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ANOINTING

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Originally appearing in Volume V02, Page 80 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ANOINTING , or greasing with oil, See also:

fat, or melted See also:butter, a See also:process employed ritually in all religions and among all races, civilized or See also:savage, partly as a mode of See also:ridding persons and things of dangerous influences and diseases, especially of the demons (See also:Persian See also:drug, See also:Greek , i)pes, Armenian dev) which are or cause those diseases; and partly as a means of introducing into things and persons a sacramental or divine See also:influence, a See also:holy See also:emanation, spirit or See also:power. The riddance of an evil influence is often synonymous with the introduction of the See also:good principle, and therefore it is best to consider first the use of anointing in consecrations. The Australian natives believed that the virtues of one killed could be transferred to survivors if the latter rubbed themselves with his See also:caul-fat. So the See also:Arabs of See also:East See also:Africa anoint themselves with See also:lion's fat in See also:order to gain courage and inspire the animals with See also:awe of themselves. Such See also:rites are often associated with the actual eating of the victim whose virtues are coveted. Human fat is a powerful See also:charm all over the See also:world; for, as R. See also:Smith points out, after the See also:blood the fat was. peculiarly the vehicle and seat of See also:life. This is why fat of a victim was smeared on a sacred See also:stone, not only in acts of See also:homage paid to it, but in the actual See also:consecration thereof. In such cases the influence of the See also:god, communicated to the victim, passed with the unguent into the stone. But the divinity could by anointing be transferred into men no less than into stones; and from immemorial antiquity, among the See also:Jews as among other races, See also:kings were anointed or greased, doubtless with the fat of the victims which, like the blood, was too holy to be eaten by the See also:common votaries. Butter made from the See also:milk of the cow, the most sacred of animals, is used for anointing in the See also:Hindu See also:religion. A newly-built See also:house is smeared with it, so are demoniacs, care being taken to smear the latter downwards from See also:head to See also:foot.

In the See also:

Christian religion, especially where See also:animal sacrifices, together with the cult of totem or holy animals, have been given up, it is usual to hallow the oil used in See also:ritual anointings with See also:special prayers and exorcisms; oil from the lamps lit before the See also:altar has a See also:peculiar virtue of its own, perhaps because it can be burned to give See also:light, and disappears to See also:heaven in doing so. In any See also:case oil has ever been regarded as the aptest See also:symbol and vehicle of the holy and See also:illuminating spirit. For this See also:reason the catechumens are anointed with holy oil both before and after See also:baptism; the one See also:act (of eastern origin) assists the See also:expulsion of the evil See also:spirits, the other (of western origin), taken in See also:con-junction with See also:imposition of hands, conveys the spirit and retains it in the See also:person of the baptized. In the postbaptismal anointing the oil was applied to the See also:organs of sense, to the head, See also:heart, and midriff. Such ritual use of oil as a v4payis or See also:seal may have been suggested in old religions by the practice of keeping See also:wine fresh in jars and amphorae by pouring on a See also:top layer of oil; for the spoiling of wine was attributed to the See also:action of demons of corruption, against whom many See also:ancient formulae of aversion or See also:exorcism still exist. The holy oil, See also:chrism, or µupov, as the Easterns See also:call it, was prepared and consecrated on Maundy See also:Thursday, and in the Gelasian sacramentary the See also:formula used runs thus: " Send forth, 0 See also:Lord, we beseech thee, thy Holy Spirit the Paraclete from heaven into this fatness of oil, which See also:thou hast deigned to bring forth out of the See also:green See also:wood for the refreshing of mind and See also:body; and through thy holy See also:benediction may it be for all who anoint with it, See also:taste it, See also:touch it, a safeguard of mind and body, of soul and spirit, for the expulsion of all pains, of every infirmity, of every sickness of mind and body. For with the same thou hast anointed priests, kings, and prophets and martyrs with this thy chrism, perfected by thee, 0 Lord, blessed, abiding within our bowels in the name of our Lord Jesus See also:Christ." In various churches the dead are anointed with holy oil, to guard them against the vampires or ghouls which ever threaten to take See also:possession of dead bodies and live in them. In the Armenian See also:church, as formerly in many Greek churches, a See also:cross is not holy until the Spirit has been formally led into it by means of See also:prayer and anointing with holy oil. A new church is anointed at its four corners, and also the altar See also:round which it is built; similarly tombs, church gongs, and all other See also:instruments and utensils dedicated to cultual uses. In churches of the Greek rite a little of the old See also:year's chrism is See also:left in the See also:jar to communicate its sanctity to that of the new. (F. C.

End of Article: ANOINTING

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