✪✪✪ The Importance Of Rites Of Passage

Participants observed that prevailing views of adolescent development and Argumentative Essay: The Robert Johnson Case Of Assisted Suicide frameworks derived from white, middle-class adolescent populations may not reflect the experiences or unique challenges that confront youth who are The Importance Of Rites Of Passage by other cultural traditions or by disadvantaged conditions. Characteristics that may influence youth development include Carnegie The Importance Of Rites Of Passage on Adolescent Development,Theme Of Sacrifice In Oryx And Crake Connell et al. Augustine himself used to administer the Jacobean unction to the sick. And this has been the constant teaching of tradition, as is clear from the testimonies given above. Trig - N5 Exam Questions. The outlook on The Importance Of Rites Of Passage is brought vividly before the Christian by the probability of death inseparable from serious sickness, and this sacrament has been instituted for the purpose of conferring the graces specially needed to fortify him in facing this tremendous issue. Religious fraternities, ethnic minorities, sexual and gender minorities ; Immigrant groups betwixt and between; Old and new cultures; Groups that live at the edge of "normal structures", may be perceived as dangerous e.

An Exploration of Coming of Age Rituals \u0026 Rites of Passage in a Modern Era - Ron Fritz - TEDxBend

The most extensive, but divergent discussions of these rites of passage are found in the numerous Dharmasutras and Grhyasutras from the 1st millennium BCE. Gautama Dharmasutra enumerates a large list of "forty outer karma samskaras" and "eight inner karma samskara good qualities ", all of whom have the purpose of empowering a human being to discover, recognize and reach union with the Brahma-Atman his or her Soul, Self, Highest Being. The Gautama Dharmasutra list the following forty rituals as outer samskaras: [8] [22].

To obtain union with Brahman, one must also possess the eight virtues compassion, patience, non-envy, purity of thought speech and body, inner calm and peace, positive attitude, generosity, and lack of possessiveness. There are diverse number of Sanskaras in Hinduism, varying by texts between 12 and 18 in the Grhyasutras Kalpa sastras. It is a ceremony performed before conception and impregnation. The Vedic texts have many passages, where the hymn solemnizes the desire for having a child, without specifying the gender of the child. For example, the Rigveda in section The desire for progeny, without mentioning gender, is in many other books of the Rigveda, such as the hymn The Atharva Veda, similarly in verse And if a man wishes that a learned daughter should be born to him, and that she should live to her full age, then after having prepared boiled rice with sesamum and butter, they should both eat, being fit to have offspring.

And if a man wishes that a learned son should be born to him, and that he should live his full age, then after having prepared boiled rice with meat and butter, they should both eat, being fit to have offspring. The different Grhyasutras differ in their point of view, whether the garbhadhana is to be performed only once, before the first conception, or every time before the couple plan to have additional children. Pums as a noun means " a man, a human being, a soul or spirit", while savana means "ceremony, rite, oblation, festival".

The ceremony celebrates the rite of passage of the developing fetus, marking the stage where the baby begins to kick as a milestone in a baby's development. The roots of the pumsavana ritual are found in section 4. The ritual is performed in diverse ways, but all involve the husband serving something to the expectant wife. In one version, she is fed a paste mixture of yoghurt, milk and ghee clarified butter by him. The time prescribed for the pumsavana differs in different Grhyasutras, and can be extended up to the eighth month of pregnancy, according to some. Simantonnayana ritual is described in many Gryhasutra texts, but Kane states that there is great divergence in details, which may be because the rite of passage emerged in more a recent era, before it receded into the background.

The common element was the husband and wife getting together, with friends and family, then he parts her hair upwards at least three times. In modern times, the "parting hair" rite of passage is rarely observed, and when observed it is called Atha-gulem and done in the 8th month, with flowers and fruits, to cheer the woman in the late stages of her pregnancy. It signifies the baby's birth, as well as the bonding of the father with the baby. The second part of the hymns wish the baby a long life. The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, in the last chapter detailing lessons for Grihastha stage of life for a student, describes this rite of passage, in verses 6.

When a child is born, he prepares the fire, places the child on his lap, and having poured Prishadajya of Dahi yoghurt and Ghrita clarified butter , into a metal jug, he sacrifices the mix into the fire, saying: "May I, as I prosper in this my house, nourish a thousand! May fortune never fail in its race, with offspring and cattle, Svah! I offer to thee [the baby] in my mind the vital breaths which are in me, Svah! Whatever in my work I have done too much, or whatever I have done too little, may the wise Agni make it right, make it proper, Svah!

