Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CAT-E-CHU'MEN, n. [Gr. κατηχουμενα, places where hearers stood to be instructed, or buildings adjoining a church where the catechist taught the doctrines of religion.]

One who is in the first rudiments of Christianity; one who is receiving instruction and preparing himself for baptism. These were anciently the children of believing parents, or pagans not fully initiated in the principles of the Christian religion. They were admitted to this state by the imposition of hands, and the sign of the cross. – Encyc.