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Liturgical rite or service
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Doctrine & Theology

Baptism

In Coptic Orthodox teaching, baptism is spiritual rebirth through triple immersion in the name of the Trinity, uniting the recipient with Christ and the Church.[^1]

Also known as: Holy Baptism · Sacrament of Baptism

Published 10/1/2026Updated 2 revisionsPage history

Meaning and origin

In Coptic Orthodox teaching, baptism is the sacrament of spiritual regeneration through triple immersion in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It unites the recipient with Christ and the body of the Church and is regarded as the first and principal sacrament, preceding reception of the other sacraments.1

Christ’s commission to the disciples after his Resurrection, particularly Matthew 28:18–19, is the institution of sacramental baptism. This sacrament is distinct from earlier baptisms expressing repentance, including that administered by John the Baptist.2 Immersion signifies participation in Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection.3

Preparation and administration

Candidates are required to believe in Jesus Christ, repent, confess their faith, and repeat the renunciation of the devil after the priest. Sponsors make these commitments on behalf of children.4 Bishops and priests administer the sacrament; deacons and deaconesses assist but do not administer it.5

Infant baptism takes place after forty days for boys and eighty days for girls, corresponding to the mother’s prescribed purification period. If illness or danger threatens an infant before that period has elapsed, another woman may bring the child to church as sponsor.6

Baptism may be administered throughout the year.5 Coptic baptisms take place particularly on the Eve of Epiphany and on the sixth Sunday of Great Lent, called Christening Sunday.7

Liturgical order

The baptismal office comprises four sections: absolution of the woman, renunciation of the devil, sanctification of the water of the font, and loosening of the girdle of the baptized.8

Absolution and renunciation

The prayers for the mother include thanksgiving, incense, scriptural readings, intercessions, the Creed, and absolutions. The readings differ according to whether the child is male or female.8 The candidate, or a child’s sponsor, makes the required confession of faith and renunciation of the devil.4

Sanctification of the water

The priest pours pure, unmixed oil into the font in the form of a cross, invoking the Trinity. Thanksgiving, incense, biblical readings, and intercessions follow, together with prayers that the candidates may receive baptism for new birth and remission of sins.9

Further prayers accompany the pouring of oil into the font. The priest breathes three times over the water in the form of a cross and signs it three times in the name of the Trinity; later, he adds holy chrism three times in the form of a cross while psalms accompany the preparation.10

Immersion and the following sacraments

The deacon brings the candidate from the west toward the east, beside the font. The priest asks the candidate’s name and immerses the person three times, naming the Father at the first immersion, the Son at the second, and the Holy Spirit at the third.10

Confirmation immediately follows baptism but is understood as a distinct, complementary sacrament with its own rites and prayers.11 The priest addresses the parents and sponsors about their responsibilities, and the newly baptized receive Holy Communion.12

Water and baptismal garments

At the conclusion of the baptismal service, the priest prays for the release of the water and drains it into the well beneath the font or elsewhere, ensuring that it is not used for another purpose.13

The service for loosening the baptismal girdle takes place eight days after baptism. Following prayers and readings, the child is bathed, and the girdle and baptismal robe are washed in the same water, which is then disposed of in the sea, a river, or a field.14

Non-repetition and historical disputes

Validly administered baptism is not repeated, a principle associated with the Creed’s confession of one baptism for the remission of sins.15 Historically, Christians disputed the validity of baptisms administered outside their ecclesial communion: Cyprian of Carthage supported rebaptism in certain cases, whereas Stephen of Rome opposed repeating baptism performed in the name of Christ or the Trinity.16

Baptism by heretics or schismatics is broadly treated as invalid; the Council of Constantinople’s procedure, however, distinguishes groups received by renunciation and anointing from those required to receive baptism.1517

