As discussed in a previous article, the early Church Fathers laid a strong foundation for the belief in baptismal regeneration. Continuing this exploration, additional Church Fathers further illuminate the transformative power of this sacrament in the life of believers.

Rather than document each citation I make with names of primary sources, readers can find each patristic source via a link from their names to articles on my blog. I cite key portions as briefly as I can without sacrificing essential content.

St. Basil the Great (330-379) believed in “the baptism of salvation” and “being saved through baptism” and asked, “In what way are we saved? Plainly because we were regenerated through the grace given in our baptism … the beginning of life.” Baptism causes us to be “born again” and is “a beginning of a second life,” “the destroying of the body of sin,” and “living unto the Spirit” and brings about the “renewing our souls from the deadness of sin unto their original life.” We are “purified” by it.

St. Cyril of Jerusalem (c. 315-387) thought that we were “born again” by faith and “the grace” of baptism. We undergo a “purification” and “Having gone down dead in sins, thou comest up quickened in righteousness.” Baptism is “a remission of offenses; a death of sin; a new birth of the soul; a garment of light; a holy indissoluble seal; … a welcome into the kingdom; the gift of adoption.” By it we receive “salvation by the power of the Holy Ghost.” “The grace of God” is “given through Christ at the new birth of Baptism” and afterward we walk “in newness of life.”

St. Gregory Nazianzen (c. 330-c. 390) refers to “the grace and power of baptism … a purification of the sins of each individual, and a complete cleansing from all the bruises and stains of sin.” It’s “the best and strongest of all aids.” “Having been baptized” we are “saved.” Regarding infant baptism, he writes, “Have you an infant child? Do not let sin get any opportunity, but let him be sanctified from his childhood.” He calls baptism “the blessing of cleansing and perfection,” the “foundation of our new life” and “regeneration from the Holy Spirit,” as well as “the key of the Kingdom of heaven,” and “the remodeling of the whole man.”

St. Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335-c. 394) thought that “the grace of baptism” would “purge … even that sin which is hard to cleanse away” and secure a “release from bondage, a close relation to God” and “equality with the angels.” It’s a “purification from sins, a remission of trespasses, a cause of renovation and regeneration” and is a “new birth from above” in which “our nature is transformed from the corruptible to the incorruptible.” The Holy Spirit “perfects men through baptism. “Grace” is in “saving baptism … the sacrament of regeneration.”

St. Ambrose (c. 336-397) held that “the good savor of eternal life” was “breathed upon you by the grace of” baptism, and “guilt is swallowed up.” It’s the “Sacrament of Regeneration” which brings about “remission of all sins” and “the gift of spiritual grace.” He stated that we are “purified” and that “No offenses pollute the baptized.” The “Holy Spirit … coming down upon the Font, or upon those who receive Baptism … effects the reality of the new birth” and being “born again”; “we being dead in sin are through the Sacrament of Baptism born again to God, and created anew.” We “receive the hope of eternal life” and “sin is forgiven” and “all faults and sins are washed away.”

St. John Chrysostom (c. 345-407) believed that baptism would “take away all our sins” as “a laver of remission of sins” and of “cleansing” and “regeneration” and cause us to be “born again.” We’re “justified” and “washed” and “sanctified” by baptism. Through baptism God “freely gave us Righteousness” and “participation of the Spirit, adoption” and “eternal life.” He thought that “it is impossible to be saved without” baptism. It’s “purification” and “illumination.” It “creates and fashions us anew.” It causes us to be “full of the Spirit” and “both pure and holy.” It’s “the resurrection, the sanctification, the righteousness, the redemption, the adoption, the inheritance, the kingdom of heaven, the plenary effusion of the Spirit.”

St. Jerome (c. 343-420) taught that baptism “annuls old sins” and that we are “redeemed by the Savior’s blood … in the baptistery.” We are “free from sin immediately after baptism” and “born again and incorporated into our Lord and Savior” and this “redemption” is due to “the grace of God.” He believed that “infants also should be baptized for the remission of sins after the likeness of the transgression of Adam” and that this “ensures the salvation of the child. “In baptism all sins are put away” and “a new man rises then with Christ.” He wrote, “I was regenerated in baptism.” Moreover, baptism “makes a man new and creates a wholly new being” and “All iniquities … are forgiven us.”

St. Augustine (354-430) thought that we are “born again by baptism” and “cleansed, justified by the grace of God” and that “Even an infant, therefore, must be imbued with the sacrament of regeneration.” Baptism brings about “remission of sins” and “forgiveness of sins” and a “second birth” and the means whereby a “man’s salvation is made complete.” By it we are “incorporated into the body of Christ” and attain “eternal life.” He believed that in baptism, “whatever sin he has derived from his parents is remitted.” We are “absolved from original sin” and “renovated from the corruption of the old man.” He held that “No man is justified unless he believes in Christ and is cleansed by His baptism.” In it “all our guilt, both original and actual, is washed away.”

St. Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376-444) asserted that “By the aid of holy baptism we have washed away the stains of sin, being purified … made partakers of His divine nature, and gain Him to dwell within us by having the communion of the Holy Ghost. And we are made also sons of God, and win for ourselves brotherhood with Him Who by nature and verily is the Son.”