Anointing

The establishment of the sacrament of anointing dates back to apostolic times. In the original Church, each newly baptized person received the blessing and gift of the Holy Spirit through the laying on of the hands of an apostle or bishop . But even in the apostolic epistles themselves, the gift of the Holy Spirit that Christians possess is sometimes called “ anointing ” ( 1 John 2:20 , 2 Cor. 1:21 ).

The Laodicean Council ( 343 year ) enshrined the following rule 48: “ It is proper for the enlightened to be anointed with the Anointing of Heaven, and to be partakers of the Kingdom of God ” ^[2] . With this, the cathedral fixed the practice of performing anointing right after baptism, which probably was not always done during the time of the Laodicean cathedral.

The theologians of the first centuries of Christianity wrote about the sacrament of anointing ^[3] :

• Gregory the Theologian ( IV century ): “ If you protect yourself with a seal, you will secure your future in the best and most effective way, by marking the soul and body with the Anointing and the Spirit, as ancient Israel with night and protecting the blood of the first-born and anointing ( Exodus 12:13 ), then can happen to you? ".

The Archbishop of Thessalonica Simeon writes about the anointing of the following ^[4] :

Anointing puts the first seal and restores the image of God, damaged in us through obedience. In the same way, it revives in us the grace that God blew into the human soul. Anointing contains the power of the Holy Spirit. It is the treasury of His fragrance, the sign and seal of Christ.

Orthodoxy

In the Orthodox Church, the external side of the sacrament is that the bishop , and more often the priest , ritually smears some parts of the person’s body with especially sanctified aromatic oil - the world through which divine grace is transmitted. Before anointing, the priest reads a prayer for the Holy Spirit to be sent to a person, and then anoints him forehead , eyes , nostrils , lips , ears , chest , arms and legs . With every anointing of every part of the body, the priest repeats the secretly complementary words : “ Seal the gift of the Holy Spirit. Amen . "

Initially, the apostles laid hands on the newly baptized, but already in the apostolic time this form was replaced by anointing ^[5] According to the VI rule of the Carthage Cathedral, the right to consecrate the world belongs only to the bishop, now the Primate of this or that Local Church consecrates it.

Anointing usually takes place immediately after the sacrament of baptism , but can also be performed separately, for example, as an addition to baptism performed by a lay person . Without anointing, a person is not allowed to receive communion , even if he is already baptized.

Anointing is performed on a person for the second time in his life if a person is delivered through the church to the kingdom, the so-called inaugural anointing ( anointing to the kingdom , Greek. Τò χρίσμα τῆς βασιλείας ) of the monarchs . In the Full Orthodox Theological Encyclopedic Dictionary in two volumes of 1913 it is written that the anointing of the kingdom is the second, highest, degree of the sacrament of Anointing ^[6] .

According to Chapter 105 of the Big Trebnik through anointing, people are accepted who were baptized in infancy in Orthodoxy, but then brought up from early childhood outside the Orthodox faith ^[7] .

Acceptance into Orthodoxy through anointing (and not through baptism) of persons from Christian denominations in which the correct form of baptism is preserved, for example, over Catholics , Old Believers , is allowed . The sacrament of anointing is necessarily performed over Lutherans and Calvinists ; these denominations are also accepted through baptism into Orthodoxy. According to the 95th rule of the Council of Trulli, anointing is not performed over the representatives of the Ancient Eastern churches (people who come to Orthodoxy must be accepted through written renunciation of their heresies) ^[8] . In ancient times, through anointing to the Orthodox Church, according to Rule 7 of the Ecumenical Council , Arians , Macedonians , Savvatians, Novatsians , fourteenths, Apolinirians were accepted ^[9] . Representatives of Monophysitism were accepted into Orthodoxy through anointing, in Greek ancient euchologies and in the Slavic helmsmen , the order of the adoption of Armenians and Jacobites (the name of the adoption of praises of the Russians) ^[10] .

In addition, the anointing of the throne of the Orthodox Church by the world during its consecration is performed.

See also: Peaceful Chamber

Catholicism

See also Confirmation.

In the Catholic Church, anointing is performed twice on a person, but only one of them is considered a sacrament.

In the first case, anointing is performed at the same time as in the Orthodox Church. Immediately after the priest baptizes a person, he anoints the upper part of the head of the newly baptized person. The anointing is not done by the world, but by the so-called “catechumens oil”, which is blessed at the Mass of the consecration of the world and the blessing of oil on Maundy Thursday . At the same time, the priest reads a special prayer: “Almighty God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave you rebirth with water and the Holy Spirit, who gave you the forgiveness of all your sins, (He anointed) He will anoint † with the world of salvation in the same Jesus Christ, the Lord ours, to eternal life. Amen". ^{[11] [12]} This anointing in Catholicism is not considered a sacrament, but it is believed that this anointing is simply included in the rite of baptism.

Starting from the 9th century, the West spreads the custom of the second anointing, which is performed only by the bishop over children 13-14 years old or later. It is this sacred action in Catholicism that will later be ranked among the seven sacraments, it is also called confirmation and is usually performed only by the bishop . The priest has the right to perform this sacrament only in emergency cases or on special instructions from the bishop. The external expression of the sacrament is the anointing of the forehead with the laying on of hands and saying the following words: “ Accept the sign of the gift of the Holy Ghost ” ( lat. Accipe signaculum doni Spiritus Sancti ) ^[13] .

In the Latin rite of the Catholic Church, anointing is usually performed on adolescents aged 13-14 years or later, since it is believed that this sacrament marks the final introduction of the Christian into the church community, and therefore should be carried out at a conscious age. The Catholic interpretation of confirmation is recorded in the documents of the Council of Trent . According to the sacrament, the believer is called the "warrior of Christ."

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

Lutheranism

Confirmation among Protestants is a rite of conscious confession of faith, where anointing is absent as such. It is assumed that a person accepts baptism in infancy, but confirmation confirms that a person is consciously made part of the church (Church). Lutherans do not recognize the sacrament as a sacrament, considering it one of the forms of blessing (similar to marriage ).

• Oil anointing - in the Orthodox Church, the priest anoints the believer's forehead with blessed oil at the polyeleum
• The anointing of the kingdom is in Orthodoxy , Catholicism and Anglicanism a rite in which the monarch who comes to the throne (emperor, king, king) is anointed with peace or oil for the purpose of teaching him the gifts of the Holy Spirit necessary for governing the country.

• Almazov A.I. The history of the rites of baptism and anointing. Kazan, 1884.
• The service of the Orthodox Church (reprint edition of 1912). - M .: Dar , 2005 .-- S. 449-451.
• Cyril of Jerusalem, St. Cognitive teaching 3. On anointing
• Sacraments and rites of the Orthodox Church // Handbook of the clergyman . - M .: Publishing Council of the Russian Orthodox Church.