In many Christian denominations, Confirmation is a rite that often includes a profession of faith by an already baptized person. Confirmation is not practiced in Christian traditions that stress the importance of believer’s adult baptism.

Confirmation as a separate sacramental ritual in Western Christianity did not exist at first. Contrary to what some people still think, the historical Jesus did not “institute the sacrament of Confirmation.”  Its origin in early Christian communities was in the blessing that the baptizing overseeer (bishop) gave right after doing the baptismal water ritual. It was therefore part of Baptism.

The early practice changed, however, when Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire in 380 CE and the number of Christians grew tremendously. Very quickly there were more baptisms than a single bishop in each city could handle. Priests, therefore, began doing the baptizing.

What had originally been a bishop’s blessing administered after doing a baptism then became, in the fourth century, a bishop’s blessing separated in time and space from the water ritual. The episcopal rite was called a blessing or anointing, and in various places it was given names such as “Chrism” or “Consignation.”

In the fifth century, in what is today’s France, the post-baptismal blessing was called “Confirmation” and this name eventually gained wide acceptance. Many people really did not see the necessity for this Confirmation ritual, because Baptism was the key sacrament of initiation into the Christian community. For the most part, therefore, episcopal Confirmation fell into disuse.

In the ninth century, however, reform-minded French bishops made an attempt to revive Confirmation, suggesting that it bestowed “the gifts of the Holy Spirit.” Nevertheless, by the twelfth century, Confirmation was mostly only received by those who wanted to be members of the ordained clergy.

Another change, called “the bishop’s slap,” arrived in the thirteenth century. But the post Vatican II (1962 – 1965) reformed rite of Confirmation enacted in 1971 removed it. It had been added to the ritual in the 13^th century by Durandus of Saint-Pourçain (c. 1275 – 1332). He was a French Dominican, theologian, and bishop. The bishop’s slap happened, after the anointing, when the bishop (usually gently) slapped the confirmand’s cheek while saying, “Peace be with you.” The slap inspired military imagery and fostered an interpretation of confirmation as a maturity rite for new “soldiers of Christ.” Its meaning however was poorly understood and so it was removed in the 1971 reshaping of Confirmation.

In 1563 the Counter-Reformation Council of Trent stressed the importance of the Sacrament of Confirmation because the bishops believed it had been established by the historical Jesus. Their belief was not grounded in any documented history but in their own historic conjecture. They simply presumed Jesus had created it.

Historical understandings can and do change and better historical information brings changed institutional and personal understandings as well. Over the centuries, Confirmation has gone through a number of changes in understanding and ceremonies.

In the Eastern Catholic Church, the sacrament is called Chrismation and it is conferred immediately after baptism for infants along with their First Communion. In Western Christianity, Confirmation is ordinarily administered when a child reaches the age of reason or early adolescence. In Belgium, for example, young people are confirmed at age 12. In Germany Protestants were usually confirmed around age 14, Catholics about age 12.

In the United States the debate about Confirmation has been growing ever since the decision of the Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) in 1972 that Confirmation should ordinarily be celebrated for adolescents in junior high. In the late 1970s and early 1980s a number of dioceses moved Confirmation to high school years, like a Christian Bar or Bat Mitzvah – a coming of age ceremony for boys and girls when they reach the age of 12 or 13. But in the late 1980s some dioceses moved in the opposite direction, celebrating Confirmation just before First Communion in second grade. There are of course variations. In the Diocese of Fargo, North Dakota, the sacraments of Confirmation and First Holy Eucharist are celebrated together at the same Mass. The usual age for the reception of these sacraments is third grade.

Concluding thoughts: Meaningful sacraments are not just rituals that celebrate beliefs, but rituals that truly celebrate lived realities. If Confirmation is truly a rite of passage, it needs to facilitate and celebrate a genuine change in people’s lives. A dynamic and meaningful Confirmation should connect people, whatever their age, with an experienced spiritual reality: an experience of the Sacred in the depth of our human lives. Such an experience gives people what we so desperately need today: faith, hope, and courage to journey forward.

Perhaps we all need to spend more time studying and reflecting on Christian spirituality, as a good friend said recently, “where we see the glimmer of the living Spirit peeking through, calling us forward, and joining us together, healed, whole, and holy.”

I personally would like to see Confirmation as a ritual of adult commitment to the Christian way of life: a faithful commitment to caring for others and to the spiritual transformation that results from living according to the Gospel. But I would say that Confirmation in many places is a sacramental ritual still in evolution.

Jack

P.S.   Readers have asked me for a couple book recommendations about sacraments. Two books by sacramental theologian friend Joseph J. Martos (1943 – 2020) are on the top of my list: Doors to the Sacred: A Historical Introduction to Sacraments in the Catholic Church. Be sure to get the version updated in 2014. The other Martos book I really like is Honest Rituals, Honest Sacraments which he completed in 2017.