Church Fathers On Baptism: First 400 Years

Rather than document each citation I make with names of primary sources, readers are able to search words or phrases of any citation in the above articles, where they are copiously documented and linked: usually to the standard 38-volume collection of the Church fathers edited by Protestant historian Philip Schaff (1819-1893), and available online. Using these renderings supervised by him immediately takes away the possible Protestant objection of Catholic translation bias.

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My present purpose is to offer a crystallized summary of these fathers’ teachings on baptism (much as Anglican patristic scholar J. N. D. Kelly does in his work, Early Christian Doctrines), and so I will cite key portions as briefly as I can without sacrificing essential content. The names of the fathers and patristic works below are linked to the above blog or Facebook posts.

Epistle of Barnabas (bet. 70-132) taught that baptism “leads to the remission of sins” and that we “descend into the water full of sins and defilement, but come up, bearing fruit in our heart.”
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Shepherd of Hermas (bet. c. 90-140) states that “there is no other repentance than that which takes place, when we descended into the water and received remission of our former sins.”
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St. Justin Martyr (100-165) taught that we are “washed” and “regenerated” by baptism, and that it uniquely brings about “the remission of sins formerly committed” and “forgiveness of sins” and “illumination.” Baptism “is alone able to purify those who have repented” and is “the water of life.”

St. Theophilus of Antioch (fl. 185-191) taught that, through baptism, we “receive repentance and remission of sins” and “regeneration” and that as a result of it we’re “born again.”

St. Irenaeus (130-202) held that “baptism … is regeneration to God”; effective “for the remission of sins.”

St. Clement of Alexandria (c. 150-c. 215) thought that baptism is a work of “grace” that brings about “illumination, and perfection, and washing”, by it “we cleanse away our sins,” “transgressions are remitted,” “remission of sins” occurs, we are “purified,” and we behold the “holy light of salvation.” Baptism “wiped off the sins” and makes us “full of light,” with “the Holy Spirit flowing down to us.”

Tertullian (c. 160-c. 225) taught that in baptism, “washing away the sins of our early blindness” occurs, and that “we are set free and admitted into eternal life.” Baptism brings us “the peace of God.” Indeed, “without baptism, salvation is attainable by none” because Jesus said that “Unless one be born of water, he has not life.” Jesus, in so speaking, “tied faith to the necessity of baptism.” “Sins” and “uncleanness” are “washed away” and “we are taken up (as new-born children)” and “the soul” is “cleansed.” Baptism brings about “the regeneration of man,” “the remission of sins,” “deliverance from death,” and “the bestowal of the Holy Ghost.”

Origen (c. 185-c. 254) refers to “saving baptism” and “the Holy Spirit … given by the imposition of the apostles’ hands in baptism.” Historian J. N. D. Kelly sums up his theology of baptism as follows: “It is the unique means of obtaining remission of sins, it frees us from the power of the Devil and makes us members of the Church as Christ’s body. Even little children, … being defiled with sin, must be baptized. His normal teaching is that the Spirit is received in baptism.”

St. Cyprian (210-258) believed that baptism causes us to be “born again” and enters into “a second birth” and is “quickened to a new life in the layer of saving water … changed in heart and soul.” It’s “the water of new birth” where “the stain of former years had been washed away, and a light from above, serene and pure, had been infused.” The “saving water” of baptism brings about a “reconciled heart” and “a new man” and “remission of sins” and “the forgiveness of sins” and “the Holy Spirit” and allows us to be “animated by the Spirit of holiness.” “Past sins” are “done away” in “the saving grace” and “sanctification” of baptism. He thought that baptism “is not to be refused to any one born of man … whether infants or those who are older.” It’s “the water of life eternal” and “water of salvation” and able to “wash away … sins.” From baptism “springs the whole origin of faith and the saving access to the hope of life eternal, and the divine condescension for purifying and quickening the servants of God” and “divine regeneration.” Sins are “put away” and we are “spiritually reformed into a new man … fitted for receiving the Holy Spirit.”
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St. Dionysius of Alexandria (d. c. 264) held that we are “cleansed by baptism from the filth of the old and impure leaven” and that “the Holy Spirit” is “received.”

