Extreme Unction (Holy Oil)

EXTREME UNCTION (HOLY OIL). - It is the
Sacrament instituted by Jesus Christ for the spiritual
and bodily relief of the faithful who are gravely ill.

(matter, form, effects, minister, subject). - III. Liturgy.

I. GENERAL OVERVIEW

Around the year 60 A.D. St. James the Less wrote to all converts from Judaism: "Is any among you sick? Let him call for the priests of the Church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he be in sins, they shall be forgiven him" (Jas. 5:14-15). This document attests the existence, from the apostolic age onward, of a rite composed of an anointing (ἀλείφαντες αὐτὸν ἐλεῖν) accompanied by a prayer (προσευξάσθωσαν ἐπ' αὐτὸν), to which are joined supernatural effects both material and spiritual together (σώσει, ἐγερεῖ), and exclusively spiritual (κῶν ἁμαρτίες ἢ παπανησὼς ἀφεθῆσεται αὐτῷ). Such a rite must be practiced by the heads of the Christian community (τὸνς προσβιτέρους τῆς Ἐκκλησίας) over a faithful (ἐν ὁμῖν) gravely ill (ἀσθενεῖ, κάμνοντα), according to the command of the Lord (ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι τοῦ Κυρίου).

This passage is in its central core so determined as to allow one to glimpse the fundamental elements of a Sacrament (divine institution, matter and form, spiritual effects, subject, minister), but it is also so vague in its particulars (it does not in fact say which oil should be used, how many anointings should be performed, what words should be pronounced), as to persuade one that the Apostle with this exhortation did not intend to propose something hitherto unknown to the first Christians, but only to recall them to the observance of a usage whose particulars and intimate meaning they must already have learned in ordinary catechesis. This conclusion is confirmed by the fact that if with this admonition St. James had wished to introduce a new rite, the heads of the Christian community, to whom its administration was assigned, could not have gathered from so scanty a mention sufficient instructions on how to proceed. We are therefore in the presence of a written exhortation, which presupposes an oral teaching, whose origin must be traced back to Jesus Christ, all the more so since it concerns a rite productive of Grace, which the Apostles could never have introduced except by exact prescriptions of the Lord. Thus the disputed phrase "in nomine Domini," though susceptible of other interpretations, seems to acquire greater naturalness if understood in this sense: "according to the ordinance or command of Jesus Christ."

From this it follows that the nascent Church was in possession of an anointing invested with all the marks of a Sacrament. This historically demonstrated fact is the keystone for the interpretation of the testimonies of the Fathers. If therefore in later documents there are found some references to the anointing of the sick, it is legitimate to consider them as links in a chain that begins with the passage of St. James.

In the 2nd century the references of the Didache, 10, 7 (only in the Coptic fragment published in 1923) and of St. Irenaeus, Adv. haereses, 1, 5 (PG 7, 663), are slight but precious. In the 3rd century the testimonies become more precise, in St. Hippolytus, Traditio Apostolica (text with relevant commentary in A. Chavasse, L'Onction des infirmes dans l'Église Latine du IIIe siècle à la réforme carlovingienne, in Revue des sciences religieuses, 20 [1940], pp. 65-122), and in the Commentary on Daniel, 1, 33 (G. N. Bonwetsch and H. Achelis, Hippolytus Werke, 1, Leipzig 1897, pp. 44-45). Tertullian, De praescriptione haereticorum, 41: PL 1, 56, and especially Origen, Hom. 2 in Lev. n. 4: PG 12, 410. In the 4th century the documents become very clear: Athanasius, Demonstratio, 23, 3 (Rouët de Journel, Enchirid. Patristic., 698), Serapion, Eucologia (ibid., 1241), St. John Chrysostom, De sacerdotio, 3, 6: PG 49, 644. In the 5th century a pontifical document of exceptional importance appears: the letter of Innocent I (written in 416) to Decentius of Gubbio (text in Denz-U, 99), in which many doctrinal and disciplinary points are clarified: a) the Pope provides the first authentic interpretation of the passage of St. James: "non est dubium," he says, that this text refers to the anointing of the sick, adding that the holy Oil is prepared by the bishop: "ab episcopo confectum"; b) in the 5th century a twofold use of the holy Oil is in force, one sacramental, reserved to the ministry of the bishop and of priests, another private, whereby all the faithful may use it for a religious purpose, "in sua aut suorum necessitate"; c) Extreme Unction can be administered only to faithful regularly absolved "paenitentia functis" and is therefore considered a Sacrament of the living, a complement of Penance, as Origen had already taught; d) the rite is called a Sacrament "genus Sacramenti" in the proper sense, because it is placed on the same level as the Eucharist; indeed the clause: "quibus reliqua Sacramenta negantur" certainly refers to the Eucharist, refused to penitents not yet absolved.

