CATECHUMEN, a candidate for baptism, or one who is preparing himself for receiving that rite.
In the primitive church, the catechumens were the lowest order of Christians. They were the children of believing parents, or pagans not fully initiated in the principles of the Christian religion; and were admitted to this state by the imposition of hands and the sign of the cross.
They were of four degrees, viz., those instructed privately without the church, and denied for some time the privilege of entering it; the audientes, or those who were admitted to hear sermons and the Scriptures read in the church, but not allowed to partake of the prayers; the genu-flectentes, so called because they received imposition of hands kneeling; the competentes et electi, the immediate candidates for baptism, or such as were appointed to be baptized at the next approaching festival. These last, after examination, were exercised catechetically during twenty days, and were obliged to fast and confess: some days before baptism they went veiled, and it was customary to touch their ears, saying, Ephatha, be opened, as also to anoint their eyes with clay; these ceremonies being in imitation of our Saviour's practice, and intended to shadow out their condition both before and after their admission into the Christian church.