Beginnings of Sacramental Practice in the Early Church

The article examines various elements of the sacramental life of the early church. It deals with the early period of ecclesiastical history, in which the theological reflexion did not reach the unified doctrine of sacraments, which was later dogmatized by the Catholic Church. In the early church, missionary efforts to spread the gospel as well as extraordinary acts, which were considered to be the continuation of the thaumaturgical activity of Jesus himself, were particularly important. The express provision of baptism and the Eucharist by the earthly Jesus, recorded in the earliest Christian written testimonies, does not mean that the sacramental life of the early church was limited to these two sacraments. Nevertheless, the article focuses primarily on the analysis of the texts of the New Testament and those of the apostolic fathers concerning these two undoubtedly most important sacraments.