The letter of St. Innocent, placed at the center of the patristic age, casts light both on the past (because it confirms the sacramental value of the pericope of St. James, dispels whatever is indeterminate in the preceding testimonies, attests the constant use of the anointing of the sick in the Church of Rome) and on the future, because it traces the road that will be trodden by the entire Western Church: indeed it was received in all the canonical collections from the 5th century down to the Decretals of Gregory IX (1234) and passed through St. Bede the Venerable (d. 735) to all the ecclesiastical writers of the West. It is therefore no wonder that toward the middle of the 12th century, at the first formulation of the exact definition of Sacramentum, this was immediately applied to the anointing of the sick. By now the period of the summae had been reached, embracing in harmonious system all theological knowledge. It was precisely then that a small treatise de extrema unctione was drafted, destined to take its regular place at d. 23 of Book IV of Peter Lombard and at qu. 29-33 of the supplement of the Sum. Theol. of St. Thomas, a treatise which, while fixing the common ground of revealed doctrine, left a wide margin for school disputes. This discord of the scholastics, on points that were indeed accidental, lent an easy pretext to the Protestants to reject with particular contempt this Sacrament (Calvin called it a mountebank's hypocrisy), which in reality they could not accept in a theological system in which the doctrine of the "remnants of sin," as residues weighing on the soul even after justification, was deemed an absurdity. Luther said it was a rite destined to cure exclusively the body: in this idea he was followed by many of his own and by the modern rationalists. It was then that the Council of Trent, after mature examination, made during the period of its transfer to Bologna, promulgated in sess. XIV, celebrated in 1551, the three chapters with the relevant four canons (Denz-U, 907-10; 926-29) with which it fixed forever the sacramental character of this rite, enriching it with precious clarifications. From that time, Catholic theologians, against the attacks of the first innovators and their epigones (J. Daillé, G. A. Bengel, R. Pulleyn, modernists), defended the dogmatic construction of the Council of Trent, showing how it sinks its foundations into the soil of Revelation.

II. ANALYSIS OF THE PARTICULARS

After this overall survey, from which the sacramental nature of Extreme Unction emerges as historically and dogmatically established, its individual elements can be analyzed.

1. The remote matter of this Sacrament consists:

a) of olive oil, which, as appears from Scripture: «Ungentes cum oleo» (Jas. 5:14) and from all tradition, confirmed by the Councils of Florence and Trent, is required for the validity of the Sacrament. The Fathers (especially Victor of Antioch and Gregory of Nyssa) and the Roman catechism illustrate its fitness on the basis of the symbolism of oil (vigor, medicine, light, warmth); b) blessed by the bishop, as is gathered from liturgical tradition (Traditio Apostolica of Hippolytus of Rome, Euchologion of Serapion, Gregorian Sacramentary), patristic tradition (Innocent I), conciliar tradition (Châlons 813, Aachen 856), confirmed by the Holy Office in 1611. The documents just cited prove that the blessing must be imparted by the bishop, but there are others that demonstrate that this power can be granted to a simple priest: reference is made to the Eastern discipline, which goes back to remote times (7th century) and which enjoys the approval of Clement VIII (1595) and of Benedict XIV (1742), and to the Western discipline established by Benedict XV during the war of 1914-18 and later received into the CIC (can. 945); c) blessed «ad hoc», that is, with a formula expressly ordered to consecrating the oil of the sick, as all the liturgical documents containing special formulas seem to suggest (for example, the Traditio Apostolica, the Euchologion of Serapion, the Gregorian Sacramentary). It is certain that this special blessing is necessary for liceity, but it is disputed whether it is required for the validity of the Sacrament. Suárez holds the negative opinion and seems to be right, because it is not established that Jesus Christ instituted a determinate blessing. Therefore «ad validitatem» it suffices that the oil be blessed in any way whatever, so that, in case of necessity, other oils consecrated by the bishop may be used, for example holy chrism, the oil of catechumens.

