n extreme surprise. The Lord himself was
embarrassed. He gathered an assembly of clerics and doctors, and asked
them whether they regarded the baptism as valid.

"It is void," said St. Patrick.

"Why is it void?" asked St. Gal, who had evangelized the people of
Cornwall and had trained the holy Mael for his apostolical labours.

"The sacrament of baptism," answered St. Patrick, "is void when it is
given to birds, just as the sacrament of marriage is void when it is
given to a eunuch."

But St. Gal replied:

"What relation do you claim to establish between the baptism of a bird
and the marriage of a eunuch? There is none at all. Marriage is, if I
may say so, a conditional, a contingent sacrament. The priest blesses an
event beforehand; it is evident that if the act is not consummated the
benediction remains without effect. That is obvious. I have known on
earth, in the town of Antrim, a rich man named Sadoc, who, living in
concubinage with a woman, caused her to be the mother of nine children.
In his old age, yielding to my reproofs, he consented to marry her, and
I blessed their union. Unfortunately Sadoc's great age prevented him
from consummating the marriage. A short time afterwards he lost all his
property, and Germaine (that was the name of the woman), not feeling
herself able to endure poverty, asked for the annulment of a marriage
which was no reality. The Pope granted her request, for it was just.
So much for marriage. But baptism is conferred without restrictions or
reserves of any kind. There is no doubt about it, what the penguins have
received is a sacrament."

Called to give his opinion, Pope St. Damascus expressed himself in these
terms:

"In order to know if a baptism is valid and will produce its result,
that is to say, sanctification, it is necessary to consider who gives
it and not who receives it. In truth, the sanctifying virtue of this
sacrament results from the exterior act by which it is conferred,
without the baptized person cooperating in his own sanctification by any
personal act; if it were otherwise it would not be administered to the
newly born. And there is no need, in order to baptize, to fulfil any
special condition; it is not necessary to be in a state of grace; it
is sufficient to have the intention of doing what the Church does, to
pronounce the consecrated words and to observe the prescribed forms. Now
we cannot doubt that the venerable Mael has observed these conditions.
The