Canon 84 Infants of doubtful baptism to be baptised

Κανόνες τῆς ἐν Τρούλλῳ Ἁγίας καὶ Οἰκουμενικῆς Πενθέκτης Συνόδου

The Council in Trullo · Constantinople, 691 to 692 · convened by the emperor Justinian II · The Quinisext Council (Trullo, 692) on the map

Following the canonical ordinances of the Fathers, we decree also concerning infants: whenever reliable witnesses are not found who say that they were undoubtedly baptised, and they themselves, because of their age, are not able to answer concerning the mystagogy delivered to them, they ought to be baptised without any obstacle, lest such hesitation deprive them of such a cleansing of sanctification.

Τοῖς κανονικοῖς τῶν Πατέρων θεσμοῖς κατακολουθοῦντες, ὁρίζομεν καὶ περὶ τῶν νηπίων· ὁσάκις μὴ εὑρίσκωνται βέβαιοι μάρτυρες, οἱ ταῦτα ἀναμφιβόλως βαπτισθέντα εἶναι λέγοντες, καὶ οὐδὲ αὐτὰ διὰ τὴν ἡλικίαν περὶ τῆς παραδοθείσης αὐτοῖς μυσταγωγίας ἀποκρίνασθαι ἐπιτηδείως ἔχωσι, χωρίς τινος προσκόμματος ὀφείλειν ταῦτα βαπτίζεσθαι· μή ποτε ὁ τοιοῦτος δισταγμὸς ἀποστερήσῃ αὐτὰ τῆς τοιαύτης τοῦ ἁγιασμοῦ καθάρσεως.

The Council in Trullo, the canons

English: this site's translation of the Greek beside it. Greek: the text of the Pedalion, as transcribed at users.uoa.gr/~nektar and corrected here. About these texts.