The Upanishad includes prayer to deity Saraswati during this rite of passage, the goddess of knowledge and wisdom in Hindu tradition. It also includes the threefold repetition of "Speech Speech" with the assertion to the baby, "You are the Vedas! While the earliest Dharmasutras list Jatakarma and Namakarama as two different sanskara, they evolve into one in many Gryhasutra texts. By Pantanjali's time, these two rites of passage had merged into one, and completed within the first two weeks of the baby's birth, usually about the tenth day.

The naming ritual solemnizes the child as an individual, marking the process by which a child is accepted and socialized by people around him or her. The Satapatha Brahmana verse 6. The rite of passage also includes a gathering of friends and relatives of the new parents, where gifts are presented, and a feast follows. The ancient Sanskrit texts provide numerous and divergent guidelines to the parents for choosing names. On this ritual occasion the newborn is taken out and shown the sun at sunrise or sunset, or the moon, or both. Alternatively, some families take the baby to a temple for the first time. The baby's outing is accompanied by both the mother and the father, siblings if any, as well some nearby loved ones, such as grandparents and friends.

The significance of Niskramana and showing the baby heavenly bodies is derived from their significance of Sun, Moon and nature in the Vedic literature. The ritual is usually celebrated with cooked rice, in a paste of honey, ghee and curd. The father sits with them and participates in the rite of passage. The rite of passage, in some texts, include charity and feeding of the poor, and ceremonial prayers by both parents. The significance of this rite of passage is the baby's cyclical step to hygiene and cleanliness. It is typically done about the first birthday, but some texts recommend that it be completed before the third or the seventh year. The piercing is usually done with a clean gold thread, or silver needle.

For a baby boy, the right earlobe is pierced first. In case of girls, the left nostril may also be pierced during this ritual. It is also known as Akshararambha , Aksharaabhyaasa , or Aksharasvikara. It is a ritual that celebrates as a milestone, the child's formal attempt to learn means of knowledge. The oldest texts that describe rites of passage, such as the Dharmasutras, make no mention of Vidyarambha and go direct to Upanayana ritual at the 8th year. The ceremony is observed on the same day for all children in their 5th year, on the day of Vijayadasami which is on the tenth of the Hindu month Ashvin September—October. Upanayana was an elaborate ceremony, that included rituals involving the family, the child and the teacher.

Rajbali Pandey compares the Upanayana rite of passage to Baptism in Christianity where the person is born again unto spiritual knowledge, in addition to it being the ancient Indian rite of passage for the start of formal education of writing, numbers, reading, Vedangas , arts and other skills. Instead of sacred thread, girls would wear their robe now called sari or saree in the manner of the sacred thread, that is over her left shoulder during this rite of passage.

The education of a student was not limited to ritual and philosophical speculations found in the Vedas and the Upanishads. They extended to many arts and crafts, which had their own but similar rites of passages. The rites of passage during apprentice education varied in the respective guilds. Praishartha or Vedarambha is the rite of passage that marked the start of learning the Vedas and Upanishads in Gurukulam or Pathashala school. It was a fire ritual yajna , where the teacher and the student sat together, with the teacher reciting initiation hymns and the student following.

However, such transience does not inevitably disrupt development if adolescents have opportunities to sustain relationships with trusted adults. Research on social settings has called attention to the role of unrelated adults who come into contact with youth in neighborhood and other social settings. Such individuals include teachers, mentors, coaches, employers, religious leaders, service providers, shop owners, and community leaders who may influence youth perceptions and behavior in their everyday settings. Researchers are exploring how the absence or presence of these individuals affect youth's perceptions of their own potential contributions and life options.

Scholarship in this field has included both quantitative and qualitative studies; ethnographic studies in particular have described ways in which youth in inner-city communities interact with unrelated adults. Workshop participants observed that a missing factor in the lives of youth in disadvantaged communities, especially in poor African American neighborhoods, is exposure to successful, upwardly mobile, mid-life adults in the to year-old age range. Adults who become successful often move out of disadvantaged areas to higher-scale urban or suburban communities. Lacking this exposure, youth in at-risk neighborhoods may have limited opportunities to learn about strategies that involve family financial planning, balancing work and child care responsibilities, and the identification of educational and career opportunities across the life span.

