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Baptismal Sponsors (Godparents)

Godparents who vow to raise a soul in the faith

Baptismal sponsors, or godparents, are adults who sponsor a candidate at baptism and take responsibility for their Christian upbringing. The custom is ancient, reflected in early church orders. It is kept by Catholic, Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Anglican, and Lutheran Christians. Baptist and Free churches, which baptize believers rather than infants, generally reject the practice along with infant baptism.

How it traveled

  1. Treatise on the Sacraments (qq[60]-90)
    Paris · 1274
    explains

Key passages(13)

Treatise on the Sacraments (qq[60]-90) — Question. 67 - OF THE MINISTERS BY WHOM THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM IS CONFERRED (EIGHT ARTICLES) — part 5↗explains

Treatise on the Sacraments (qq[60]-90) · Thomas Aquinas

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Letters of St. Augustin — Letters of St. Augustin — To Boniface — part 2↗explains

Letters of St. Augustin · Augustine of Hippo

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The Canons of the Council in Trullo; Often Called The Quinisext Council — The Canons of the Council in Trullo. — Canon LIII.↗applies

The Canons of the Council in Trullo; Often Called The Quinisext Council · The Ecumenical Councils

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Treatise on the Sacraments (qq[60]-90) — Question. 67 - OF THE MINISTERS BY WHOM THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM IS CONFERRED (EIGHT ARTICLES) — part 6↗explains

Treatise on the Sacraments (qq[60]-90) · Thomas Aquinas

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Treatise on the Sacraments (qq[60]-90) — Question. 72 - CONFIRMATION (Q[72]) — part 8↗applies

Treatise on the Sacraments (qq[60]-90) · Thomas Aquinas

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A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants — Book I — The Form, or Rite, of Baptism. Exorcism.↗applies

A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants · Augustine of Hippo

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Treatise on the Sacraments (qq[60]-90) — Question. 68 - OF THOSE WHO RECEIVE BAPTISM (TWELVE ARTICLES) — part 7↗applies

Treatise on the Sacraments (qq[60]-90) · Thomas Aquinas

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A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants — Book I — What ‘Lighteth’ Means.↗explains

A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants · Augustine of Hippo

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The Confessions — He finally describes the thirty-second year of his age, the most memorable of his whole life, in which, being instructed by Simplicianus concerning the conversion of others, and the manner of acting, he is, after a severe struggle, renewed in his whole mind, and is converted unto God. — The Pious Old Man Rejoices that He Read Plato and the Scriptures, and Tells Him of the Rhetorician Victorinus Having Been Converted to the Faith Through the Reading of the Sacred Books. — part 3↗explains

The Confessions · Augustine of Hippo

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The Confessions — He speaks of his design of forsaking the profession of rhetoric; of the death of his friends, Nebridius and Verecundus; of having received baptism in the thirty-third year of his age; and of the virtues and death of his mother, Monica. — He is Baptized at Milan with Alypius and His Son Adeodatus. The Book ‘De Magistro.’↗applies

The Confessions · Augustine of Hippo

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The Letters and Sermons of Leo the Great — Letters. — To the Bishops of Sicily. — part 2↗applies

The Letters and Sermons of Leo the Great · Pope Leo the Great

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Book VII. Concerning the Christian Life, and the Eucharist, and the Initiation into Christ, Sec. I.—On the Two Ways,—The Way of Life and the Way of Death↗applies

Book VII. Concerning the Christian Life, and the Eucharist, and the Initiation into Christ · Constitutions of the Holy Apostles

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A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles — Homily XXIV on Acts x. 44, 46. — part 1↗applies

A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles · John Chrysostom

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Moderate