2. The proximate matter is the application of the blessed oil, that is, the anointing of the sick «ungentes cum» (Jas. 5:14), which, according to what the CIC establishes for the Latin Church (can. 947 § 1), must be practiced on the eyes, the ears, the nostrils, the mouth, the hands and the feet, which are, as it were, the organs of sin (the anointing of the kidneys must always be omitted); the Church, as St. Thomas observes (Sum Theol., suppl. q. 29, a. 2; q. 29, a. 6), wishes to apply the medicine where the roots of the evil are. The Greeks, on the contrary, anoint the forehead, the chin, the cheeks, the hands.

But if these multiple anointings are required «by ecclesiastical law», it is not established, as Benedict XIV already observed, that they are necessary «by divine law»; therefore in case of necessity it suffices to anoint a single sense, or better the forehead; and it is lawful, for any reasonable motive, to omit the anointing of the feet. The anointing must be done by the hand of the minister; instruments are not admitted except in grave danger of infections or contagions (CIC, can. 947).

3. The form is a prayer «orantes... oratio fidei» (Jas. 5:14-15), which varies accidentally in the different rites. For the Latin Church the Council of Trent sanctioned (Denz-U, 908) this formula, which appears only after the year 1000: «Through this holy anointing and through his most tender mercy, may the Lord forgive you whatever you have done wrong with the eyes, with the ears, with the sense of smell, with the taste and with the tongue, with the hands, with the feet. Amen». The Greek formula, on the other hand, is conceived thus: «O Holy Father, physician of souls and bodies, who sent your Only-begotten Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, to cure every disease and to free us from death, heal also

(Int. Brockmann)
EXTREME UNCTION - The E. U. Painting by Giuseppe Maria Crespi
known as "lo Spagnolo" (from the series of the Seven Sacraments) - Dresden,
Picture Gallery.

your servant N. N. from all his infirmities, which afflict him, and fill him with life through the Grace of your Christ."

4. The effects

The Council of Trent, summarizing the teaching of the Fathers, called Extreme Unction "the perfection not only of penance, but also of the Christian life, which must be a perpetual penance" (Sess. XIV, opening, in Denz-U, 907). Extreme Unction is the perfection of Penance (consummativum paenitentiae) because: a) it completes the incorporation into Christ, restored by the Sacrament of Penance. In fact, by removing, on the one hand, the last remnants of sin, it tears down the final obstacles that prevent the perfect insertion of the member into the Mystical Body, and on the other, by increasing "ex opere operato" habitual Grace, it strengthens the bonds of union with Christ. Moreover, by disposing the sick person to suffer and to die in Christ and for Christ, it associates and configures the individual members, as Bossuet observes, to the sufferings and death of the Head (the Christological aspect of the Grace of Extreme Unction); b) it strengthens the supernatural organism and makes it capable of overcoming the last weaknesses of the spirit, aggravated by the weakening of the body. In fact, the wounds of original sin, healed in Baptism, and those of actual sins, closed again in Penance, leave the spiritual organism of the faithful weakened in many respects, so that when the decay of the body and the attacks of the devil (v.) come upon him, he finds himself exposed to the grave danger of succumbing in the supreme trial and thus of jeopardizing the entire course of his Christian life. To remedy these dangers, sacramental Grace infuses new vigor into sanctifying Grace, increases the virtue of hope, whereby the sick person entrusts himself confidently into the hands of divine mercy, and multiplies the helps of actual Grace, whereby the dying person offers prompt resistance to the insinuations of the tempter. This is the "alleviatio" (of the Vulgate) or the "erectio, excitatio" (ἐγερές of the Greek text) of which James 5:15 speaks. In the case in which the sick person cannot confess, provided he has a sorrow of attrition for his own sins, this Sacrament also supplies for Penance, remitting "ex opere operato" not only venial but also mortal sins, as the living magisterium of the Church has always understood, insisting on the biblical text "et si fuerit in peccatis, remittentur ei" (James 5:15). Extreme Unction moreover, being ordered to remove all the obstacles that stand in the way of the immediate attainment of glory (cf. St. Thomas, Contra Gent. 4, 73), also remits the temporal punishment of sin (a perfect disposition in the sick person being presupposed) and sometimes procures the health of the body (to which the σώσει of James 5:15 alludes), when, according to the inscrutable judgment of God, this is conducive to a more easy attainment of glory (the anthropological aspect of the grace of Extreme Unction).