St. Hilary of Poitiers (c. 315-368) thought that “being buried with His Death in Baptism” we “may return to the life of eternity (since regeneration to life is death to the former life), and dying to our sins be born again to immortality.” It brings about “regeneration” and by it we “put on … Christ” and become “a new man.”

St. Ephraim (c. 306-373) taught that in baptism we are “washed” and “perfected” and “cleansed” and “sanctified” and “clothed with glory” and “pardoned” and that “the water of baptism … alone is able to atone.” Our “offenses are blotted out” and “there is reconciliation made with Heaven.” It’s “the well-spring of life.”

St. Athanasius (c. 297-373) referred to “the Holy Spirit who is given to those who believe and are being born again ‘through the laver of regeneration’ ” and to “the divine grace” received in baptism and to being “regenerated from above of water and Spirit” and “quickened.”

St. Basil the Great (330-379) believed in “the baptism of salvation” and “being saved through baptism” and asked, “in what way are we saved? Plainly because we were regenerate through the grace given in our baptism … the beginning of life.” Baptism causes us to be “born again” and is “a beginning of a second life,” “the destroying of the body of sin,” and “living unto the Spirit” and brings about the “renewing our souls from the deadness of sin unto their original life.” We are “purified” by it.

St. Cyril of Jerusalem (c. 315-387) thought that we were “born again” by faith and “the grace” of baptism and that “spiritual grace” is “given with the water,” which “acquires a new power of holiness.” We undergo a “purification” and “Having gone down dead in sins, thou comest up quickened in righteousness.” Baptism is “a remission of offences; a death of sin; a new-birth of the soul; a garment of light; a holy indissoluble seal; … a welcome into the kingdom; the gift of adoption.” By it we receive “salvation by the power of the Holy Ghost” and indeed, “If any man receive not Baptism, he hath not salvation.” “The grace of God” is “given through Christ at the new birth of Baptism” and afterwards we walk “in newness of life.”

St. Gregory Nazianzen (c. 330-c. 390) refers to “the grace and power of baptism … a purification of the sins of each individual, and a complete cleansing from all the bruises and stains of sin.” By it we “may not only escape the fire, but may also inherit the glory, which is bestowed by cultivation of the Gift” which is “the best and strongest of all aids.” “Having been baptized” we are “saved.” regarding infant baptism, he writes, “Have you an infant child? Do not let sin get any opportunity, but let him be sanctified from his childhood; from his very tenderest age let him be consecrated by the Spirit.” He calls baptism “the blessing of cleansing and perfection,” the “foundation of our new life” and “regeneration from the Holy Spirit,” as well as “the dissolution of darkness,” “the key of the Kingdom of heaven,” and “the remodelling of the whole man.”

St. Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335-c. 394) He thought that “the grace of baptism” would “purge … even that sin which is hard to cleanse away” and secure a “release from bondage, close relation to God” and “equality with the angels.” It’s a “purification from sins, a remission of trespasses, a cause of renovation and regeneration” and is a “new birth from above” in which “our nature is transformed from the corruptible to the incorruptible.” The Holy Spirit “perfects men through baptism” and “it is the same thing for us to be baptized with water and to rise again from death.” “Grace” is in “saving baptism … the sacrament of regeneration.”

