Letter 113: Severus tells Theodore to take the safe open course rather than leave a doubtful baptism unresolved.
Severus of Antioch→Theodore, bishop of Olba|c. 515 AD|Severus of Antioch|From Antioch, Syria|To Olba, Cilicia|AI-assisted
Theodore of Olba; baptism; conditional formula; canon law; pastoral caution
The solution anticipates later conditional-sacrament reasoning while grounding it in pastoral caution. Source id IX.2; Brooks page 420; source-facing English extracted by body markers from the Archive OCR text; source terminology repaired where required; original Syriac source-text backfill remains pending.
Theodore of Olba has asked what to do about a person whose baptism is uncertain. Severus admits that no written law of Scripture or established ecclesiastical constitution gives a neat answer, and he thinks it dangerous to speak too confidently. Still, the question matters too much to ignore, so he answers by the safest route.
He recalls a report about Cyril, who, when asked about a similar case involving a boy, neither treated the person as certainly baptized nor simply rebaptized him. The formula was conditional: if the person had already been baptized, the church did not baptize again; if not, the baptism now supplied what was lacking. Severus approves this approach because it honors the sacrament without leaving a doubtful soul exposed. The same reasoning applies to Theodore's case, whether the doubtful person is described as a slave, a boy, or a monk: the church should not invent certainty where it has none, but it should not let uncertainty become neglect.
He strengthens the advice by returning to the church's power to bind and loose. Christ gave the apostles the keys of the kingdom, and Theodore should act openly, not timidly or by stealth. The safe course is not cowardice. It is faithfulness in a place where certainty is unavailable. Severus therefore tells him to perform the conditional baptism plainly, trusting that the church's pastoral authority exists for the salvation of souls. The important thing is the open face of faith: a bishop should neither smuggle the rite through fear nor avoid it because opponents might complain.
The questions asked by your love of God no one will be able to decide, from the written laws of divine scripture, or from the spiritual constitutions ^ of those who at one time and another instructed the holy churches. To some extent it seems to be a dangerous thing for us to say anything at all on such matters. But again, on account of the importance of the question and its bearing on salvation, I considered it an im- ^ Starafcis. pious thing to hide in silence what has come to my knowledge without written source, and not make it clear to your sanctity. You say in fact that one of the barbarian slaves bought with money, after com- p- 476. municating in the communion of the divine mysteries as a baptized man, after this said that he did not know at all whether he had been admitted to the laver of regfeneration. Know that I heard some old Alexandrine monks, V whose mind has been trained by long asceticism, tell the following story. In the great city on the day called that of the recipients (thus in accordance with the custom of the country they name what we call "first baptisms"), a great multitude having as usual thronged together, especially of little babies at the breast, and being admitted to the divine grace, it so happened that two women were in doubt about their infants, whether that of the one or that of the other had been baptized; for there had in fact been an interchange, and the two babes had been received, and it was already manifest that one had been admitted to the laver of forgiveness, while the other had not passed through the rite; only it was not known which of them it was. This came to the ears of the holy Cyril the teacher of exact orthodoxy who at that time p. 477. adorned the high-priestly seat; and, taking the two infants, by the inspiration of the wisdom from above, he dipped them in the life-giving water, speaking over them as follows: "He that has not been baptized is baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit"; and so he settled the point that was in doubt. I remember that in the holy monastery of father Romanus of saintly memory also, which is situated in Palestine, that a certain monk, who by race was an Ethiopian, after he had for a long time com- municated in the sacred mysteries, since he was also counted in the order of those who had taken upon them the solitary life, upon seeing certain persons baptized there, thinking that he had seen a strange sio-ht, secretly confessed to one of the brothers that he had not been admitted to the divine laver. And the man who was at that time archimandrite of the said monastery (this was Eupraxius the holy old man), fearing lest perhaps, if he were baptized, some might fasten the stigma of men who re-baptize upon them, informed the prelate of the city of the men of Beth Gabrin of what had then happened: and he concluded and judged that the brother who was unbaptized ought rio-ht, and not outside the scope of the divine laws of the Holy Spirit. For, since our Lord plainly decreed and said to Nicodemus, " Verily verily I say unto thee; unless a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God," ^ it is absolutely necessary to follow the safe course, and to use the holy Cyril's expression and say, " So-and-so ' is baptized if he has not been baptized, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." 1 John iii. 5. For in fact by ineffable graciousness the immanent power of the Holy Spirit baptizes at the word of the baptizer and accompanies it. For the wise Paul also says that we are cleansed " by the laver of water by the word," and so put off every spot and wrinkle of sin.^ This power He who became poor for our sake gave p- 479- to those that perform priestly functions, in order that we "through his poverty might be rich "; ^ and He said also to the holy apostles, and to those who succeeded these afterwards, " Verily I say unto you, all things that ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and all things that ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." This same power He also named " the keys of the kingdom of heaven." '^ There- fore with the knowledge of these things direct your steps to that which it is right to do, and follow the safe course as I said before, not as by stealth and with fear, but "with open face":* because "we are not of fear that leadeth unto perdition, but of faith that gaineth the soul
◆
Theodore of Olba has asked what to do about a person whose baptism is uncertain. Severus admits that no written law of Scripture or established ecclesiastical constitution gives a neat answer, and he thinks it dangerous to speak too confidently. Still, the question matters too much to ignore, so he answers by the safest route.
He recalls a report about Cyril, who, when asked about a similar case involving a boy, neither treated the person as certainly baptized nor simply rebaptized him. The formula was conditional: if the person had already been baptized, the church did not baptize again; if not, the baptism now supplied what was lacking. Severus approves this approach because it honors the sacrament without leaving a doubtful soul exposed. The same reasoning applies to Theodore's case, whether the doubtful person is described as a slave, a boy, or a monk: the church should not invent certainty where it has none, but it should not let uncertainty become neglect.
He strengthens the advice by returning to the church's power to bind and loose. Christ gave the apostles the keys of the kingdom, and Theodore should act openly, not timidly or by stealth. The safe course is not cowardice. It is faithfulness in a place where certainty is unavailable. Severus therefore tells him to perform the conditional baptism plainly, trusting that the church's pastoral authority exists for the salvation of souls. The important thing is the open face of faith: a bishop should neither smuggle the rite through fear nor avoid it because opponents might complain.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
Original text not yet available in this corpus.
This letter still needs a Latin or Greek source-text backfill. The source link, when available, is preserved so the text can be checked and added later.