Workshop participants indicated that the movement of many middle-and upper-class individuals out of poor communities, along with the loss of many minority males because of early death or incarceration, has diminished the network of human resources within the community and reduced the opportunity for youth to interact with adults who can offer advice, support, perspective, and experience in negotiating school-to-work transitions, the initiation of sexual relations, and other key challenges during adolescence. Furthermore, the absence of employment settings, middle-class services such as banks and supermarkets , and social investments in areas of concentrated poverty, combined with the presence of illicit markets and exposure to the social organization of illegitimate activities, can exacerbate the isolation of youth from socializing influences designed to generate adherence to positive social norms.

Neighborhood characteristics are increasingly viewed as part of the broader range of influences that can affect adolescents, although the magnitude of their impact is uncertain and difficult to measure. Characteristics that may influence youth development include Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development, , ; Connell et al. These contextual factors contribute to the absence of adult supervision and monitoring, a dearth of safe places to gather, the absence of constructive activities during idle periods, increased exposure to law enforcement and prison settings, and diminished opportunities for interaction between disadvantaged youth and middle- or upper-class professionals who can provide positive role models and institutional resources.

Variations in the community perceptions of contextual factors can be significantly influenced by the misuse of power and the effects of corruption within agencies or individuals who are supposed to be trusted. These variations are factors that can foster alienation, contempt, and an oppositional culture among young people, especially those who have limited contact with mainstream organizations and groups or who experience such contacts generally in a punitive fashion.

The participants observed that these dynamics can directly affect adolescents' views of their own identity and the opportunities available to them, leading to growing isolation. The relationship between the "new" members of the community and the "old" residents can be positively or negatively influenced by perceptions of how each group relates to the neighborhood. For example, although tax and other financial incentives may attract middle-income families to purchase residences in areas characterized by poverty and transience, the housing authority, the school board, and county, municipal, and state governments may all have conflicting goals with respect to neighborhood initiatives. Middle-class families who have roots in a disadvantaged community and who are returning to improve the property and renew their roots may be welcomed.

Such families may be resented, however, if they are seen as gentrifying invaders who bear few loyalties to the community or its residents. Social and economic policies that foster commitment to community empowerment and neighborhood diversity can facilitate neighborhood improvement, but participants observed that variation in community development policies such as mixed-income housing is almost never considered in examining the implications of changing social and economic contexts on youth development. What is not known at present are the conditions under which social setting factors override other influences in a youth's environment, such as individual characteristics, child-parent relationships, and family functioning. The interactions that cause people to select the neighborhoods in which they reside need to be studied in comparison with interactions that are generated by the neighborhood itself.

Because of this variation, participants observed that lessons learned in dealing with positive or negative influences within one neighborhood may not be transferable to all others. Police patrols within disadvantaged communities may be regarded as assets or threats, for example, depending on the level of trust and confidence in law enforcement systems within the community. School systems may be regarded as negative factors if buildings are deteriorating and the quality of instruction is poor, or they may be seen as vital parts of the community if they provide important links to necessary services such as health care and community resources.

On January 25, , the Committee on Youth Development of the Board on Children, Youth, and Families convened a workshop to examine the implications of research on social settings for the design and evaluation of programs that serve youth. The January workshop provided an opportunity for the committee to examine the strengths and limitations of existing research on interactions between social settings and adolescent development. This research has drawn attention to the importance of understanding how, when, and where adolescents interact with their families, peers, and unrelated adults in settings such as home, school, places of work, and recreational sites.

This workshop builds on previous work of the National Research Council and reiterates its support for integrating studies of social settings into more traditional research on individual characteristics, family functioning, and peer relationships in seeking to describe and explain adolescent behavior and youth outcomes. Not only does this report examine the strengths and limitations of research on social settings and adolescence and identify important research questions that deserve further study in developing this field, but it also explores alternative methods by which the findings of research on social settings could be better integrated into the development of youth programs and services.

Specific themes include the impact of social settings on differences in developmental pathways, role expectations, and youth identity and decision-making skills, as well as factors that contribute to variations in community context. James and adds: "Oil both cures pains and is a source of light and refreshment. The oil, then, used in anointing signifies both the mercy of God , and the cure of the disease, and the enlightening of the heart. For it is manifest to all that the prayer effected all this; but the oil, as I think, was the symbol of these things" Cramer, Caten. Patrum, I, p. Here we have the distinction, so well known in later theology , between the signification and causality of a sacrament; only Victor attributes the signification entirely to the matter and the causality to the form the prayer.