St. Ambrose (c. 336-397) held that “the good savour of eternal life” was “breathed upon you by the grace of” baptism, and “guilt is swallowed up.” It’s the “Sacrament of Regeneration” which brings about “remission of all sins” and “the gift of spiritual grace.” He stated that “Our own sins are remitted through baptism” and “the body of sin may die through the water” and that we are “purified” and that “No offenses pollute the baptized.” The “Holy Spirit … coming down upon the Font, or upon those who receive Baptism, … effects the reality of the new birth” and being “born again”; “we being dead in sin are through the Sacrament of Baptism born again to God, and created anew.” We “receive the hope of eternal life” and “sin is forgiven” and “all faults and sins are washed away.”
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St. John Chrysostom (c. 345-407) believed that baptism would “take away all our sins” as “a laver of remission of sins” and of “cleansing” and “regeneration” and cause us to be “born again.” We’re “justified … by the regeneration of the laver” and “washed” and “sanctified.” God “granted us remission” of sins “by the washing of Regeneration, and freely gave us Righteousness and Sanctification” and “participation of the Spirit, adoption, [and] eternal life.” He even goes so far as to assert that “it is impossible to be saved without” baptism. We can rightly describe it as “purification” and “illumination.” It “creates and fashions us anew,” and “entirely remoulds” us. He proclaims that “there is no sin, no impiety, which does not yield and give place to this gift.” It causes us to be “full of the Spirit” and the soul to “become both pure and holy.” He rather strikingly states that baptism is “the resurrection, the sanctification, the righteousness, the redemption, the adoption, the inheritance, the kingdom of heaven, the plenary effusion of the Spirit.”

St. Jerome (c. 343-420) taught that baptism “annuls old sins” and that we are “redeemed by the Saviour’s blood … in the baptistery” and that “in the waters of baptism, sins … fly over our heads and leave us untouched.” We are “free from sin immediately after baptism” and “born again and incorporated into our Lord and Saviour” and that this “sinlessness” and “redemption” is due to “the grace of God.” He believed that “infants also should be baptized for the remission of sins after the likeness of the transgression of Adam” and that this “ensures the salvation of the child. “In baptism all sins are put away” and “the old Adam dies completely in the laver of baptism, and a new man rises then with Christ.” He wrote, “I was regenerated in baptism.” Moreover, “Baptism forgives sins” and “makes a man new and creates a wholly new being” and “All iniquities … are forgiven us at our baptism” and “All sins are drowned in the baptismal laver.”

St. Augustine (354-430) thought that we are “born again by baptism; the generation by which we shall rise again from the dead” and “cleansed, justified by the grace of God” and that “Even an infant, therefore, must be imbued with the sacrament of regeneration, lest without it his would be an unhappy exit out of this life.” Baptism brings about “remission of sins” and “forgiveness of sins” and a “second birth” and the means — along with “conversion of the heart” — whereby a “man’s salvation is made complete.” It “brings salvation.” By it we are “incorporated into the body of Christ” and attain “salvation and eternal life.” He believed that “the salvation of man is effected in baptism, because whatever sin he has derived from his parents is remitted.” It’s “the laver of regeneration” by which we are “absolved from original sin” and “renovated from the corruption of the old man.” He held that “No man is justified unless he believes in Christ and is cleansed by His baptism.” In it “all our guilt, both original and actual, is washed away.”

St. Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376-444) asserted that “By the aid of holy baptism we have washed away the stains of sin, being purified … made partakers of His divine nature, and gain Him to dwell within us by having the communion of the Holy Ghost. And we are made also sons of God, and win for ourselves brotherhood with Him Who by nature and verily is the Son”

The fathers taught these things because they were following the plain teaching of Holy Scripture regarding baptism:

14 Bible Verses That Show We’re Saved Through Baptism [National Catholic Register, 11-30-21]
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In the New Testament, ‘Household’ Baptism Includes Infant Baptism [National Catholic Register, 10-28-22]

The Sacrament of Baptism (chapter seven of my 2009 book, Bible Truths for Catholic Truths: A Source Book for Apologists and Inquirers) [11-3-23]

Baptism Brings About Ten Things, According to Scripture [Catholic365, 11-30-23]
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Millions of Christians Think Baptism Is Unrelated to Justification — Here’s Why They’re Wrong [National Catholic Register, 6-22-24]
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Photo credit: Temple of Hadrian (2nd c. AD) in Ephesus (present-day Turkey); taken by Gohkan Okur.

Summary: I document the views of 22 Church fathers on baptism and baptismal regeneration in the first 400 years of the Church: all of which are perfectly consistent with Catholic theology.