Oil for the Gravely Ill

The Anointing of the Sick is the rite of anointing the seriously ill or dying with blessed oil, accompanied by prayer for the healing of body and soul and the forgiveness of sins. Its scriptural warrant is the passage in the Letter of James directing that the sick call for the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord.

For much of the medieval and early modern period the rite was administered chiefly at the point of death and came to be known as extreme unction, the last anointing; the modern Catholic Church, especially since the Second Vatican Council, has restored its broader use for the seriously ill rather than the dying only, and counts it among the seven sacraments. The Eastern Orthodox observe a parallel sacrament of anointing (euchelaion). Many Protestant churches also practise anointing and prayer for the sick, generally without regarding it as a sacrament, drawing on the same passage of James.