enotes a person appointed by the church to instruct those intended for baptism, by word of mouth, in the fundamental articles of the Christian faith.—The catechists of churches were ministers usually distinct from the bishops and presbyters, and had their auditories or catechumena apart. Their business was to instruct the catechumens, and prepare them for the reception of baptism. But the catechists did not constitute any distinct order of the clergy, but were chosen out of any other order. The bishop himself sometimes performed the office; at other times presbyters, or even readers or deacons, were the catechists. Origen seems to have had no higher degree in the church than reader, when he was made catechist at Alexandria, being only 18 years of age, and consequently incapable of the deaconship.