c) It multiplies the Church's solicitous care for the suffering faithful. The dying person, by now capable of nothing and in need of everything, abandons himself into the arms of the pious common mother, who bends over him, enveloping his soul in a halo of prayers, recommendations, and supplications, summoning around him all the members of the Church militant, suffering, and triumphant: Angels and Saints, souls of purgatory and the just of the earth are arrayed, invisible but praying, around the dying person, while the priest performs the sacred rite, to whose effect, as St. Thomas teaches, "plurimum valet devotio suscipientis et personalis meritum conferentium et generale totius Ecclesiae" (Sum. Theol., Suppl., q. 32, a. 3). In the light of this truth is conceived the wonderful poem by Card. Newman, The Dream of Gerontius, translated into Italian by B. Masperi, in C. Martindale, The Spirit of Card. Newman, Brescia 1934.

3. The ministers of Extreme Unction are the "presbyters" (πρεσβύτεροι of James 5:14), not the elders of the people (as the Protestants wanted), but the bishops and priests duly ordained, as the Church always understood and practiced (cf. Innocent I) and as the Council of Trent defined (cf. now also CIC, can. 938 § 1). From the fact that the biblical text uses the plural expression "the presbyters" (which is effectively a plural of category, so that the phrase "advocet presbyteros" is equivalent to "let him call one of the presbyters," as when one says "let him call the doctors" one means, let him call one of the doctors), there arose in the ancient Church the custom, still preserved in the East, of administering Extreme Unction with the participation of many priests, generally seven. According to current law, in the Latin Church, Extreme Unction must be conferred by a single minister (ad validitatem); and as a rule it must be the parish priest of the place, except in case of necessity or with the permission of the parish priest himself or of the local ordinary (can. 938-39).

The S. Congregation of Propaganda Fide declared that even in case of necessity, that is, in the absence of another priest, no missionary may administer this Sacrament to himself.

6. The subject. For valid reception it is required that the subject be:

a) baptized, as results from James 5:14 "infirmatur quis in vobis?" that is, among you faithful, and as is deduced from the entire sacramental economy, at whose base stands Baptism. Even one who has recently been washed at the font can receive this Sacrament because Baptism, although it cancels all sins, does not however remove that spiritual weakness which can compromise the soul in the supreme combat; b) in possession of the use of reason and with at least the habitual intention of receiving this Sacrament. "Infantes et perpetuo amentes," never having sinned personally, have no need of this spiritual benefit; c) gravely ill, as results from James 5:14-15 and from the Tridentine declarations. By "grave illness" one must not understand a malady that leaves no hope whatsoever, but one that can lead to death. And therefore it is a detestable error to consider Holy Oil as a harbinger of death, whereas many times, administered while physical strength can still be recovered without a miracle, this Sacrament is a true messenger of life (cf. can. 944).

Although Extreme Unction is not absolutely necessary ("necessitate medii") for obtaining salvation, it must not be neglected ("nemini licet illud negligere," can. 944).

Extreme Unction cannot be administered to one who is in good health, even if close to death, such as the soldier who is about to go into combat or the condemned man on the eve of execution, because the healthy man is in possession of his strength and of other spiritual helps, which he can easily apply to himself, whereas the sick man is deprived of energy and in need of the help of others.