This was to be corrected in the fully developed sacramental theory of later times, but the attribution of sacramental effects to the form the prayer , the word, etc. Victor clearly attributes both spiritual and corporal effects to the prayer-unction; nor can the fact that he uses the imperfect tense energei , "effected"; hyperche , "was" be taken to imply that the use of the unction had ceased at Antioch in his day. The use of the present tense in describing the signification of the rite implies the contrary, and independent evidence is clearly against the supposition. In the passage from John Mandakuni, referred to above, the prayer-unction is repeatedly described as "the gift of grace", "the grace of God", Divinely instituted and prescribed, and which cannot be neglected and despised without incurring "the curse of the Apostles"; language which it is difficult to understand unless we suppose the Armenian patriarch to have reckoned the unction among the most sacred of Christian rites, or, in other words, regarded it as being what we describe as a sacrament in the strict sense cf.

Kern, op. There remains to be noticed under this head the most celebrated of all patristic testimonies on extreme unction, the well-known passage in the Letter of Pope Innocent I , written in , to Decentius, Bishop of Eugubium, in reply to certain questions submitted by the latter for solution. In answer to the question as to who were entitle to the unction, the pope , having quoted the text of St. James, says: "There is no doubt that this text must be received or understood of the sick faithful, who may be [lawfully] anointed with the holy oil of chrism ; which, having been blessed by the bishop , it is permitted not only to priests but to all Christians to use for anointing in their own need or that of their families.

For priests are expressly mentioned [by St. James] for the reason that bishops , hindered by other occupations, cannot go to all the sick. But if the bishop is able to do so or thinks anyone specially worthy of being visited, he, whose office it is to consecrate the chrism , need not hesitate to bless and anoint the sick person. For how is it imagined that one sacrament [ unum genus ] may be given to those to whom the other sacraments are denied? We do not, of course, suggest that Pope Innocent had before his mind the definition of a sacrament in the strict sense when he calls the Jacobean unction a sacrament, but since "the other sacraments " from which penitents were excluded were the Holy Eucharist and certain sacred offices, we are justified in maintaining that this association of the unction with the Eucharist most naturally suggests an implicit faith on the part of Pope Innocent in what has been explicitly taught by Scholastic theologians and defined by the Council of Trent.

It is interesting to observe that Mr. Puller, in discussing this text op. In any case the reference is certainly not exclusive, as Mr. Puller leaves his reader to infer. What Pope Innocent , following the "Roman custom ", explicitly teaches is that the "sacrament" enjoined by St. James was to be administered to the sick faithful who were not doing canonical penance; that priests , and a fortiori bishops , can administer it; but that the oil must be blessed by the bishop. James and from the way in which Pope Innocent explains the mention of priests in the text, that this could not have been considered by him to be identical with the Jacobean rite, but to be at most a pious use of the oil allowable for devotional, and possibly for charismatic, purposes.

But it would not be impossible nor altogether unreasonable to understand the language used by Innocent and others in a causative sense, i. We believe, however, that this is a forced and unnatural way of understanding such testimonies, all the more so as there is demonstrative evidence of the devotional and charismatic use of sacred oil by the laity during the early centuries. It is worth adding, as a conclusion to our survey of this period, that Innocent's reply to Decentius was incorporated in various early collections of canon law, some of which, as for instance that of Dionysius Exiguus P. In this way Innocent's teaching became known and was received as law in most parts of the Western Church. James, tells us P. He adds that, according to Pope Innocent , even the laity may use the oil provided it has been consecrated by the bishop ; and commenting on the clause, "if he be in sins they shall be remitted to him", after quoting 1 Corinthians , to prove that "many because of sins committed in the soul are stricken with bodily sickness or death", he goes on to speak of the necessity of confession: "If, therefore, the sick be in sins and shall have confessed these to the priests of the Church and shall have sincerely undertaken to relinquish and amend them, they shall be remitted to them.

For sins cannot be remitted without the confession of amendment. Hence the injunction is rightly added [by James], 'Confess, therefore, your sins one to another. Bede thus appears to connect the remission of sins in St. James's text with penance rather than the unction, and is therefore claimed by Mr. Puller as supporting his own interpretation of the text. But it should be observed that in asserting the necessity of confessing post-baptismal sins , a necessity recognized in Catholic teaching , Bede does not deny that the unction also may be efficacious in remitting them, or at least in completing their remission, or in remitting the lighter daily sins which need not be confessed.

The bodily sickness which the unction is intended to heal is regarded by St. Bede as being, often at any rate, the effect of sin ; and it is interesting to notice that Amalarius of Metz , writing a century later De Eccles. If those whom the unction of oil, i. The Passion of Christ destroyed the author of death; His grace, which is signified by the unction of oil, has destroyed his arms, which are daily sins.

