Holy Chrism is consecrated olive oil mixed with aromatic spices and balsams. We use it to seal you with the gift of the Holy Spirit in the sacrament of Chrismation.
It’s also called myrrh or myron, and if you’ve ever been to a Chrismation at St. Michael’s, you’ve smelled it. That sweet, distinctive fragrance comes from the dozens of ingredients blended into the olive oil, things like balsam, cinnamon, calamus, and other aromatics. The recipe goes back to the Old Testament, where God gave Moses detailed instructions for making sacred anointing oil in Exodus 30. That oil was used to consecrate priests, kings, and the tabernacle itself. We’re following that same pattern.
But this isn’t something your priest mixes up in the church kitchen. Holy Chrism can only be consecrated by bishops. In the Antiochian Archdiocese, our patriarch and the synod of bishops prepare it during Holy Week in a solemn service. They blend the oil and fragrances, then bring the mixture into the Divine Liturgy where it’s set apart through episcopal prayers. After that, the consecrated chrism is distributed to parishes across the archdiocese. When Fr. Michael anoints someone at St. Michael’s, he’s using oil that came from the patriarch himself, a tangible connection to the apostolic succession we talk about.
The theology here matters. Chrismation isn’t a nice ceremony we made up. It’s how the Church has given the Holy Spirit since the apostles laid hands on the newly baptized in the book of Acts. In Orthodoxy, we don’t separate baptism and chrismation by years the way some Western churches do with confirmation. Right after you come up out of the baptismal water, the priest anoints you with the chrism, making the sign of the cross on your forehead, eyes, nostrils, lips, ears, chest, hands, and feet. Each time he says, “The seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
That’s not symbolic language. We believe the Holy Spirit truly comes to dwell in you through this anointing. You become a “christ”, an anointed one. The word Christ itself means “anointed,” and through chrismation you’re joined to Christ in a new way. St. John writes about this in his first epistle: “You have an anointing from the Holy One.” That’s not metaphor.
The many fragrances in the chrism signify the many gifts of the Spirit. Paul lists some of them in his letters, wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, prophecy. The tradition says there are as many as fifty-seven different ingredients in the chrism, though the exact recipe varies by patriarchate. All those scents blending together represent the fullness of the Spirit’s work in the Church and in your life.
We also use Holy Chrism for other things. When a new church building is consecrated, the bishop anoints the altar and the walls with it. Sacred vessels get anointed. Sometimes people who are returning to the Church after a long absence are received through chrismation. In the Byzantine Empire, emperors were anointed at their coronations. The chrism marks things and people as belonging to God in a special way.
If you’re coming from a Baptist or non-denominational background, this might feel unfamiliar. You’re used to the Holy Spirit coming when you believed, maybe when you prayed the sinner’s prayer or got baptized. We’d say the Spirit was working in you all along, drawing you to Christ. But chrismation is when the Church formally bestows the gift of the Spirit and seals you as a member of Christ’s Body. It’s not that you didn’t have the Spirit before, God works outside the Church’s visible boundaries. But this is the fullness, the completion of your initiation.
And here’s something that surprises people: after you’re chrismated, you receive communion that same day. Baptism, chrismation, and Eucharist all happen together. You don’t wait. You don’t take classes first. You’re fully Orthodox, fully a communicant, from that moment. Even infants receive all three sacraments at once.
The smell of the chrism stays with you for days if you don’t wash it off right away. Some people keep a little bit on their skin as long as they can. It’s a reminder. You’ve been marked. You belong to Christ now, sealed with His Spirit, anointed into His royal priesthood.
Fr. Alexander Schmemann wrote about how the sacraments make the Kingdom of God present and real to us. That’s what happens with the chrism. The fragrance, the oil, the bishop’s prayers, the priest’s words, these aren’t just religious theater. They’re the means by which the Spirit actually comes to you and changes you. We’re a people who believe that matter matters, that God uses physical things to give us spiritual life. Bread becomes Body. Water becomes rebirth. Oil becomes the Holy Spirit’s seal.
If you’re preparing for chrismation, don’t worry about memorizing all this. Just know that when Fr. Michael anoints you, something real is happening. The same Spirit who descended on Jesus at His baptism, who filled the apostles at Pentecost, who has been given to every Orthodox Christian for two thousand years, that Spirit is coming to you. The chrism is the sign. The reality is God Himself taking up residence in your life.
