Chapter I. The Matter of Confirmation

CONFIRMATION is a sacrament by which a baptized person receives grace boldly to profess and defend the Faith which he received in Baptism. It is, then, complementary to Baptism; as Baptism makes a man a follower of Christ, Confirmation makes him a soldier of Christ. It is a sacrament of the living, and gives an increase of sanctifying grace to the soul together with the right to receive those actual graces which will be needed to resist temptation and to lead a good Christian life. It is also one of the three sacraments that imprint a character on the soul.

Divines are not agreed as to what constitutes the matter of Confirmation. Some hold that the general imposition of hands by the bishop who confirms at the beginning of the rite is the essential matter; while the subsequent anointing of each person to be confirmed belongs to the matter accidentally. Others maintain that this general imposition of hands and the anointing form the essential matter of the sacrament. The common opinion is that the anointing with chrism, together with the simultaneous imposition of the hand of the Bishop on the forehead of the confirmed person while he makes on it the sign of the cross with the chrism, is the adequate and essential matter of the sacrament.

Chrism, which is thus the remote matter of Confirmation, is made of olive oil and balsam. It is a disputed point whether the mixture of balsam is only of precept or whether it is necessary for the validity of the sacrament. However, balsam of any country will suffice. The chrism thus made must be blessed by a bishop, and this, according to the common opinion, is necessary for the validity of the sacrament.

Three kinds of holy oils are blessed by the bishop on Maundy Thursday—the oil of the sick, with which Extreme Unction is given; the oil of catechumens, with which those about to be baptized are anointed in administering Baptism; and chrism. It is probable that any one of these holy oils will serve for the others, so that Confirmation given with oil of the sick would be probably valid. Still it is not lawful to follow this opinion except in case of necessity.

A fresh supply of holy oils should be procured every year after they have been blessed by the bishop on Maundy 'Thursday, and the old ones burned. However, if the new oils cannot be obtained at the proper time, especially in the missions where Vicars Apostolic without episcopal consecration have faculties to give Confirmation, the old oils may be used as long as the difficulty of obtaining new ones lasts.

The form of Confirmation is, “I sign thee with the sign of the cross, and I confirm thee with the chrism of salvation, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” There is some doubt as to whether the invocation of the Blessed Trinity is an essential part of the form, chiefly because it does not appear along with the other part in the form used in the Eastern Church. The question belongs to dogmatic theology, but briefly we may say that if it is an essential part of the form, the invocation is elsewhere in the Oriental rite.