Article I. On the Matter of This Sacrament

674. Principles. - I. The remote matter is Oil blessed by the Bishop. This is established from the Council of Trent, session 14, On Extreme Unction, chapter 1, where it is thus said: The Church understood the matter (of this Sacrament) to be Oil blessed by the Bishop; for the anointing most aptly represents the grace of the Holy Spirit, by which the soul of the sick person is invisibly anointed.

II. The Oil of Extreme Unction, or of the sick, is to be blessed by the diocesan Bishop, or, when the See is vacant, by another neighboring Bishop, on the Supper of the Lord, just as Chrism is, and is to be renewed every year, though not for the validity of the Sacrament. Thus from the precept of Clement VIII in St. Ligorius, no. 708; and the Salmanticenses, chapter 2, no. 10. This is also established from the perpetual practice of the Church and from the Roman Ritual, On Extreme Unction, where it is said: The holy Oil is to be renewed every year on the Supper of the Lord, the old having been burned.

675. • III. The proximate matter is the anointing of certain parts of the body, which are at least the five senses. For the anointing is to be made: first, on the eyes, or on the eyelids; second, on the ears; third, on the nostrils; fourth, on the mouth, or on the lower lip; fifth, on the hands, on the outside for Priests and on the inside for laymen; sixth, on the feet, or on the tops of the feet; seventh, on the loins; but this last is omitted for women, and also in men if it cannot easily be done, namely, if the sick person cannot be moved. Indeed, today, says Scavini, it is omitted in every case and for everyone.

676. Questions. - QUESTION 1. Does the precept of renewing the oil bind under grave sin?

Reply. Yes, as it seems, because the matter appears sufficiently grave. Nevertheless, if new oil cannot be obtained, it is licit to use the old. - St. Ligorius, no. 708.

But if perhaps the blessed Oil is going to run short within the year, and no other can be obtained, other unblessed oil, in a smaller quantity, nevertheless, can be poured into the blessed Oil. - Roman Ritual. And this can be done repeatedly, although little by little a quantity even much greater than that consecrated by the Bishop at the beginning is added, provided, nevertheless, that in each admixture it is smaller than the other part into which it is poured. - St. Ligorius, ibid.

QUESTION 2. Must the oil necessarily be from olives?

Reply. Yes. The reason is: first, because by the name oil, properly speaking and according to common usage, olive oil is understood. Second, this is established elsewhere from the Decree of Eugene IV for the Armenians, in which it is read concerning Extreme Unction: Its matter is olive oil. Third, it is also evident from the whole of tradition and the unanimous consent of the Doctors. - See St. Ligorius, no. 708.

677. • QUESTION 3. Must this oil necessarily be blessed by the Bishop?

Reply. Yes. This is established from various Declarations of Paul V and, most recently, of Gregory XVI on September 4, 1842.

QUESTION 4. Must the oil be blessed in relation to Extreme Unction?

Reply. It is disputed. There is a twofold probable opinion, as St. Ligorius says, no. 709. Some deny it, because the Church requires nothing other than that the oil be blessed by the Bishop. Hence (they say) the Oil of the sick and Chrism can validly be employed for making the anointings. Others, however, affirm it, because just as Chrism is deputed by its proper blessing for Confirmation, so also the Oil of the sick for the Sacrament of Extreme Unction. In practice the safer course must altogether be followed, except in a case of necessity, in which this Sacrament is to be administered conditionally with another blessed Oil, and afterward, if the Oil of the sick can be obtained, it is to be repeated. - St. Ligorius, ibid.

I said with another blessed oil, for a threefold holy Oil is distinguished, which is blessed by the Bishop in the same ceremony on Thursday of the Supper of the Lord, namely, the Oil of the sick, the Oil of catechumens, and holy Chrism, or Oil with balsam mixed into it. First, the Oil of the sick serves only for anointing the sick in danger of death and for the consecration of bells in the external Anointing, for Chrism is employed for the internal one. Second, the Oil of catechumens is deputed for anointing catechumens on the breast and between the shoulder blades before Baptism, for consecrating the hands of newly ordained priests, and likewise for certain other consecrations, for example, of kings, etc. Third, Chrism is employed in the Sacrament of Confirmation, in the ceremonies of Baptism after the Sacrament has already been conferred, and for other consecrations, for example, of a chalice, paten, ciborium, altar, bell (on the inside), etc. - See the Roman Pontifical, especially where it treats of the ceremonies of Thursday of the Supper of the Lord.

678. • QUESTION 5. Is the anointing of the five senses of the necessity of the Sacrament?

Reply. It appears more probable that it must be affirmed, with the more common opinion of the Theologians, to which the practice of the Church agrees; and this practice is always to be observed, except in a case of necessity. Nevertheless, the negative opinion is called speculatively probable by St. Ligorius, no. 710.

679. • QUESTION 6. Is a double anointing on paired parts required by the necessity of the Sacrament, for example, on both eyes, both ears, etc.?

Reply. No, because the whole sense is present in one part. Nevertheless, outside a case of necessity the double anointing is to be observed by force of precept. - St. Ligorius, ibid.

QUESTION 7. How must the anointings be made?

Reply. The anointings must be made with the right thumb of the Priest, who must utter the form at the same time and anoints the sick person in the manner of a cross. Thus from the Roman Ritual. But these things pertain to liceity, not to validity. On paired members, however, one begins with the right, for example, with the right eye, etc. - Roman Ritual.

680. • QUESTION 8. Must an order among the anointings of the various senses be observed by the necessity of the Sacrament?

Reply. No. The reason is that an inversion of this kind in no way impedes the signification of the Sacrament. Nevertheless, they commonly say that such an inversion is gravely illicit because it is contrary to the usage of the Church in a notable matter. - St. Ligorius, no. 710, at the end, etc.

QUESTION 9. Can Extreme Unction be conferred upon those who are mute, deaf, or blind from birth?

Reply. Yes; for they can be anointed near the organs which they lack; for although they did not sin externally through them, nevertheless, through the interior powers of the soul to which they correspond they could have sinned ¹.

¹ It does not appear necessary to have recourse to this reason. For the Sacraments by their own power effect the infusion of sanctifying grace; and this grace, if a suitable disposition is not lacking in the subject, expels all sins whatsoever, whether they were perpetrated by the external senses or by the internal powers alone.

681. • QUESTION 10. How is a sick person deprived of a hand or foot, etc., to be anointed?

Reply. The anointing is to be made on the part nearest to the mutilated member; for thus the Roman Ritual speaks: If anyone is mutilated in some member, let the part nearest to that place be anointed with the same form of words.

QUESTION 11. Does one drop of oil alone suffice for making the anointings?

Reply. More probably, yes. The reason is that he who anoints with one drop of oil truly anoints; for oil is diffused more than other liquids. - Thus St. Ligorius as more probable, Lacroix, no. 2094, and others more commonly. - But some deny it, because to anoint is to diffuse oil over various parts, which is not done by a single drop of oil. But it is replied that the oil is diffused over various parts when the five senses are anointed, even if the same drop is employed. In practice it is safer, and certainly suffices for the validity of the Sacrament, to dip the extremity of the finger into the oil for each of the particular anointings which are made under the repeated form.

QUESTION 12. In time of plague or of some contagious disease, is it licit to perform the sacred anointings by means of a brush?

Reply. Yes, at least more probably, from Benedict XIV, who brings forward many authors for this opinion. (On the Synod, book 13, chapter 19.)