I would like to note right away that the tradition of taking two or more recipients for a baptized person does not find its reflection in the order of the sacrament of baptism. According to the Orthodox order of the sacrament of baptism, only one receiver is needed for a baptized person. Traditionally, for a boy - a man, for a girl - a woman. The tradition of taking two perceivers according to the model of carnal parents has its basis not in a spiritual, but in a sensual understanding of the sacrament of baptism.

Nevertheless, this tradition, in my opinion, unfortunately, has taken root. In this regard, it became necessary to regulate possible marital relations between the baptized, the receivers, the parents of the baptized, etc. "Because affinity in spirit is more important than union in body" (rule 53 of the Sixth Ecumenical Council) by resolution of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church of January 19, 1810, marriages between acceptors, i.e. persons who baptized one baby were banned.

For a more complete picture of possible and impossible marriage in a spiritual relationship, I quote an excerpt from the work of V. A. Tsypin “Church Law”:

An obstacle to marriage is also the presence of spiritual kinship. Spiritual kinship arises as a result of the perception of a baptized person from the font of Baptism. After the practice was established to have a recipient and a recipient at Baptism, Emperor Justinian banned marriage between the recipient and the perceived, saying that "nothing can excite fatherly love and set up such a legitimate obstacle to marriage as this." The fathers of the Council of Troll in rule 53 prohibited marriages between perceivers and perceived parents. In the "Basilica" the prohibition of marriage between persons in a spiritual relationship is also extended to the 3rd degree; whoever accepts someone from Holy Baptism should not marry this person, because she is his daughter, nor her mother or daughter. Nor can the son of the recipient marry the listed persons. The definition of the Synod of Constantinople, which took place under the patriarch Nicholas III Grammar (1084-1111 gg.), The presence of spiritual kinship to the 7th degree inclusive, like consanguinity, recognized as an obstacle to marriage. But these degrees are determined only in the descending line from the receiver and the perceived, and in the ascending line only to the first degree - the mother of the perceived and the receiver. However, in a decree of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church of January 19, 1810, relations of spiritual kinship between the children of the receiver and the perceived and between the receiver and the perceived are denied. The synod finds an obstacle to marriage only in the relationship between the recipient and the recipient, as well as the parents of the latter. Meanwhile, according to the laws of the Greek Church, it’s not only “spiritual brother and sister”, i.e. persons perceived by the same receiver, but their descendants up to the 7th degree of spiritual kinship cannot marry (Part IV. Types of church authority. Obstacles to marriage. Clause 3).

Priest Andrei Kudryavtsev