Confirmed In Utero? + "St. Moses?"

A reader writes:

I enjoy listening to you on Catholic Answers radio and wanted to ask you a question or two. I am in RCIA because I was never confirmed in the Catholic faith. By this Easter, I will be about 8 months pregnant. Will receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation have any effect on my unborn baby? Now granted, John the Baptist might be the only exception, but I’ve wondered if my child could possibly receive some of the Holy Spirit as well?

Congratulations on your confirmation!

Regarding your baby, though, the Church would not teach that your confirmation would have any effect on him (or her). The sacraments are administered to particular persons, and your baby is a different person than you are, even though he’s snuggling (and punching and kicking) inside you right now.

Since your baby is (presumably) unbaptized (baptism in the womb being very rare, though possible), he wouldn’t be able to receive the sacrament of confirmation anyway, as baptism is the gateway to the other sacraments.

That being said, God might choose to bless your baby on the occasion of your confirmation, and you could always ask him to do so. Your baby will still need to be baptized and confirmed later on, though.

Also, why don’t we have any saints from the Old Testament (like St. Moses)?

The custom of putting "saint" in front of folks names started a long time ago when Christians would refer to the holiness of various individuals. Thus they would refer to "holy Mary," "holy John," or "holy Ignatius." So happens that the Latin word for "holy" is "sanctus," which also means "saint" (it can be either a noun or an adjective), so when these got translated into English, they would become "St. Mary," "St. John," and "St. Ignatius."

For some reason, this custom never really caught on when talking about Old Testament figures, presumably because the Christians who originated and fostered the custom were more focused on figures from the New Testament and more recen times than on the Old Testament. The Church does acknowledge certain Old Testament figures as being in heaven (e.g., Abraham, Moses, and Elijah), but the custom of calling them "St. Abraham," "St. Moses," and "St. Elijah" never really caught on. Just a quirk of the language.

Languages are funny that way.

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

6 thoughts on “Confirmed In Utero? + "St. Moses?"”

  1. Jimmy,

    I believe that some Eastern Churches have devotions to OT saints, and celebrate feast days for them. I am not certain on this point however.

    Josh

  2. Eastern Christians are probably more likely to refer to “St. Abraham” or “St. David,” etc., than Western Christians. This quirk of the language is probably a residue of the medieval Latin Rite rule (mentioned by Jacobus de Voragine in his 13th. century “Golden Legend” under the discussion of the Feast of the Holy Maccabees, August 1) that most Old Testament saints were not to be commemorated in the calendar on account of their having spent time in Sheol, Limbus Patrum. The exceptions in medieval times were the Holy Innocents and the Holy Maccabees. That rule has fallen by the wayside, I’m happy to say.

  3. Jimmy:

    1) In the Latin Church, most of the Old Testament saints have feast days which are listed in the Roman Martyrology.

    2) In the Eastern Churches, the Old Testament Saints are comemmorated not only in the Martyrologies, but also liturgically on their feast days.Moses the Prophet

  4. The Latin Church used to celebrate the feast days of some of the OT just — my handmissal includes a feast for the Holy Maccabees.

    Don’t the Carmelites venerate the prophet Elias and keep his feast day?

  5. DCS:

    The Latin Church to this day celebrates the feast days of the Old Testament saints; just not normally liturgically.

    The one exception used to be the Maccabean Martyrs, which today is only liturgically celebrated in certain regions.

    What you note of Saint Elijah and the Carmelites is also true.

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