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How to Baptize a Person in Case of Mortal Danger?


In case of mortal danger, the Orthodox Church allows a simple layman (who is supposed to be an Orthodox Christian) to perform the Sacrament of Baptism if there is no priest around.  

“If it is impossible to find a priest in a place, then unbaptized infants can be baptized by anyone who is here. There is no sin: it does not matter whether the father will baptize them or anyone else, but one must only be a Christian” (Rule 45 of St. Nicephorus the Confessor).

However, several important conditions must be fulfilled when a layman performs the sacrament.

One must correctly pronounce the baptismal prayer above the person taking baptism (The servant of God (Name) is baptized in the Name of the Father. Amen. And of the Son, Amen. And of the Holy Spirit, Amen). The prayer must be accompanied by three times immersion into water (or by sprinkling if immersion is impossible). In this case the Baptism is recognized as valid.

A layman performing the sacrament must believe according to the teaching of the Orthodox Church and confess the Orthodox Creed.

The Baptism must not be performed for any foreign or frankly superstitious causes (so that a person sleeps well, stay healthy and so on).

At the same time, the service Church Statute prescribes that a priest should later compensate for the all those prayers, as well as the Sacrament of Chrismation, which were missed at the moment of the baptism that occurred “because of the fear of death”.  

Source: http://pravlife.org/content/kak-v-sluchae-smertelnoy-opasnosti-okrestit-cheloveka-bez-svyashchennika

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