Chapter II · PRAYER AT THE SIGNING OF A CHILD WHEN IT RECEIVETH A NAME ON THE EIGHTH DAY AFTER ITS BIRTH.

Be it known that on the eighth day after birth the babe is brought by the nurse to the temple, and she standeth before the doors of the temple.

And the priest maketh,

Blessed be our God... Trisagion. O most holy Trinity... And after Our Father... For thine is the kingdom...

Then the troparion of the day, or of the holy habitation. And the priest signeth its forehead, mouth, and breast, and saith the prayer.

Let us pray to the Lord.

O Lord our God, to thee we pray, and on thee we call, Let the light of thy countenance be signed on this thy servant (or, on this thine handmaid), name, and be he signed with the cross of thine only-begotten Son in his heart and understanding, that he may flee the vanity of the world and every evil device of the enemy, and may keep thy commandments; and grant, O Lord, that thy holy name may remain upon him unrenounced, when at the fitting time he shall be conjoined with thy holy church, and be perfected with the terrible mysteries of thy Christ, that, living according to thy commandments and preserving the seal unbroken, he may attain unto the blessedness of thine elect in thy kingdom, through the grace and love to man of thine only-begotten Son, with whom thou art blessed, together with thy most holy, and good, and life-creating Spirit, now and ever, and to ages of ages. Amen.

Then, taking the child in his hands, he standeth before the doors of the temple, or before the image of the most holy God-bearing one, and maketh the sign of the cross, saying,

Hail, grace-accorded God-bearing Virgin! for out of thee the sun of righteousness, Christ our God, hath shined, enlightening them that are in darkness. And thou, O righteous elder, be thou glad, receiving in thine arms the deliverer of our souls, even him that granteth resurrection unto us.

And the dismissal is made.

It is necessary to know that, if the newly born babe, being exceedingly weak, do not suck, but appear likely to die, it behoveth not to wait six or eight days, and then to baptize it, as some wickedly say; but at the very hour of its birth to wash it only, and immediately to baptize it, that it die not unilluminated. Since they that are five months pregnant are, by the laws and canons, responsible for murder, if it happen that by any shock they abort the babe, so much the more is it necessary to avoid the condemnation of them that are brought forth, that they die not unilluminated.