In
Christian theology, baptism of blood (
Latin: baptismus sanguinis[1][2]) or baptism by blood, also called martyred baptism,[3] is a doctrine which holds that a
Christian is able to attain through
martyrdom the
grace of
justification normally attained through
baptism by water, without needing to receive baptism by water.
Cyprian of Carthage in a letter of 256 regarding the question of whether a
catechumen seized and killed due to his belief in
Jesus Christ "would lose the hope of
salvation and the reward of
confession, because he had not previously been
born again of water", answers that "they certainly are not deprived of the
sacrament of baptism who are baptized with the most glorious and greatest baptism of blood".[4]
Cyril of Jerusalem states in his Catechetical Lectures delivered in
Lent of 348 that "if any man receive not Baptism, he hath not salvation; except only
Martyrs, who even without the water receive the
kingdom".[5]
In the Catholic Church, baptism of blood "replace[s]
Sacramental Baptism in so far as the communication of
grace is concerned, but do[es] not effect incorporation into the Church, as [it] do[es] not bestow the
sacramental character by which a person becomes attached formally to the Church".[14]
^"Holy Baptism". Malankara Archdiocese of The Syrian Orthodox Church in North America (Under the Holy See of Antioch & All the East). 14 December 2020.
Archived from the original on 24 April 2014. Retrieved 26 December 2021.
^"The Necessity of Holy Baptism". The American Assoc. of Lutheran Churches. 17 January 2017.
Archived from the original on 26 April 2017. Retrieved 26 December 2021.
^
abHill, Kat (2015). Baptism, Brotherhood, and Belief in Reformation Germany: Anabaptism and Lutheranism, 1525-1585. Oxford University Press. p. 134.
ISBN9780198733546.
^Larson-Miller, Lizette; Knowles, Walter (26 June 2013). Drenched in Grace: Essays in Baptismal Ecclesiology Inspired by the Work and Ministry of Louis Weil. Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 55.
ISBN9781621897538.
^Ott, Ludwig (n.d.) [195X]. "Book four — Part 2 – Chapter 5 – §19 - 3.". In Bastible, James (ed.). Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma. Translated by Lynch, Patrick. Fort Collins, Colorado: Roman Catholic Books. p. 311.
ISBN978-1-929291-85-4.