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Baptisms

The Baptisms page is where you schedule baptism ceremonies, track every candidate's parents and godparents, and keep the canonical paperwork that the parish books require. It also gives you the public registration links you can share with families and the printable documents you hand the celebrant on the day of the rite.

The Baptisms page​

Navigate to Admin Dashboard → Sacraments & Rites → Baptisms. The page has three parts:

  • A row of action buttons across the top: Add Baptism, Add Candidate, and a Candidate Tools dropdown.
  • A Filters card to search by candidate name, narrow by location, and switch between Upcoming and Past ceremonies.
  • The Baptisms table listing each scheduled celebration with its date, time, celebrant, language, location, and the candidates assigned to it.

The Candidate Tools dropdown opens three secondary views you will use often: Unassigned Candidates (candidates not yet placed on a ceremony), All Candidates (the full roster), and Registration Links (the public registration URLs you share with families).

Scheduling a baptism​

A baptism in Sacramentum is the celebration itself — the date, time, location, celebrant, and who else is ministering. Candidates are added separately and then placed on the celebration.

  1. Click Add Baptism.
  2. Under Ceremony Details, set the Date, Time, and Duration (defaults to one hour).
  3. Choose the Location and the celebration's Language — English, Spanish, Bilingual, Latin, or Other.
  4. Either tick Include main worship space or pick a specific Room from the location's facilities. You can do one or the other, not both.
  5. Under Ministers, pick the Celebrant (required). Optionally add a Deacon / Acolyte. Tick Include visiting clergy if the celebrant is a visiting priest, otherwise the dropdown only lists assigned clergy.
  6. Under Capacity & Finances, set Max Candidates (how many candidates this ceremony can hold) and the Stipend if one applies.
  7. Under Visibility, decide whether the celebration appears on the public calendar and whether to show Full details or only Anonymous entries that hide candidate names.
  8. Click Save.

The new celebration appears in the Baptisms table immediately. From there you can edit it, mark it completed, manage its candidates, or download its detail sheet.

tip

Visiting priests are hidden from the celebrant dropdown by default to keep it short. If the priest you need is visiting, tick Include visiting clergy and they will appear in the list.

Adding a candidate​

A candidate is the person being baptized. You can create a candidate before any ceremony exists — the candidate sits in the Unassigned Candidates list until you place them on a celebration.

  1. Click Add Candidate. The dialog opens with five tabs: Candidate, Parents, Godparents, Fees, and Records.
  2. On the Candidate tab, fill in the required First Name and Last Name, plus any of the optional fields: middle name, date of birth, place of birth, gender, phone, primary contact email and phone, and full address.
  3. On the Parents tab, record the father's and mother's names, phones, emails, and religion. You can also note the date the parents' baptism class was completed, mark whether the parents were married by a Catholic priest, and record the Custody arrangement.
  4. On the Godparents tab, enter the Catholic Godparent (required) with their name and gender, then tick the canon-law certifications: at least 16 years old, practicing Catholic, has received Baptism / Confirmation / Eucharist, and not a parent of the candidate. Optionally add a Second Godparent or Christian Witness with their own role and certifications.
  5. On the Fees tab, set the requested offering, the amount paid so far, and the Payment Status (pending, paid, partial, or waived).
  6. On the Records tab, fill in the canonical book reference: Date in Book, Records Location (e.g., Vol X, Page Y), and tick the appropriate flags — birth certificate received, privately baptized, adopted, or preparation class completed.
  7. Click Save.
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Sacramentum enforces Canon 873–874 in the form. If you mark both the primary godparent and the second person as Catholic godparents and they share the same gender, a warning appears reminding you that godparents must be of different genders when both are Catholic. The candidate still saves, but the warning helps you flag the situation for the celebrant.

Assigning candidates to a celebration​

There are two paths from candidate to scheduled baptism:

  • From the celebration row. Open the Baptisms table, click the actions menu on the celebration, and choose Manage Candidates. The dialog lists candidates already on the ceremony and lets you add or remove candidates without going back to the main page.
  • From the Candidate Tools menu. Open Unassigned Candidates to see everyone who has been added but not yet scheduled. From there you can edit each candidate or move them onto a celebration that has open capacity.

The Max Candidates value you set on the celebration is the limit. Once that number is reached, additional candidates must go on a different ceremony.

Many parishes invite families to fill out the candidate form themselves. From the Candidate Tools dropdown, choose Registration Links to open the link manager. The dialog shows the parish's public registration URLs that you can copy and share by email, text message, or link on your parish website. Submissions arrive as candidates with a Registered Online badge so you can review them before assigning.

When you open a candidate that came in through a public link, the dialog shows the Registration Source, the link ID it came from, and the timestamps for when the record was created and last updated.

Editing and canceling a baptism​

To edit a celebration, open the actions menu on its row and choose Edit. Every field is editable — date, time, location, ministers, capacity, stipend, and visibility. Saving updates the celebration on both the admin console and any public calendar feeds.

To cancel a celebration, open the actions menu and choose Delete. A confirmation appears; once you confirm, the celebration is removed. Candidates that were assigned to it are returned to the Unassigned Candidates list so you can place them on another ceremony.

Marking a baptism completed​

After the rite has been celebrated, open the actions menu on the celebration and choose Mark Completed. The status flips so the celebration appears under the Past view, and the candidates linked to it move into your historical records.

tip

Before marking a celebration completed, double-check the candidates' Records tabs — especially the Date in Book and Records Location fields. These are the values your sacramental register relies on, and once they are saved on a completed baptism they become the canonical reference for any future certificate request.

Downloading documents​

Sacramentum generates two PDFs for every baptism:

  • The detail sheet, available from the actions menu on each row. This is the print-ready summary the celebrant uses on the day of the rite — it includes the candidate(s), parents, godparents, location, time, and any preparation flags.
  • The certificate, accessible from the same row actions. Use this once the rite has been celebrated to give families an official baptism document.

Both PDFs are localized to the language set on the celebration where applicable, and the file name includes the baptism's identifier so it is easy to file.

What's next​