Liturgical Anointing
Liturgical anointing is that performed with holy oils, by which persons or objects receiving it are separated from the profane sphere to which they belong and are invested with a special relation to God.
Liturgical anointing already occurs frequently in the Old Testament. Indeed, the furnishings used for divine service were anointed: the tabernacle and the altar with all its vessels (Ex. 29:36) and the copper laver for the priests (Ex. 40:9); kings, to signify that the spirit of the Lord was shared with them (1 Sam. 16:13), whence the title “anointed one” (χριστός, Messiah); priests, who were thus sanctified and consecrated for their ministry; and prophets, when their prophetic mission had not been entrusted to them directly by God but by another prophet (1 Kings 19:16).
In the New Testament, anointing has the character of a sacrament in Confirmation and Extreme Unction, while in Baptism and Ordination it is a supplementary rite of highly symbolic value. In all other cases, anointing is merely a sacramental.
Liturgical anointing is performed with chrism, or with the oil of catechumens, or with the oil of the sick. Anointing with chrism is reserved to the bishop, except for that which the priest performs on the forehead of the newly baptized. The other anointings are performed according to the functions of both the bishop and the priest. The following are anointed: a) persons: catechumens (with the oil of catechumens); the newly baptized and those to be confirmed (with chrism); priests (with the oil of catechumens); bishops (with chrism); kings and queens (with the oil of catechumens); emperors (first with chrism, then, after the Investiture Controversy, with the oil of catechumens); the dying (with the oil of the sick); b) objects: the baptismal font (with the oil of catechumens and with chrism), churches (door and walls with chrism), the altar (the sepulcher for holy relics, the table, the five crosses twice with the oil of catechumens and once with chrism, all with the oil of catechumens and chrism together), then the front of the altar and the point where the base joins the table (with chrism); bells (outside and inside seven times with the oil of the sick, inside four times with chrism), the chalice with the paten (with chrism).
Besides these liturgical anointings, there are private anointings performed with blessed oil for the use of the faithful (cf. Rit. Rom., tit. IX, 7, 8, 11, 49).
The anointings of Confirmation and Extreme Unction are of apostolic origin; those of Baptism in use from the earliest Christian times. The others—those of the ordination of priests and the consecration of bishops, as well as those for kings and emperors and those for other objects (churches, altars, bells)—inspired by Scripture, entered into the Roman liturgy and the Gallican rite of the Carolingian era; in the Eastern rite they remain unknown.