Who taught the catechumens?

Since its foundation, the Church has always been preoccupied with evangelism, fulfilling the words of the Lord: “He who does not gather with me scatters” (Matt. 12:30; Luke 11:23). Everyone felt a responsibility towards the testimony of Christ; if not by words, then by good deeds. Origen says, “Every disciple of Christ is a rock, by which the church currently being built by the hands of God, is completed.”¹³²¹ St. Cyril of Jerusalem lays the responsibility of teaching catechumens — whether children or adults — on the parents and sponsors, when

1317 See the Canons of the Council of Nicaea Canon 11 (NPNF II/14:24–25).

1318 Apostolic Rules 8.6.

1319 St. Basil of Caesarea, Letters 269 (FOTC 28:257–259).

1320 St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures Procatechesis 14 (NPNF II/7:4; PG 33:356A).

1321 John Foster, Why the Church? (SCM Press, 1954): p. 22.

he says, “If you have a child according to the flesh, admonish him of this now; if you have begotten one through catechizing, put him also on his guard.”¹³²²

When St. Gregory the Wonderworker entered New Caesarea, there were only seventeen Christians, but when he departed in peace, there were only seventeen pagans. In any case, no priests were excluded from the catechumens’ service that is organized in the church, but each of them had his own role in it. As for the final phase of preaching, it was more often done by the bishop or by a priest who had the talent of teaching.