Insufflation Topics

• catechetical lectures
• cyril of jerusalem
• st cyril of jerusalem
• nicene fathers
• oxford dictionary
• high middle ages
• christian sacraments
• evil spirits
• catechumens
• hippolytus
• lord christ
• cross st
• holy spirit
• twelfth century
• charlemagne
• canons
• riedel
• horner
• dialogues

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Insufflation, Insufflation

The Episcopal Dictionary of the Church, s.v. insufflation (accessed 14 Jan 2007) similarly says that "the distinction between insufflation and exsufflation has not always been preserved." And the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church , 3rd ed., p. 839, is content to give both inspirational ("to symbolize the influence of the Holy Spirit") and exorcistic ("the expulsion of evil spirits") meanings under the single heading of "insufflation." Typical is the 8th-century Libellus de mysterio baptismatis of Magnus of Sens, one of a number of responses to a questionnaire about baptism circulated by Charlemagne. In discussing insufflation as a means of exorcising catechumens, he unhesitatingly combines under that heading a variety of mostly exsufflation-like functions: "Those who are to be baptised are insufflated by the priest of God, so that the Prince of Sinners the devil may be put to flight from out of them, and that entry for the Lord Christ might be prepared, and that by his insufflation they might be made worthy to receive the Holy Spirit." Patrologia Latina, 102:982D.

Both exsufflation and insufflation are well established by the time of Augustine and in later centuries are found widely. By the Western high Middle Ages of the twelfth century, sufflation was geographically widespread, and had been applied not only to sufflating catechumens and baptizands, Nearly universally. E.g. (1) in Egypt: Canons of Hippolytus, Canon 19 (or 110), trans. Riedel 211, Achelis 93, Whitaker 88; Horner's translations of the Ethiopic, Arabic, and Sahidic versions may be found on pp. 152, 252, and 316. (2) In western Syria: Cyril, Procatechesis, cap. 9, ed. F. L. Cross, St. Cyril of Jerusalem's Lectures on the Christian Sacraments: The "Procatechesis" and the "Five Mystical Dialogues" (London, 1951), 5-6, trans. 45 = Patrologia Graeca 33:347-50 (translated also by E. H. Gifford, Catechetical Lectures, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd series (N.Y., 1894), 3); and the Testamentum Domini nostri Jesu Christi , ed. and trans. Ignatius Ephraem II Rahmani (Mainz, 1899), 125, 127 (rpt. by Quasten, Monumenta, 5:266-67. (3) In Spain: Isidore, De ecclesiasticis officiis II.xxi.3, ed. C. M. Lawson, CCSL 113 (1989), 96/21 ( Patrologia Latina 83:815A; trans. Whitaker, 117); the Spanish rites in general are discussed by Kelly, 234-36 and 244-52. (4) In northern Italy: see Kelly, 232-34 and 236-38; Whitaker, 143; and Cyrille Lambot, ed., North Italian Services of the Eleventh Century, Henry Bradshaw Society 67 (London, 1931 for 1928), 5, 6, 16. (5) In the Byzantine and other eastern rites: see, e.g., Lodi, 1303 (2925) and Whitaker, 74; the eastern rites are treated extensively by Kelly, 136-200. (6) In Roman North Africa: Augustine is the most important witness; cp. also Quodvultdeus, De Symbolo III.1.3, ed. R. Braun, CCSL 60 (1976), 349 ( Patrologia Latina 40:661).

But this was a suppletory device ready at hand when ever they needed it; and S. Austin confuted the Pelagians, in the Question of Original sinne, by the custome of exorcisme and insufflation, which S. Austin said came from the Apostles by Tradition, which yet was then, and is now so impossible to be prov'd, that he that shall affirm it, shall gaine only the reputation of a bold man and a confident. Jeremy Taylor, Treatises of 1. The liberty of prophesying, 2. Prayer ex tempore, 3. Episcopacie : together with a sermon preached at Oxon...

Liturgical renewal movements always seem to look to the 'classic' catechumenate of the fourth and fifth centuries for inspiration. Insufflation has indeed been re-introduced into the Catholic "new catechumenate." But many ceremonies dating from that or the medieval period have been re-imported even into Protestant rites during the last couple of decades.

For example, a pure insufflation is apparently practiced in the Independent Church of the Philippines, Peter Jagger, Christian Initiation 1552-1969..

Source: Wikipedia > Insufflation