Bede introduces penance in connection with the text of St. James is intelligible enough when we remember that the unction was regarded and administered as a complement of the Sacrament of Penance , and that no formal question had yet been raised about their respective independent effects. In the circumstances of the age it was more important to insist on the necessity of confession than to discuss with critical minuteness the effects of the unction, and one had to be careful not to allow the text of St. James to be misunderstood as if it dispensed with this necessity for the sick sinner. The passage in St. Bede merely proves that he was preoccupied with some such idea in approaching the text of St.

Paschasius Radbertus writing about says from the same standpoint that " according to the Apostle when anyone is sick, recourse is to be had in the first place to confession of sins , then to the prayer of many, then to the sanctification of the unction [or, the unction of sanctification]" De Corp. Domini, c. Adelhard of Corbie, testifies to the prevalence of an opinion that it was only those in sins who had need of the unction. The assembled monks , who regarded the holy abbot as "free from the burdens of sins ", doubted whether they should procure the Apostolic unction for him. But the saint , overhearing the debate, demanded that it should be given at once, and with his dying breath exclaimed: "Now dismiss thy servant in peace, because I have received all the sacraments of Thy mystery" P.

As proving the uninterrupted universality during this period of the practice of the Jacobean rite, with a clear indication in some instances of its strictly sacramental efficacy, we shall add some further testimonies from writers, synods , and the precepts of particular bishops. As doubts may be raised regarding the age of any particular expression in the early medieval liturgies , we shall omit all reference to them. There is all the less need to be exhaustive as the adversaries of Catholic teaching are compelled to admit that from the eighth century onwards the strictly sacramental conception of the Jacobean rite emerges clearly in the writings and legislation of both the Eastern and the Western Churches. Bishop of Lyons about , in his letter Theobald P.

Prudentius, Bishop of Treves about , tells how the holy virgin Maura asked to receive from his own hands "the Sacraments of the Eucharist and of Extreme Unction" P. Acta SS. James, "since a medicine of this kind which heals the sicknesses of soul and of body is not to be lightly esteemed" Hardouin IV, The statutes attributed to St. Sonnatius, Archbishop of Reims about , and which are certainly anterior to the ninth century, direct no.

Hefele, Conciliengesch. The fourth of the canons promulgated about by St. In the "Excerptiones" of Egbert, Archbishop of York , the unction is mentioned between penance and the Eucharist, and ordered to be diligently administered P. A long section of his second Capitulare , published in , is taken up with the subject P. Theodulf describes the unction in detail, ordering fifteen, or three times five, crosses to be made with the oil to symbolize the Trinity and the five senses, but noting at the same time that the practice varies as to the number of anointings and the parts anointed. He quotes with approval the form used by the Greeks while anointing, in which remission of sins is expressly mentioned; and so clearly is the unction in his view intended as a preparation for death that he directs the sick person after receiving it to commend his soul into the hands of God and bid farewell to the living.

He enjoins the unction of sick children also on the ground that it sometimes cures them, and that penance is often necessary for them. Theodulf's teaching is so clear and definite that some Protestant controversialists recognize him as the originator in the West of the teaching which, as they claim, transformed the Jacobean rite into a sacrament. But from all that precedes it is abundantly clear that no such transformation occurred. Some previous writers, as we have seen, had explicitly taught and many had implied the substance of Theodulf's doctrine , to which a still more definite expression was later to be given.

The Scholastic and Tridentine doctrine is the only goal to which patristic and medieval teaching could logically have led. No one has ever doubted that the oil meant by St. James is the oil of olives, and in the Western Church pure olive oil without mixture of any other substance seems to have been almost always used. But in the Eastern Church the custom was introduced pretty early of adding in some places a little water, as a symbol of baptism , in others a little wine, in memory of the good Samaritan , and, among the Nestorians , a little ashes or dust from the sepulchre of some saint. But that the oil must be blessed or consecrated before use is the unanimous testimony of all the ages. Some theologians , however, have held consecration to be necessary merely as a matter of precept, not essential for the validity of the sacrament, e.

