§ 217. The Last Christian Viaticum

As the Church accompanies her faithful children from the hour of birth and through their whole life, and extends to them her help, which sanctifies them, so she extends that same help to them also when they are at the point of death, so that as good Christians they may end this life and worthily enter into eternal life.

By the mystery of confession the Church comes to the aid of the sick person, that he may repent of all his sins and be absolved from those sins (§. 172, III), so that he may appear before the judgment of God with a peaceful conscience. Having absolved the sick person of sin, the Church deems him worthy of communion, that last and most necessary viaticum (τοῦ τελευταίου καὶ ἀναγκαιοτάτου ἐφοδίου, “the last and most necessary provision for the journey”), as the 13th canon of the First Ecumenical Council says, which ordains that no one who is at the point of death and repents of his sins may be deprived of communion.[1] This custom has existed in the Church since the very beginning of Christianity, and has always been strictly kept through all the centuries.[2]

Besides holy communion, the Church has, on the basis of Holy Scripture, established for her dangerously ill children yet another mystery, and that is the anointing of oil (τὸ εὐχέλαιον). According to the church rules, seven priests are required to perform this mystery, and only in extreme necessity may a smaller number suffice. The sick person over whom this mystery is to be performed must first be confessed, and after the anointing has been performed over him, communion is given to him. When death threatens, the sick person may be communed even before the anointing. The anointing is performed only over a dangerously sick person who has repented of his sins and who is, accordingly, in full possession of his consciousness. Over one who will not confess, or who is not conscious, this mystery cannot be performed. Nor can it be performed twice on one person in the course of a single illness, however long that illness lasts. It is forbidden to perform the anointing over a dead body.[3]