who knows the depths of your hearts. We also appeal to our catechetical instructions because it is necessary that even in our absence the echo of our words resounds in your souls... You, therefore, who have received our words and have put them into practice, persevere and advance. And you who have not yet began the work, start from now on so that your efforts will keep you from being accused of negligence in the future. ⁴³

Such words cannot be found on the lips of Hippolytus or Origen a few weeks before baptism. In the fourth century, the catechumenate was not what it was a hundred years earlier. The catechumens do not seem to have been convinced. And even when they came to the Church, the preaching does not seem to have penetrated: their faith was no longer capable of transforming their lives. No special institutions supported them or placed demands on them.

It was precisely to remedy this grave lacuna of a lax catechumenate that the Church developed Lent as the time of baptismal formation.

Footnotes, Part 3

The second part of The Catechumenate from 350 to 420, will be posted next Thursday. For information about ordering this book, please see Sadlier's Religion Catalog.