Victoria Summ. Sacramentorum, no. VII, q. But considering the unanimity of tradition in insisting on the oil being blessed, and the teaching of the Council of Trent Sess. XIV that "the Church has understood the matter [of this sacrament ] to be oil blessed by the bishop", it is not surprising that by a decree of the Holy Office, issued 13 Jan. These decisions only settle the dogmatic question provisionally and, so far as they affirm the necessity of episcopal consecration of the oil, are applicable only to the Western Church. As is well known it is the officiating priest or priests who ordinarily bless the oil in the Eastern Orthodox Church, and there is no lack of evidence to prove the antiquity of this practice see Benedict XIV , De Synod.

Lacensis", II, pp. There is no doubt , therefore, that priests can be delegated to bless the oil validly, though there is no instance on record of such delegation being given to Western priests. But it is only the supreme authority in the Church that can grant delegation, or at least it may reserve to itself the power of granting it in case one should wish to maintain that in the absence of reservation the ordinary bishop would have this power. The Eastern Uniats have the express approbation of the Holy See for their discipline, and, as regards the schismatical Orthodox, one may say either that they have the tacit approbation of the pope or that the reservation of episcopal power does not extend to them. In spite of the schism the pope has never wished or intended to abrogate the ancient privileges of the Orthodox in matters of this kind.

The prayers for blessing the oil that have come down to us differ very widely, but all of them contain some reference to the purpose of anointing the sick. Hence, at least in the case of a bishop , whose power is ordinary and not delegated, no special form would seem to be necessary for validity, provided this purpose is expressed. But where it is not at all expressed or intended, as in the forms at present used for blessing the chrism and the oil of catechumens , it appears doubtful whether either of these oils would be valid matter for extreme unction cf.

But in the nature of things there does not seem to be any reason why a composite form of blessing might not suffice to make the same oil valid matter for more than one sacrament. The parts anointed according to present usage in the Western and Eastern Churches have been mentioned above I , but it is to be observed that even today there are differences of practice in various branches of the Orthodox Church see Echos d'Orient, , p. The question is whether several unctions are necessary for a valid sacrament, and if so, which are the essential ones.

Arguing from the practice with which they were acquainted and which they assumed to have existed always, the Scholastics not unnaturally concluded that the unctions of the five organs of sense were essential. This was the teaching of St. Thomas Suppl. Billot, De Sacramentis, II, p. But a wider knowledge of past and present facts has made it increasingly difficult to defend this view, and the best theologians of recent times have denied that the unction of the five senses, any more than that of the feet or loins, is essential for the validity of the sacrament. The facts, broadly speaking, are these: that no ancient testimony mentions the five unctions at all, much less prescribes them as necessary , but most of them speak simply of unction in a way that suggests the sufficiency of a single unction; that the unction of the five senses has never been extensively practiced in the East, and is not practiced at the present time in the Orthodox Church , while those Uniats who practice it have simply borrowed it in modern times from Rome ; and that even in the Western Church down to the eleventh century the practice was not very widespread, and did not become universal till the seventeenth century, as is proved by a number of sixteenth- century Rituals that have been preserved for details and sources see Kern, op.

In face of these facts it is impossible any longer to defend the Scholastic view except by maintaining that the Church has frequently changed the essential matter of the sacrament, or that she has allowed it to be invalidly administered during the greater part of her history, as she still allows without protest in the East. The only conclusion, therefore, is that as far as the matter is concerned nothing more is required for a valid sacrament than a true unction with duly consecrated oil, and this conclusion may henceforth be regarded as certain by reason of the recent decree of the Holy Office already referred to I , which, though it speaks only of the form, evidently supposes that form to be used with a single unction.

Besides the authority of the Scholastic tradition, which was based on ignorance of the facts, the only dogmatic argument for the view we have rejected is to be found in the instruction of Eugene IV to the Armenians [see above, III A ]. But in reply to this argument it is enough to remark that this decree is not a dogmatic definition but a disciplinary instruction, and that, if it were a definition, those who appeal to it ought in consistency to hold the unction of the feet and loins to be essential. It is hardly necessary to add that, while denying the necessity of the unctions prescribed in the Roman Ritual for the validity of the sacrament, there is no intention of denying the grave obligation of adhering strictly to the Ritual except, as the Holy Office allows, in cases of urgent necessity.

That some form is essential, and that what is essential is contained in both the Eastern and Western forms now in use, is admitted by all. The problem is to decide not merely what words in either form may be omitted without invalidating the sacrament, but whether the words retained as essential must necessarily express a prayer --"the prayer of faith " spoken of by St.

Both forms as now used are deprecatory, and for the West the Holy Office has decided what words may be omitted in case of necessity from the form of the Roman Ritual. That the form, whether short or long, must be a prayer-form, and that a mere indicative form, such as "I anoint thee" etc. But not a few Scholastics of eminence, and nearly all later theologians who have made due allowance for the facts of history, have upheld the opposite view.

