EULOGIA. — Originally, this term designated the bread offered by the faithful for the Eucharistic Sacrifice, and not used for that purpose; once blessed, it was distributed to those who had attended the rite but had not received Communion, or to catechumens, who could not receive Communion, as a sign of fraternal communion (Council of Antioch, 341; s. Agostino, De peccatorum remissione, chap. 26).
Later, the term came to designate any meal blessed by a bishop or priest, or any voluntary gift made by priests to their respective bishops when visiting them (Council of Meaux, can. 14).
A broader use of the term arose when it came to designate contact relics taken from the Holy Places or from the tombs of the most venerated saints.
Pilgrims who traveled from distant regions to visit the tombs of the most celebrated martyrs, in order to venerate their remains and implore their aid, did not usually return home without some token of the blessing of the martyr they had visited, taken from his tomb. This token generally consisted of oil taken from the lamps burning before the martyr and poured into suitable ampoules (v.).
The most sought-after oil of this origin was certainly that which had been made to flow directly over the relics of the holy martyr (Gregorio di Tours, De vita s. Martini, I, 2-32; MGH, Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum, I, 559; Paolino di Perigueux, Vita Martini V: CSEL, XVI, 111-12, vv. 125-8).
This oil was often used to anoint the sick (Giovanni Crisostomo, Hom. in Martyres: PG 50, 664;
Vita Boniti episc. Averni, chap. 27: MGH, Script. rer. Merov., VI, 133).