The following is taken from this online translation of Marcarius' "Letter to the Armenians":
Upon seeing the very careful ordering
of the life-giving baptism in the Holy City, they were amazed with astonishment
that the regions of the East are wanting in carefulness in many such matters.
We were amazed over that, greatly
astonished. However, from fear of God we have not hesitated to write
promptly—I, Macarius, Archbishop of Jerusalem, and the entire, large assembly
of bishops who are with me—(and) to send to your regions of the East, to you,
Christ-loving and reverend Chief-bishop Vrtanes, and to the whole body of
bishops and priests of Armenia, to administer the rite of the great Sacrament
of God with much care and reverence, 3as it is administered in the Universal
Church; whereby forgiveness of sins and salvation of souls are granted out of
the grace of the Spirit to those who are baptized in the holy font.
. . . to teach them by the word of
doctrine to renounce Satan and to dedicate themselves to God through the
illumination of the holy font . . .
For on that same salutary day, with
the luminous Nativity of Christ, our expiatory birth of the holy font is
realized; for on that same day He Himself was baptized, condescending to be
among us. For it was not that He was Himself in any need of cleansing, but He
desired to cleanse us from the filth of sin, He who cries out with a loud
voice, saying: “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter
into the Kingdom of God” (Jn 3:5). In the same fashion as we are born with Him,
we are baptized with Him on the same holy day of the Nativity of Christ.
Next, on the quickening resurrection
of Easter, by mortifying our sins in the waters of the font, we become
imitators of the mortification by death of our Lord Jesus Christ. And by the
triple immersion, being buried in the waters of the holy font, we signify in
the persons of those who are being baptized the three-day burial of our Lord.
And this also the divine Apostle shows clearly, when he says: “Being buried
with Him through baptism, let us become imitators of the likeness of His death,
so that by the renewal of the resurrection we may become partakers wth Him in
the life eternal” (Rom 6:4-5).
