Nothing certain is known about the author of this small treatise, which often goes by the name On the Effects of Baptism, though the original name is Labored Work Useful for Every Christian. Besides this treatise, Hieronymos has another work, also set up as a dialogue, Dialogue on the Holy Trinity, Jewish Questioning to a Christian. That work is quoted by St. John of Damascus (676-749), who refers to the author as a priest of Jerusalem. The name comes up a few other times, such as among some scholia to the Commentary on the Psalms by Theodoret of Cyrus (393-458), and some scholars link these works to St. Jerome (whose name in Latin is Hieronymus). It is estimated that the Greek Hieronymos, as he is also called, lived around the year 400, but it is hard to say much beyond the fact that he is prior to St. John of Damascus. The treatise below is translated in full from the Greek.
Question. Why are you a Christian?
Answer. Since I believe in Christ, the Son of God.
Response. Unlearnedly and unthinkingly have you answered; for I do not ask, why you are named a Christian; but what the thing is by which you became one.[1] For if I had asked, “Why you are named a Christian?”, you would have answered nobly, “Since I believe in Christ”; but I seek the cause by which you have become Christian. And the question seems little and bare, but few of those asked it answer usefully. And, therefore, if the one asked says, that, “God willed that I be a Christian,” he would not have answered rightly. Even if he says, that, “I willed to be a Christian,” he does not speak nobly. But, “Since God willed it, and I willed to will the will of God.”
Question. Did you become a Christian willingly, or unwillingly?
Answer. If I said, “willingly,” I would lie; if I said, “unwillingly,” I would not speak true. For, being an infant then, I did not speak against or consent.
Question. I desire to learn, then, whence you know that you were baptized at all; for perhaps you were found on the road by your parents, who were secretly Greeks, and did not baptize you at all. For many such things occurred, and occur still until today.
Answer. From the energy;[2] as Isaiah says, Through Your fear, Lord, we received in the womb,[3] and labored, and gave birth to the Spirit of salvation (Is 26:18); that is, that we, being enlightened by Baptism, received the Holy Spirit. For God again speaks, through the prophet, about the baptized, that, I will dwell and walk about in them (Lev 26:12; 2 Cor 6:16); and that, I will pour out from My Spirit upon all flesh (Joel 2:28; Acts 2:16). Therefore, however many received the divine Spirit in the womb in Holy Baptism, within the interior of their heart, are made fully certain, from the leapings and prickings and rejoicings and energizings, I mean to say, the beatings of His grace, in their heart, that they are baptized. For no unbaptized man on earth thrives with such grace or energy, or perceives them at all, even if he fulfills all the commands and righteousness acts of God, if they do not receive in the womb through water and the Spirit, and guard Him pure and stainless. For, as a woman, receiving in the womb, perceives the leapings of the infant within her; so also they, from the joy and delight and rejoicing that come to be in their heart, know, that the Spirit of God dwells in them, Whom they have acquired in Baptism; for about this grace of Holy Baptism, Christ said, that, The kingdom of the heavens is within you (Lk 17:21); and again, I came to throw fire upon the earth, and how I willed that it were already kindled (Lk 12:49)!
Question. And every man, idiot and wise, through this single proof, knows that he is baptized, and not through any other way?
Answer. This is the true and unerring proof of the Christian; and hear Paul calling and saying to some: Do you not know that Jesus Christ dwells in you? If not, then you are unproven (2 Cor 13:5). For as I said, that, as the woman receiving in the womb precisely knows, not from words, but from deeds and the infant’s leapings, that she has conceived; so also the true Christian ought to have certainty, not from the report of baptizing parents, nor from any other means, but from his own heart, that he received Holy Baptism, and that he was made worthy of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, Paul spoke to some: Do not quench the Spirit (1 Thes 5:19), that is, do not set it to flight; and, Do not grieve the Holy Spirit, in Whom you were sealed unto the day of ransom (Eph 4:30); and again, For you have not received the spirit of servitude, but of freedom (Rom 8:5). For this reason, David, having killed because of adultery, calls upon God, saying: Repay to me the joy of salvation, and the right Spirit renew in my bowels (Ps 50:12). You see that, within those of the faith, the Holy Spirit dwells. Therefore, whoever guards the house of his heart pure, that man is enlightened, and perceives the divine fire dwelling in him through tears, through joy, through rejoicing and encouragement and delight, and especially in the season of feasts and gatherings[4] and illuminations, with the Holy Spirit visiting him, His grace, dwelling in the soul of man, leaps, and, from within, the man is made full certain that he is truly a Christian and has received Holy Baptism. And may these words not appear strange and heavy to you. For even the prophets, dwelling with women and being in the midst of life and people and matters, have this grace of the Holy Spirit; and not only men, but also women prophesied. For the Holy Spirit does not retreat from or abhor the communion of honorable marriage. Whence, even many in the world suffer the energies of this grace of the Holy Spirit, indeed, I say, those assisting at the altar, those approaching to partake of Christ’s mysteries; for they are suddenly filled with tears and joy and delight; whence the Christian is also made full certain that he partakes of, not bare bread and wine, but truly the Body and Blood of the Son of God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. For we do not suffer, at any time, anything similar, or such grace and energy or sweetness or bewilderment, when we eat bare bread and wine at our table, even if it be purer bread than the bread, and older and better wine than the wine offered on the altar.
