# Oil of the sick

**Oleum infirmorum**

**Known today as.** Olive oil blessed by the bishop at the Chrism Mass of Holy Thursday for anointing the sick.

Kind: Sacramental

## What was it used for?

The matter of the sacrament of Extreme Unction, now the Anointing of the Sick, after the Letter of James: “Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.”

## What does modern science say?

Blessed each year at the Chrism Mass.

## What lore surrounds it?

Before the sacrament was reserved to the priest, the faithful took blessed oil home to anoint their own sick.

## What did the older authorities say?

**The Catholic Encyclopedia.** The Catholic Encyclopedia finds the oil of the sick in St. James and in a second-century gold leaf from Beirut bearing an exorcism “pronounced in the dwelling of him whom I annointed.” In the early centuries it “might be blessed not only by priests, but also by laymen of high repute for virtue, and even by women”; St. Monegundus on his death-bed “blessed oil and salt which were afterwards used for the sick.” The Council of Châlons (813) confined it to oil blessed by the bishop, while in the East the custom persists “of having the oil blessed in the house of the sick person, or in the church, by a priest, or, if possible, by seven priests.” The prayer of Serapion asks that the oil be “a medicine of life and salvation, for health and soundness of soul, body, spirit.”

## Sources

- *The Catholic Encyclopedia* (New York, 1907–1914), “Holy Oils.” newadvent.org/cathen/07421b.htm
- *The Catholic Encyclopedia* (New York, 1907–1914), “Extreme Unction.” newadvent.org/cathen/05716a.htm

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*Oil of the sick.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-10-01. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/oil-of-the-sick

Historical description, not medical advice.