Janet Blakeley anoints Sally Brochu
with holy chrism
as community prays for healing for Sally,who is scheduled to have surgery this coming week.
For the first centuries of the church's history, the community prayed for the sick and anointed them with oil. Anointing of the sick was a lay, not a clerical ministry. Only after the collapse of the Roman Empire, did the Frankish bishops succeed in creating a clerical anointing of the sick rite. It became an anointing of the dying, known as extreme unction.
See pp. 288-290 in scholarly text: Deconstructing Sacramental Theology and Reconstructing Catholic Ritual by Joseph Martos, retired professor of theology and philosophy.
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