Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 3. Fasting and prayer, imposing their hands upon them. By which is clearly expressed, the manner in which the ministers of God were, and are still ordained bishops, priests, deacons in the Church. Witham.—Interpreters are much divided in opinion, whether this imposition of hands be a mere deputation to a certain employment, or the sacramental ceremony, by which orders are conferred. SS. Chrysostom, Leo, and so forth are of the latter opinion; nor does it any where appear that Saint Paul was bishop before this. Arator, sub-deacon of the Church of Rome, who dedicated in the year 544 his version of the Acts of the Apostles into heroic verse to Pope Virgilius, attributes this imposition of hands to Saint Peter:
—— Quem mox sacravit euntem
Imposita Petrus ille manu, cui sermo magistri
Omnia posse dedit. ——
—See his printed poems in 4to. Venice, an. 1502. Arator was sent in quality of ambassador from Athalaric to the emperor Justinian.—Following the practice of the apostles, the Church of God ordains a solemn and general fast on the four public times for ordination, the ember days, as a necessary preparation for so great a work, and this S. Leo calls also an apostolical tradition. See S. Leo, serm. ix. de jejun. and ep. lxxxi. chapter 1. and serm. iii. and iv. de jejun. 7. mensis.—Nor was this fasting a fasting from sin, as some ridiculously affirm, for such fasting was of universal obligation: nor was it left to each one’s discretion, as certain heretics maintained. Vide Saint Augustine hæres. liii.