Confirmation

In the Catholic Church, confirmation or firming means anointing a child with chrism at a certain time, usually as early as its sixth year, marking it with the cross, and giving it a name. This act, as it were the confirmation of baptism, is performed by the bishop or auxiliary bishop in the presence of the godparents, during which he gives the confirmand a light blow on the cheek as a reminder of having to endure disgrace and persecution with Christ. Chrisam is a consecrated oil, which is prepared by the bishop on Holy Thursday and then consecrated, and which is used at baptism, confirmation [“Firmung”], consecration of priests [“Priesterweihe”], and the Last Unction [“letzten Oelung”]. In the Protestants, instead of the [Catholic “Firmung”] Confirmation, a Confirmation is introduced, which is preceded by sufficient instruction in the Catechism, and which is also held in the Lutheran Church, "chiefly for the sake of the Catechism," as it is said in the old Pomeranian Church Order. It happens extremely rarely before the age of fourteen. In earlier times it was done privately, but by the end of the sixteenth century in Hesse and Brandenburg, and at the beginning of the seventeenth, it was in general public use. Among Protestants, confirmands are also blessed by the laying on of hands, but this is not connected with the bestowal of a special grace, since this act is solely an ecclesiastical ordinance.