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In Christian theology, baptism of blood (Latin: baptismus sanguinis [1] [2]) or baptism by blood, also called martyred baptism, [3] is a doctrine which holds that a Christian is able to attain through martyrdom the grace of justification normally attained through baptism by water, without needing to receive baptism by water.
Water is poured on the head of an infant held over the baptismal font of a Roman Catholic church. Infant baptism [1] [2] (or paedobaptism) is the practice of baptizing infants or young children. Infant baptism is also called christening by some faith traditions. Most Christians belong to denominations that practice infant baptism.
The Roman Catholic view is that baptism is necessary for salvation and that it frees the recipient from original sin. Roman Catholic tradition teaches that unbaptized infants, not being freed from original sin, go to Limbo (Latin: limbus infantium), which is an afterlife condition distinct from Hell. This is not, however, official church dogma.
Catholic Baptism using a scallop. In Catholic teaching, baptism is stated to be "necessary for salvation by actual reception or at least by desire". [226] Catholic discipline requires the baptism ceremony to be performed by deacons, priests, or bishops, but in an emergency such as danger of death, anyone can licitly baptize.
The Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches (followed by the Eastern Catholic Churches) permits infant communion: With respect to the participation of infants in the Divine Eucharist after baptism and chrismation with holy myron, the prescriptions of the liturgical books of each Church sui iuris are to be observed with the suitable due precautions
Detail from the Seven Sacraments Altarpiece by Rogier van der Weyden.In the lower left the priest is anointing an infant before it is baptized. The oil of catechumens, also known as the oil of exorcism, is the oil used in some traditional Christian churches during baptism; it is believed to strengthen the one being baptized to turn away from evil, temptation and sin.
One of the earliest of the Church Fathers to enunciate clearly and unambiguously the doctrine of baptismal regeneration ("the idea that salvation happens at and by water baptism duly administered") was Cyprian (c. 200 – 258): "While he attributed all the saving energy to the grace of God, he considered the 'laver of saving water' the instrument of God that makes a person 'born again ...
The Apostolic Constitutions, whose texts date to about the year 400 AD, attribute the precept of using holy water to the Apostle Matthew.It is plausible that the earliest Christians may have used water for expiatory and purificatory purposes in a way analogous to its employment in Jewish Law ("And he shall take holy water in an earthen vessel, and he shall cast a little earth of the pavement ...