Holy Unction is the sacrament where priests anoint Orthodox Christians with blessed oil for the healing of soul and body. It’s not last rites. It’s not just for people who are dying. It’s for anyone who needs healing, and that’s pretty much all of us.
The sacrament comes straight from the Epistle of James: “Is any among you sick? 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; and the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.” Notice what James says. Physical healing and spiritual healing together. Not one or the other.
That’s because we’re not souls trapped in bodies, waiting to escape. We’re unified beings. When your body hurts, your soul feels it. When you’re weighed down by sin, sometimes your back literally aches. The Church treats the whole person, and Holy Unction does exactly that.
When You’ll Encounter It
Most Antiochian parishes celebrate Holy Unction on Holy Wednesday evening during Holy Week. If you’ve been coming to St. Michael’s for a while, you’ve probably seen it. Seven priests ideally (though we work with however many we have), seven Gospel readings, seven Epistle readings, seven prayers. The number seven signifies completeness in Scripture. The service is long but beautiful.
But here’s what many people don’t know: you can receive Holy Unction anytime you’re sick. Not just dying. Sick. You’ve got chronic back pain from years working the plants? You can ask for Holy Unction. You’re battling depression that won’t lift? Holy Unction. You’re recovering from surgery? Holy Unction. St. John Chrysostom urged Christians to seek this sacrament for all illnesses, not just terminal ones.
The oil itself is olive oil blessed by the Holy Spirit through the prayers of the priests. During the service, seven candles are placed in a bowl of wheat or flour, symbolizing eternal life. After each set of readings, the priests pray over the oil, sanctifying it. Then they anoint each person on the forehead, nostrils, lips, chest, and hands (sometimes just the forehead and hands in the sign of the cross). The prayer says, “O Holy Father, physician of our souls and bodies, heal Thy servant from every physical and emotional affliction.”
What It Actually Does
The sacrament provides healing. Sometimes that’s physical. Sometimes it’s not. We don’t control how God heals, and we don’t pretend to. But we trust that the prayers of the Church, the laying on of hands, the anointing with blessed oil, these things matter. They’re means of grace. Something happens.
Holy Unction also forgives sins. Not as a replacement for Confession, but as a complement to it. It covers sins you forgot to confess, sins you didn’t realize were sins, sins you couldn’t quite articulate. It’s the Church’s recognition that we’re all wounded and forgetful, that we need mercy layered upon mercy.
Your Baptist relatives might find this strange. They’re used to thinking about salvation as a one-time decision, healing as something you either get through prayer or you don’t. But we believe God works through matter. He became flesh, after all. He used mud and spit to heal a blind man. He told the apostles to anoint the sick with oil. So we do.
You can receive Holy Unction as often as you need it. There’s no limit. If you’re dealing with ongoing illness, you might receive it multiple times a year. That’s fine. The Church wants you healed.
Come to the Holy Wednesday service this year if you can. Bring your kids if they’re Orthodox. Bring your questions. You’ll stand in line with everyone else, the woman who’s been Orthodox for sixty years and can’t quite shake her arthritis, the guy who just got chrismated last month and is nervous about everything, the priest’s wife who knows the service by heart but still needs healing just like the rest of us. You’ll be anointed. You’ll smell like olive oil for a day or two. And you’ll be held, for a moment, in the Church’s ancient prayer for wholeness.