Antonio Piolanti

III. LITURGY

1. Roman rite

The rite for administering Extreme Unction is substantially that which was indicated by St. James in his Epistle; the formulas and ceremonies differed from region to region as time passed. "It was almost the final complement of Penance, and it preceded Viaticum. In the first centuries they did not wait, as today, for the sick person to be at the point of death, but it was administered as soon as the condition of the sick person began to arouse apprehension. Very often, in the Middle Ages, as still today in the East, the sacrament of Extreme Unction was conferred publicly in church, while the sick person sat or knelt before the priest. Today's abuse of administering the Sacrament at the last moment seems to have originated not only from the ignorance and the weakened faith of modern times, but also from the superstition that arose around the 13th century that, namely, after Holy Oil had been repeated it was no longer lawful to eat meat, to dance, or to live in the married state" (I. Schuster, Liber Sacramentorum, I, Turin 1932, p. 192).

Of the rites and prayers used in antiquity in the Latin Church very little is known: the first notice is given by the letter of Innocent I (of 416) to Decentius of Gubbio, but it alludes only to anointing in general, and to the text of St. James (5:14), and nothing is said of the parts of the body on which the anointing was to be performed, nor of the prayers that accompanied the rite. Somewhat more extensive are the prescriptions contained in can. 4 of the Synod of Nantes (ca. 656), in the collection of capitularies of Benedict Levita (of 850), taken up again by Reginon of Prüm (d. 915) and by Burchard of Worms (d. 1025), and the instructions to priests of Theodulf of Orléans (d. 821). To combine them, on the other hand, from the 9th and 10th centuries, there are numerous Sacramentaries and Ordines that report the formularies for administering Extreme Unction: Ordo ad visitandum et ungendum infirmum (M. Ferotin, Le liber ordinum, in Monumenta Eccl. liturgica, V, pp. 71-72); Ordo Romanus X (ed. J. Mabillon: PL 78, 1021-22); Sacramentarium Fuldense saec. X (ed. G. Richter-A. Schönfelder, Fulda 1912, pp. 279-300). Since the formularies varied, the Roman Ritual of Paul V (1614) thought to introduce uniformity into it definitively. Of the prayers contained therein, some were already in use for a long time: e.g., the prayers "Respone fatiscentem..." and "Domine Deus, qui per apostolum..." from the 9th century; the others: "Introest" and "Domine sancte... aegris infundendo corporibus..." from the 10th century; the invocation: "In nomine Patris... extinguatur in te omnis virtus diaboli..." is already found in Ordo X (9th century).

The rite contained and contains, even amid such great variety, the following central points: 1) blessing of the sick person's room. On entering, the priest says: "Pax huic domui et omnibus habitantibus in ea" and sprinkles the room with holy water (sometimes also incenses it: "cum odore incensi"; Sacram. Fuldense, n. 2504); admonitions to the sick person still followed. 2) Reconciliation and confession. To the former, joined with the imposition of the hand, the present invocation refers: "In nomine Patris... extinguatur in te... per impositionem..."; to the latter, the recitation of the Confiteor. 3) The anointing. The formulas are various: indicative: "Ungo te, ut..."; deprecative or optative: "Indulgent"; as today imperative: "Accipe". The number of members to be anointed was also various, from 7 to 14: "ubi plus dolor imminent", "ubi maximus dolor" (cf. Franz, op. cit. in bibl., p. 80). The forehead is not anointed in anyone, nor the palm of the hands in priests, because they were already anointed respectively in Confirmation and in Ordination. Already Theodulf orders the anointings to be made in the form of a cross; several priests participate: "perungant singuli sacerdotes infirmum", "item ab alio sacerdote" (Sacram. Fuldense, n. 2410) and they were repeated for 7 days: "et sic septem continuos dies" (ibid., n. 2445). Then Mass was said for the sick person, who received communion: "Hinc cantetur Missa pro eo. Deinde communicat cum sacerdote corpore et sanguine domini" (ibid., n. 2445). Today Communion precedes the anointing. 4) The solemn final blessing by all the priests present: "Dominus Iesus Christus apud te sit..., circa te sit" (ibid., 2451); then a Cross was given to the sick person: "Deinde aquam benedictans, nisi aliam habeat et Crucem coram eo relinquat" (Roman Ritual).

