Martyrdom in the case of a person who died for the Christian faith before he or she could receive the sacrament. The effects of martyrdom of blood are the complete remission of sin and the title to immediate entrance into heaven. The expression entered the Christian vocabulary during the first three centuries when many catechumens awaiting baptism and pagans suddenly converted to the Christian faith were martyred before they could receive formal baptism of water.
Also called baptism of blood. It is the patient endurance of fatal torture inflicted out of hatred for Christ or the Christian faith or Christian virtue.
Natural water that is poured or sprinkled on a person, or in which a person is immersed, is the matter or material element necessary for baptism. The pronouncing of the words is the form of baptism, namely: "I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." It is a disputed question whether in the early Church, besides the foregoing, baptism was also administered in the name of the Lord Jesus. What is certain is that the Catholic Church early declared the necessity of using the Trinitarian formula for valid baptism.