Part I: Extreme Unction — Introduction

Part I: Extreme Unction

Introduction

PART I EXTREME UNCTION INTRODUCTION Extreme Unction, according to the Tridentine Council, is the completion of Penance., and of the whole Christian life.1 Outwardly the intimate relation existing between the two Sacraments of Extreme Unction and Penance is evidenced by the fact that the Council deals with Extreme Unction in connection with Penance, as it deals with Confirmation in connection with Baptism.2 Aside from the decrees of Trent, the dogmatic teaching of the Church on Extreme Unction is stated most fully in the famous Decretum pro Armenis, issued by Pope Eugene IV, in 1439. The name Extrema Unctio became a technical term in the West towards the end of the twelfth century. The adjective “Extreme” does not mean that the anointment given in this Sacrament iConc. Trid., Sess. XIV, De Extr. Unct. : ” S a cr amentum extremae unctionis non mo do poenitentiae, sed et totius christianae vitae consummativum exist imatum est a Patribus.” 2 Cone. Trid., Sess. VII. is the last, or that the subject must die after its reception. This is a superstitious belief which has often led to neglect and procrastination. How unfounded it is appears from the fact that theologians count the restoration of bodily health among the effects of Extreme Unction, though, of course, this is secondary, and conditioned upon the state of the patient’s soul. Extreme Unction is called the last anointment in a purely liturgical sense, because it is preceded by the anointments conferred in Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Orders. Extreme Unction can be administered only to persons who are dangerously ill, and hence is also called “the Sacrament of the departing” (sacramentum exeuntium).3 Dr. Toner thinks that, “having regard to the conditions prevailing at the time when the name was introduced, it is much more probable that it was intended originally to mean ‘the unction of those in extremis/ i. e. the dying.”4 This theory derives probability from the fact that the corresponding name, sacramentum exeuntium, became current during the same period. In the East the technical term for Extreme Unction is ™ Syiov $\aiov9 i, e. “the holy oil,” or 8 Cfr. Cone. Trid., Sess. XIV: tamquam firmissimo quodam prat” Redemptor nosier … extretnae sidio munivit.” utictionis sacramento finem vitae 4 P. J. Toner in the Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. V, p. 716. INTRODUCTION 3 euxc’Acuov, f. e. prayer-oil, from prayer, and &mov9 oil. The latter name is very appropriate, as prayer and oil constitute the external sign of the Sacrament.5 In Milan, at the time of St. Ambrose,6 it was known as “the imposition of hands upon the infirm.” 7 Extreme Unction is a Sacrament of the New Law instituted by Jesus Christ, in which the sick, who are seriously ill, by the anointing with holy oil and by the prayer of the priest, receive the grace of God for the good of their souls, and often also of their bodies. The correctness of this definition will be shown in the process of our treatise, which we shall divide according to the scheme we have adopted for Baptism and Confirmation. s James V, 14. published by Magistretti, A. D. 6 Cfr. St Ambrose, De Poenit., 1905, from a codex of the eleventh I, c. 8. century, Vol. I, pp. 79 sqq., 94 Wm 7 See the Manuale Ambrosianum, 147 sqq.