§ 192. 3) Spiritual Kinship

Spiritual kinship (πνευματικὴ συγγένεια, cognatio spiritualis) is the name given to the relationship that arises, through baptism, between the godfather (ἀνάδοχος) and certain of his kin on the one side, and the godchild (ἀναδεκτός) and certain of his kin on the other. The origin of this kinship lies in the concept of the new birth of the person baptized, and in the relationship into which he enters with his spiritual father, the godfather, who takes part in that new birth of his.[1] This relationship, in view of the duty which the godfather assumes toward his godchild, standing in place of the child’s natural father, was regarded as equal to the relationship between a father and his own child; and from this arose the notion of spiritual kinship, which, in the words of canon 53 of the Council in Trullo, is to be regarded as more important (μείζων) than kinship by blood. Once this notion had become established in the Church, then, by analogy with kinship by blood, the corresponding degrees of this spiritual kinship, in which the godfather and his relatives stand with the godchild and his relatives, began to be taken into account; and since in kinship by blood the degrees which constitute an impediment to marriage had been determined, the same was done in spiritual kinship.

In keeping with the tradition of the Church of the first centuries, the emperor Justinian in the year 530 made it law that a godfather may not marry his godchild.[2] The Council in Trullo, in the canon mentioned, ordains under threat of penalty that a godfather may not marry the widowed mother of his godchild, and thereby laid the canonical foundation of spiritual kinship as an impediment to marriage.[3] After the issuing of this canon the degrees of spiritual kinship in which marriage is to be forbidden were extended, and the impediments to marriage were multiplied. With the publication of the Basilica a fixed limit was established in this matter, and it was ordained that in spiritual kinship marriage is to be forbidden: 1) between the godfather and the godchild; 2) between the godfather and the mother of the godchild; 3) between the godfather’s own son and his godchild; 4) between the godfather and the daughter of the godchild; and finally 5) between the godfather’s son and the daughter of the godchild.[4] This ordinance of the Basilica, having entered the canonical collections of the Orthodox Church, is regarded as the fundamental rule in judging matrimonial impediments arising from spiritual kinship.[5] In the course of the following centuries, on the basis of that passage in canon 53 of Trullo, “that spiritual kinship is more important than the bond by the body,” the impediment to marriage in spiritual kinship was brought to the same limits to which marriage is forbidden in kinship by blood, that is, up to and including the seventh degree.[6]

In spiritual kinship degrees are counted only in the direct descending line—that is, from the godfather to his direct descendants, and from the godchild to his direct descendants; in[…]