www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology Was St Thecla's baptism valid?

St Thecla baptized herself? Was this valid? It seems that the apocryphal legend assumes that it is.

What's the Eastern take on this?

Ecclesia Anglicana: Canterbury Tales of an Orthodox Anglican [taylormarshall.blogspot.com]

Marshall,

Christ is Risen!
Indeed, He is Risen!

I would love to read this article but the link makes it very difficult to find. Maybe I am just having a "bad brain" day.

Thanks,

Michael

St. Athanasius the Great baptized children as a child himself, and those baptisms were deemed acceptable. The lives of the Saints give us so many wonderful examples of the dynamics of Christian life that we sometimes reject.

Priest Thomas

Indeed, all of those who sought a life in Christ, but were not formally baptized, were considered functionally baptized; i.e. they died to sin and were born to a life in Christ.

Of Saint Christina, an unbaptized martyr, the Church has often said that she was baptized by her own blood.

And so, in the Eastern tradition, unbaptized catechumens who die (prior to their scheduled baptism), may be buried with the rites accorded to a baptized Christian.

In Christ,
Andrew

Dear Marshall,

The case you raise is interesting because St Thecla threw herself into water and baptized herself BY herself!

There is no doubt but that the early Church considered this form of baptism valid - just as other forms of "self-baptism" were and are valid such as martyrdom.

In any event, she did die a martyr. But Lives of Saints record the fact of her self-immersion and never question it.

Alex