Because baptism and chrismation aren’t two separate things. They’re one initiation into Christ.
Baptism washes you and joins you to Christ’s death and resurrection. Chrismation seals you with the Holy Spirit. You can’t really separate them any more than you can separate Christ from the Spirit. The early Church didn’t, and we don’t either.
What Happens in the Service
If you’ve been to an Orthodox baptism, you’ve seen this. The priest baptizes the person by immersing them three times in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then, immediately, still dripping wet, the priest anoints them with chrism on the forehead, eyes, nostrils, mouth, ears, chest, hands, and feet. “The seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit,” he says each time.
That’s chrismation. And it happens right then because the person is now ready to receive the Eucharist. In fact, if the baptism happens during the Divine Liturgy, the newly baptized person communes that same day. Baptism, chrismation, and first communion all happen together. That’s how the Church has always understood Christian initiation.
The Apostolic Pattern
In the book of Acts, you see the apostles laying hands on new believers so they’d receive the Holy Spirit. Sometimes it happened right after baptism. Sometimes the apostles came later to a place where people had already been baptized and laid hands on them then. But the point was always the same: baptism in water and receiving the Spirit belong together.
As the Church grew and bishops couldn’t be everywhere at once, they developed a practical solution. The bishop would consecrate the holy chrism, olive oil mixed with fragrant spices and blessed with prayers invoking the Holy Spirit. Then priests could use that chrism to anoint the newly baptized, maintaining the apostolic connection. The bishop’s role in consecrating the chrism preserves the link to apostolic authority. But the priest can administer it immediately at baptism.
This matters because it means even a baby baptized in a small parish in Silsbee gets the same gift of the Spirit that the apostles gave by laying on hands. The sacrament doesn’t depend on the bishop being physically present. It depends on the Holy Spirit working through the mystery of chrismation.
How the West Went a Different Direction
If you grew up Catholic or mainline Protestant, you probably remember confirmation as something that happened years after baptism. Maybe you were twelve or thirteen. Maybe you took classes and chose a confirmation name and had to answer questions in front of the congregation.
That’s a later development. The Western church began separating confirmation from baptism in the Middle Ages, partly for practical reasons (bishops couldn’t get to every baptism) and partly because they started thinking of confirmation as the moment when you personally affirm the faith your parents chose for you as a baby.
There’s a certain logic to that if you think of baptism primarily as washing away original sin and confirmation as your personal decision to follow Christ. But that’s not how Orthodoxy understands either sacrament. We don’t see baptism as just removing guilt and we don’t see chrismation as your decision. Both are God’s action. Baptism unites you to Christ. Chrismation gives you the Spirit. You’re not waiting until you’re old enough to decide anything. God is making you His own.
This is why we chrismate babies right after we baptize them. The eight-day-old child of Orthodox parents receives the same Holy Spirit as the forty-year-old convert. Both are sealed. Both can receive communion. Both are full members of the Church.
Why It Can’t Wait
Think about what chrismation does. It’s not just a nice ritual that completes baptism. It’s the gift of the Holy Spirit, the seal that marks you as belonging to Christ. Without it, you’re not fully initiated. You can’t commune. You’re not yet a complete member of the Body.
St. Cyprian of Carthage wrote in the third century that the newly baptized must be “sealed” to receive the Holy Spirit. The Apostolic Tradition, which describes Christian worship in the early 200s, shows baptism and anointing happening in the same service. This isn’t some medieval innovation. It’s the ancient practice of the Church.
When we keep baptism and chrismation together, we’re saying something important about who does the work in salvation. You don’t get baptized and then wait until you’re mature enough to receive the Spirit. You don’t earn the second sacrament by proving yourself after the first. God gives both freely. Your job is to live into what you’ve received.
Living as the Chrismated
After chrismation, the newly baptized person is called “newly illumined” for the rest of that week. In some parishes, they wear their white baptismal garment for eight days. It’s a recognition that something real has happened. The Spirit has been given. The person has been sealed.
If you were baptized and chrismated as an adult, you probably remember that week. Everything felt different. You’d been preparing for months, maybe years. Then suddenly you were Orthodox. You could commune. You could venerate the icons and know you were part of the same Body as the saints depicted there.
That’s what chrismation does. It doesn’t just complete a ritual. It brings you fully into the life of the Church. And that’s why it can’t wait.
If you’re preparing for baptism now, or if you’re just curious about what happens in that service, come talk to Fr. Michael after Liturgy some Sunday. Better yet, come to the next baptism at St. Michael. Watch what happens when someone goes down into the water and comes up sealed with the Spirit. You’ll see why we’ve kept these mysteries together for two thousand years.