These four elements, further simplified, are found also today. Already the Euchologion of Serapion of Thmuis (d. after 359) contains a formula: "oratio pro oleis et aquis" ("ut omnis febris et omne daemonium et omnis morbus per potum et unctionem removeatur"). In the Roman rite the formulas for the consecration of the Oil for the sick, performed by the bishop at the Mass of Holy Thursday, are found both in the Gelasian Sacramentary and in the Gregorian one.

Pietro Siffini

2. Eastern rites

Among all the Easterners, with the exception of the Nestorians, the traditional rite of Extreme Unction is very long.

In the Byzantine rite, after the initial prayers, the canon of Arsenius is recited or sung (probably bishop of Corfu in the 9th century), that is, a long hymn that celebrates the virtues of Holy Oil. It is a vestige of the time before the 13th century, when the vigil (Vespers and Matins) preceded the administration of this Sacrament. Then seven priests recite together the prayer for the blessing of the Oil; the Oil is of pure olive, sometimes mixed with a little wine. There follows the singing of some tropes, in honor of holy martyrs and wonder-workers, which in antiquity were performed while the sick person entered the church. Then the sevenfold office begins. After the prokeimenon the deacon recites the first epistle and, the alleluia having been said, the first priest reads the first Gospel, the small ectenia and the first prayer; then he anoints the sick person. There are different uses in the choice of the members to be anointed, but the forehead is always first. During Extreme Unction the priest recites this prayer: "Holy Father, physician of souls and bodies, who sent your only-begotten Son Our Lord Jesus Christ, to heal every evil and free from death, heal also your servant from every infirmity both bodily and spiritual, by the grace of your Christ, and preserve the life of this man who, according to your good pleasure and for his good works, will render you the thanks that he owes you; through the prayers of Our Lady Mother of God...".

The same series: prokeimenon, epistle, alleluia, Gospel, litany, prayer, anointings with the deprecative formula, is repeated in ever-varying texts, from the second to the seventh priest; then they impose the Gospel and the hand on the head of the sick person while the first priest recites a prayer; with a brief litany of supplication they proceed to the apolysis, after which the sick person asks for pardon and prayers.

Also in the Armenian, Maronite, Coptic and Ethiopian rites, the ceremony comprises seven similar offices, but the anointings are performed once, after the end of these offices; the Syriac one has five similar stations; only the Chaldean one does not follow such a system.

It is evident that this very long rite is not for the dying, but for the sick afflicted by an illness that places life in danger, and it can therefore also be performed in church. By the Byzantines it is called the Office of Holy Oil or Prayer of the Oil; in the other rites, Office of the Candle. But it is evident that such a rite is susceptible of abbreviations, and can be performed with a smaller number of ministers, even by one alone; moreover, Catholics of all rites know the very brief manner of administering the Sacrament with a single anointing and a single formula. Furthermore, the Catholics of the Armenian, Syro-Chaldean, Malabar, Coptic and Ethiopian rites have adopted, as their ordinary rite, a version of the Latin ordo, while the dissidents of these rites continue to use — in practice, however, very rarely — the very long office. Among the Nestorians the E. U. does not seem to exist, unless one wishes to find it in the single prayer that the priest recites over the Oil destined for the sick; however, there is no trace in their books of a rite of anointing with a formula of its own.

It must be observed that in several Eastern Churches, the rite of the Holy Oil and that of the Candle is also given to penitents, and then, almost always, the formula of anointing is changed or omitted. Perhaps this could explain why the Holy Oil is not rarely administered even to those who are healthy in body.

Per i riti non bizantini, si trova la versione latina dei testi in H. Denzinger, Rites Orientalium, II, Würzburg 1863, pp. 483-525; per gli Armeni si completerà, per l'unzione stessa, con G. de Serpos, Compendio storico... della nazione armena..., III, Venezia 1786, pp. 307-309; P. Dib, Etude sur la liturgie maronite, Parisi 1919, pp. 129-309; T. M. Sembaray, De Sacramenti secundum ritum Archiepicum, Roma 1931, pp. 83-99; C. Kopp, Glaube und Sakramente der haptischen Kirche, ivi 1932, pp. 158-175; W. de Vries, Sakramententheologie bei den syrischen Monophysiten, ivi 1940, pp. 311-24; id., Sakramententheologie bei den Nestorianern, ivi 1947, pp. 281-83. Alfonso Raca