For the fact is that the indicative form has been widely used in the East and still more widely in the West; it is the form we meet with in the very earliest Church Orders preserved, viz. Among contemporary theologians Kern op. James and, on the other hand, that the indicative forms that have been used are virtually deprecatory. If it be insisted that prayer as such must be in some way an element in the sacrament, one may say that the prayer used in blessing the oil satisfies this requirement. What has been said in regard to the matter is to be repeated here, viz. Minister 1 The Council of Trent has defined in accordance with the words of St.

James that the proper ministers proprios ministros of this sacrament are the priests of the Church alone, that is bishops or priests ordained by them Sess. And this has been the constant teaching of tradition, as is clear from the testimonies given above. Yet Launoi Opp. But in none of these cases is extreme unction once mentioned or referred to, and one may not gratuitously assume that the permission given extended to this sacrament, all the more so as there is not a particle of evidence from any other source to support the assumption.

The Carmelite Thomas Waldensis d. This opinion, however, seems to be clearly excluded by the definition of the Council of Trent that the priest alone is the "proper" minister of extreme unction. The word proper cannot be taken as equivalent merely to ordinary , and can only mean "Divinely authorized". And as to the unction of themselves or others by lay persons with the consecrated oil, it is clear that Pope Innocent , while sanctioning the pious practice, could not have supposed it to be efficacious in the same way as the unction by a priest or bishop , to whom alone in his view the administration of the Jacobean rite belonged.

This lay unction was merely what we call today a sacramental. Clericatus Decisiones de Extr. These several singular opinions are rejected with practical unanimity by theologians , and the doctrine is maintained that the priests of the Church , and they alone, can validly confer extreme unction. James --"the priests of the Church "--does not imply that several priests are required for the valid administration of the sacrament. Writing, as we may suppose, to Christian communities in each of which there was a number of priests , and where several, if it seemed well, could easily be summoned, it was natural for the Apostle to use the plural without intending to lay down as a matter of necessity that several should actually be called in. The expression used is merely a popular and familiar way of saying: "Let the sick man call for priestly ministrations", just as one might say, "Let him call in the doctors", meaning, "Let him procure medical aid".

The plural in either case suggests at the very most the desirability, if the circumstances permit, of calling in more than one priest or doctor, but does not exclude, as is obvious, the services of only one, if only one is available, or if for a variety of possible reasons it is better that only one should be summoned. As is evident from several of the witnesses quoted above III , not only in the West but in the East the unction was often administered in the early centuries by a single priest ; this has been indeed at all times the almost universal practice in the West for exceptions cf. In the East, however, it has been more generally the custom for several priests to take part in the administration of the sacrament. Although the number seven, chosen for mystical reasons, was the ordinary number in many parts of the East from an earlier period, it does not seem to have been prescribed by law for the Orthodox Church before the thirteenth century cf.

But even those Oriental theologians who with Symeon of Thessalonica fifteenth century seem to deny the validity of unction by a single priest , do not insist on more than three as necessary , while most Easterns admit that one is enough in case of necessity cf. The Catholic position is that either one or several priests may validly administer extreme unction; but when several officiate it is forbidden by Benedict XIV for the Italo-Greeks Const. The actual practice, however, of the schismatical churches is for each priest in turn to repeat the whole rite, both matter and form, with variations only in the non-essential prayers.

This gives rise to an interesting question which will best be discussed in connection with the repetition of the sacrament below, IX. Subject 1 Extreme Unction may be validly administered only to Christians who have had the use of reason and who are in danger of death from sickness. That the subject must be baptized is obvious, since all the sacraments , besides baptism itself, are subject to this condition. This is implied in the text of St. James: "Is any man sick among you? It is not so easy to explain on internal grounds why extreme unction must be denied to baptized infants who are sick or dying, while confirmation, for instance, may be validly administered to them; but such is undoubtedly the traditional teaching and practice.

Except to those who were capable of penance extreme unction has never been given. If we assume, however, that the principal effect of extreme unction is to give, with sanctifying grace or its increase, the right to certain actual graces for strengthening and comforting and alleviating the sick person in the needs and temptations which specially beset him in a state of dangerous illness, and that the other effects are dependent on the principal, it will be seen that for those who have not attained, and will not attain, the use of reason till the sickness has ended in death or recovery, the right in question would be meaningless, whereas the similar right bestowed with the character in confirmation may, and normally does, realize its object in later life.

