LITURGICAL ANOINTING. — This is that performed with holy oils, by which the persons or objects receiving it are separated from the profane sphere to which they belong and invested with a special relationship with God.
L. a. already frequently occurs in the Old Testament. The furnishings used for divine service were in fact anointed: the tabernacle and the altar with all their vessels (Ex. 29:36), and the bronze laver for the priests (Ex. 40:9); kings, to signify that the spirit of the Lord was imparted to them (I Sam. 16:3), whence the designation of “anointed one” (χριστός, messiah); priests, who thereby remained sanctified and consecrated for their ministry; and prophets, when the prophetic mission had not been entrusted to them directly by God, but by another prophet (I Reg. 19:16).
In the New Testament, anointing has the character of a Sacrament in Confirmation and Extreme Unction; whereas 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 respective functions of the bishop and the priest. The following are anointed: a) persons: catechumens (with the oil of catechumens); the newly baptized and those being 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) things: the baptismal font (with the oil of catechumens and with chrism), churches (the door and walls with chrism), the altar (the sepulchre for the sacred relics, the mensa, and the five crosses twice with the oil of catechumens, once with chrism, and the whole with the oil of catechumens and chrism together), then the front of the altar and the point of junction between the base and the mensa (with chrism); bells (outside and inside seven times with the oil of the sick, inside four times with chrism), the chalice and paten (with chrism).
In addition to these liturgical anointings, there are private ones 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 have been in use since the earliest Christian times. The others—that of the ordination of priests and the consecration of bishops, as well as those of kings and emperors and those of other things (churches, altars, bells), inspired by the Bible—entered the Roman liturgy, and the Gallican liturgy of the Carolingian period; in the Eastern rite they are still unknown.