It is plain from various passages that Satyrus, when he undertook his voyage to Africa, was only a catechumen, i.e. not yet baptized. Many holy men postponed baptism, not out of contempt or carelessness, but through fear, in all the dangers of the period, of losing baptismal grace, sin after baptism and grace received being then estimated at its true awfulness. Satyrus having been, as he believed, saved from death by the Holy Eucharist, determined to be at once baptized, so soon as he could find a Catholic bishop. It must be noted that the Fathers condemn nothing more severely than postponing baptism, in order to continue in sin.