References

Sources

  1. 1.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 2 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 45)
    Baptism is the sacrament by which the recipient is regenerated through triple immersion in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, enters into union with Christ and the body of the church, and receives the gift of the Holy Spirit. Baptism is regarded as the first and principal sacrament, without which none of the other sacraments can be administered.
  2. 2.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 2 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 45)
    This sacrament was instituted by Christ following His Resurrection, when He said to the disciples, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Mt. 28:18-19) ... Before Christ's institution of baptism as a sacrament, other baptismal forms had existed, such as that performed by John the Baptist ... They were merely acts of immersion in water as an expression of repentance on the part of penitent Jews and their belief in the imminent fulfillment of the m
  3. 3.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 4 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 713)
    Baptism symbolizes the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ ... It is, therefore, a form of ritual death, where the believer becomes incorporated with Christ in a death similar to His and is united with Him in a resurrection like His.
  4. 4.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 2 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 49)
    Before a person is baptized, it is essential that he or she have a firm belief in Jesus Christ the Redeemer ... and a genuine feeling of repentance ... make an explicit confession of faith, and repeat after the priest the formula of the renunciation of the devil. In the case of children, their sponsors make these commitments on their behalf.
  5. 5.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 2 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 48)
    The authority to baptize was conferred by Christ to the apostles (Mt. 28:19) who, in turn, gave it to the bishops who succeeded them and to the presbyters. Deacons and deaconesses who assist the bishop or presbyter do not exercise the right of administering the sacrament. Since the apostolic age, baptism has been administered at any time of the year, upon condition that the candidate is deemed worthy to receive it.
  6. 6.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 2 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 49)
    Male infants were due for baptism forty days and females eighty days after birth, when the mother had completed her purification days. In cases of illness or fear that an infant might not survive this prescribed period, he or she could be taken to church by another woman who acted on this occasion as sponsor.
  7. 7.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 2 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 49)
    In the Coptic church many baptisms are usually carried out on the Eve of Epiphany (11 Tubah) in commemoration of Jesus' baptism, and also on the sixth Sunday of the great Lent, known as Christening Sunday.
  8. 8.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 2 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 52)
    The office of holy baptism comprises four sections: (1) absolution of the woman; (2) renunciation of the devil; (3) sanctification of the water of the font; and (4) loosening of the girdle of the baptized. ... Then follows the Lord's Prayer and the prayer of thanksgiving, after which incense is offered. ... Then the Creed is recited ... The Lord's Prayer follows, then the three absolutions and the benediction. When a woman has given birth to a female child, at the end of eighty days the prayers remain the same as in the case of a male child, but the readings from the scriptures differ.
  9. 9.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 2 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 56)
    The priest enters the baptistery, takes the pure (unmixed) oil, and pours it into the font in the form of the cross, saying, "In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, one God." ... Then follows the prayer of thanksgiving, and he offers the incense. ... Acts 8:26-39 follows, and after this the Trisagion, the intercession of the Gospel, the psalm-versicle (32:1-2), and the Gospel (Jn. 3:1-21). Then the seven great prayers are said ... "prepare them to receive the holy baptism of the new birth, unto the remission of their sins and the hope of incorruption".
  10. 10.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 2 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 57)
    He then pours the oil into the baptismal font three times in the form of the cross ... Here he breathes thrice upon the water in the form of the cross ... He seals the water thrice with the cross, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. ... The priest then takes the holy chrism and pours a little of it in the baptismal font three times in the form of the cross ... The people sing Psalm 150. At this point the deacon leads the person to be baptized from the west and brings him to the east against the font, to the left of the priest, who asks him his name, and immerses hi
  11. 11.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 2 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 658)
    Confirmation is a complement to the sacrament of baptism. Despite being complementary to baptism and following immediately after it, confirmation must be regarded as a distinct sacrament, with its own rites and prayers.
  12. 12.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 2 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 59)
    Then follows an address by the priest to the parents and spiritual sponsors of the baptized, emphasizing their commitments toward them. Holy Communion is then administered to those who have been baptized.
  13. 13.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 2 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 59)
    Then he says a prayer for the release of the water. The priest allows the water to be drained away, either into the well beneath the font or elsewhere, making sure that none of it is put to any other use.
  14. 14.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 2 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 59)
    Loosening of the Girdle of the Newly Baptized. This service is performed eight days after baptism. ... After this the child is bathed in the water, and his girdle and baptismal robe are also washed in it, before it is disposed of in the sea, the river, or a field.
  15. 15.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 2 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 47)
    Once baptism is validly administered, it cannot be repeated. Hence the reaffirmation in the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed: "We confess one baptism for the remission of sins." ... In the case of those persons seeking reconciliation with the church after having been baptized by heretics or schismatics, the sacrament is administered to them on the grounds that the earlier baptism was null and void.
  16. 16.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 2 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 47)
    The issue of rebaptism was one of the vexed questions that troubled the church in the third century, giving rise to a prolonged and serious dispute between Saint Cyprian, bishop of Carthage (d. 258), and Pope Stephen of Rome (254-257). The former maintained the urgency of rebaptism in certain cases, the latter held that any baptism in the name of Christ or the three Persons of the Trinity should not be repeated.
  17. 17.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 1 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 355)
    In 381 the Council of Constantinople ... affirmed the following procedure ... "Arians and Macedonians, and Sabbatians, and Novatians ... and Apollinarians, we receive, upon their giving a written renunciation [of their errors] ... Thereupon, they are first sealed or anointed with the holy oil ... But Eunomians, who are baptized with only one immersion, and Montanists ... and Sabellians ... we receive as heathen. ... we instruct them and oblige them to spend some time in the Church, and to hear the Scriptures; and then we baptize them."

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