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Orthodox Doctrine (Summary of Christian Divinity)
Metropolitan Platon of Moscow, tr. Pinkerton, 1814
38. Part 2, Section 38: Of the Sanctified Oil
The sanctified oil is a mystery in which the servant of the church, in anointing the sick with oil, prayeth to God for his recovery from sickness, and for the forgiveness of his sins.
This ordinance is founded on the following words of St James, v. 14, 15, “Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.”2
Notes
- This mystery is called by the Greeks, Τό Εὐχέλαιον; and by the Russians, Eleosveschenie, the sanctified or holy oil.
- Concerning this mystery, Dr King has the following judicious observations:—“This service, (says he,) the Latins, who are desirous to make all the ceremonies of the Eastern church coincide with their own, consider the same as, or equivalent to, extreme unction; but though the Greek church reckons it in the number of her mysteries, yet it is certain, there is nothing throughout the whole office which implies that it should be administered only to persons periculosè ægrotantibus, and mortis periculo imminente, as is prescribed in the Romish church. On the contrary, it may very consistently be used in any illness, as a pious and charitable work, but not of necessity; and thence, I presume, the doctors of this church maintain, that this mystery is not obligatory or necessary to all persons.”
According to the ritual of this mystery, it properly requires seven priests to perform it, who, each of them in the course of the prayers, with a twig, upon the end of which there is a little cotton, anoints the sick person with oil on the chief parts of the body. In doing this, they make use of seven small twigs, one for each priest. But this mystery is now administered by fewer priests, for in the country it is difficult to collect the number stated in the regulations.