All this must be understood by the Christian; for there is not, in all our faith, and in all the Church, and in all the divine Scripture, anything else more necessary than or similar to this matter. For, from this, man is made full certain, that God is in him and with him; from this he knows, that there is truly not another faith upon earth than that of Christians alone. Even if many nations have Scriptures and churches and sacrifices and teachers and books and partial knowledge of God, and some good deeds and feasts and changes of clothes[5] and prayers and all-night vigils and priests and the rest. But this grace and energy of the Holy Spirit, hidden in the heart of the Christian, no one anywhere on earth receives through faith, except only those rightly baptized into the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. About this, our wealth, the Lord says, that, The kingdom of the heavens is like a treasure hidden in a field (Mt 13:44), rather, the Holy Spirit hidden in us in the day of Holy Baptism. About this, Paul also says: For we have this treasure in earthen vessels (2 Cor 4:7), rather, in our clay bodies; and again, Do you not know that your bodies are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you (1 Cor 3:16)? He, then, necessarily came into our midst, whence the Christian ought to know that he received Holy Baptism, and that he is a true Christian. For, not entering into the church, but this is the sign of the true Christian; for many, even the unworthy, enter with us. Not making the Sign of the Cross, not partaking of the Body of Christ, but this is the sign of the true Christian. For, likewise, some, both faithless and heretics, partake, and everything which we do, they do. But, as I said before, the sign of the true Christian, which God bestowed on the Christian, he did not receive from anywhere without, nor on stone tablets, but in the fleshly tablets of the heart.
Therefore, let us touch within ourselves, if we have it, what God has given us in Baptism, the sign, and gift, and charism, and treasure. For the Gospels and the prophets and the teachers and apostles, teach us verbal faith of God by hearing; but God, not through the words of hearing, but by substantial deeds in the soul, teaches man, who is a Christian. Wherefore, Paul says that, Faith is from hearing (Rom 10:17), and, Faith is the substance of things hoped-for, and the proof of things unseen (Heb 11:1). Therefore, behold, we have heard, what is the sign of the Christian, which no other faith upon earth acquires. But blessed are those receiving and having it, and departing from life with it; for theirs is the kingdom of the heavens.
Footnotes: [1]These emphases are found in the Greek text printed in Migne.
[2]“Energy” is a philosophical term in Greek, at least among Christians. It often refers to action or the ability for action. A rough parallel might be found between the later developed Greek terminology and Scholastic Latin terminology: as the Scholastics had esse (being), from which operare (acting) flows—operari sequitur esse—so the Greeks had οὐσία (essence), from which ἐνέργεια (energy) flowed. Of course, this is a simplification.
[3]This is a common Greek idiom for “conceived.”
[4] The Greek term, synaxis, is commonly used to refer to the gathering of a congregation to celebrate the Eucharist.
[5] Possibly a reference to the white garments neophytes receive at Baptism, or maybe to clerical vestments or monastic habits.
Introduction Source: André Galland, Bibliotheca veterum Patrum..., Tomus VII (Venice, 1766), 18, qtd. in Patrologiae Cursus Completus...Series Græca Prior, ed. J.-P. Migne, Tomus XL (Paris: J.-P. Migne, 1863), 845-846.
Source: Patrologiae Cursus Completus...Series Græca Prior, ed. J.-P. Migne, Tomus XL (Paris: J.-P. Migne, 1863), 860B-865C. [PG 40:860B-865C]