Catechu'mens

Catechu'mens (Gr. katēchoumenoi, persons undergoing a course of instruction; see CATECHISM), the appellation given, in the early Christian church, to those converted Jews and heathens who had not yet received baptism, but were undergoing a course of training and instruction preparatory to it. They had a place assigned them in the congregation, but were not permitted to be present at the dispensation of the Lord's Supper, which from the end of the 2d century was regarded as a sacred mystery. The name Catechumens first occurs as the designation of a separate body in the time of Tertullian, and their distribution into different classes or grades according to their proficiency, is first referred to by Origen. The most famous catechetical school of the early church was that of Alexandria, which had Pantænus, Clement, Origen, Dionysius and others among its teachers. The only extant specimens of the ancient catechetical teaching (which was not necessarily by question and answer) are twenty-three lectures by Cyril of Jerusalem (348), and Augustine's De catechizandis Rudibus.—The term Catechumens was afterwards employed to designate young members of the Christian church who were receiving instruction to prepare them for confirmation or for the Lord's Supper, and it is still often used in this sense. See DISCIPLINA ARCANI.