It is to be observed in regard to children, that no age can be specified at which they cease to be incapable of receiving extreme unction. If they have attained sufficient use of reason to be capable of sinning even venially, they may certainly be admitted to this sacrament, even though considered too young according to modern practice to receive their First Communion; and in cases of doubt the unction should be administered conditionally. Those who have always been insane or idiotic are to be treated in the same way as children; but anyone who has ever had the use of reason, though temporarily delirious by reason of the disease or even incurable insane, is to be given the benefit of the sacrament in case of serious illness.

This implied in the text of St. James and in Catholic tradition see above, III , and is formally stated in the decree of Eugene IV for the Armenians : "This sacrament is not to be given except to the sick person , of whose death fears are entertained" Denzinger , no. How grave must be the illness or how proximate the danger of death is not determined by the council, but is left to be decided by the speculations of theologians and the practical judgment of priests directly charged with the duty of administering the sacrament. And there have been, and perhaps still are, differences of opinion and of practice in this matter.

This is clear from many testimonies quoted above III. But during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries a change of practice took place, and the sacrament came to be regarded by many as intended only for the dying. The causes contributing to this change were: a the extortionate demands of the clergy on the occasion of administering the unction which prevented the poor or even those of moderate means from asking for it except as a last resource; b the influence of certain popular superstitions , as, for instance, that the person anointed could not, in case of recovery, use the rights of marriage, eat flesh meat, make a will, walk with bare feet, etc.

Bonaventure, "Breviloquium", P. VI, c. In view of these facts, the oft-repeated accusation of the Eastern schismatics , that the Latins gave the sacrament only to the dying and withheld it from the seriously ill who were capable of receiving it, is not without foundation Kern, op. Church authority earnestly tried to correct the avarice of the clergy and the superstitions of the people, while the Scotist teaching, regarding the chief effect of the unction, was never generally admitted in the schools , and its post-Tridentine adherents have felt compelled to modify the practical conclusion which St.

Bonaventure and Scotus had logically drawn from it. There still linger in the popular mind traces of the erroneous opinion that extreme unction is to be postponed till a sickness otherwise serious has taken a critical turn for the worse, and the danger of death become imminent; and priests do not always combat this idea as strongly as they ought to, with the result that possibly in many cases the Divinely ordained effect of corporal healing is rendered impossible except by a miracle. The best and most recent theological teaching is in favor of a lenient, rather than of a severe, view of the gravity of the sickness, or the proximity of the danger of death, required to qualify for the valid reception of extreme unction; and this is clearly compatible with the teaching of the Council of Trent and is supported by the traditional practice of the first twelve centuries.

But if the Easterns have had some justification for their charge against the Westerns of unduly restricting the administration of this sacrament, the Orthodox Church is officially responsible for a widespread abuse of the opposite kind which allows the euchelaion to be given to persons in perfect health as a complement of penance and a preparation for Holy Communion. Many Western theologians , following Goar Euchologion, pp. On the other hand, in the Russian Church, except in the metropolitan churches of Moscow and Novgorod on Maundy Thursday each year, this practice is reprobated, and priests are expressly forbidden in their faculties to give the euchelaion to people who are not sick Kern, pp.

We have already noticed III among Nestorians what appears to have been a similar abuse, but in the Orthodox Church till long after the schism there is no evidence of its existence, and the teaching of Eastern theologians down to modern times, to which the Russians still adhere, has been at one with the Western tradition in insisting that the subject of this sacrament must be labouring under a serious sickness. Hence criminals or martyrs about to suffer death and other similarly circumstanced may not be validly anointed unless they should happen to be seriously ill. But illness caused by violence , as by a dangerous or fatal wound, is sufficient; and old age itself without any specific disease is held by all Western theologians to qualify for extreme unction, i.

In cases of lingering diseases, like phthisis or cancer, once the danger has become really serious, extreme unction may be validly administered even though in all human probability the patient will live for a considerable time, say several months; and the lawfulness of administering it in such cases is to be decided by the rules of pastoral theology. If in the opinion of doctors the sickness will certainly be cured, and all probable danger of death removed by a surgical operation, theologians are not agreed whether the person who consents to undergo the operation ceases thereby to be a valid subject for the sacrament.

Kern holds that he does op. Effects The decree of Eugene IV for the Armenians describes the effects of extreme unction briefly as "the healing of the mind and, so far as it is expedient, of the body also" Denzinger , no.

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