Folia Theologica et Canonica 3. 25/17 (2014)

IUS CANONICUM - Szabolcs Anzelm Szuromi, O.Praem., Crystallization process of the ecclesiastical discipline regarding the sacrament of extreme unction and its canon law historical sources

FOLIA THEOLOGICA ET CANONICA (2014) 231-245

Szabolcs Anzelm Szuromi, O.Praem.

CRYSTALLIZATION PROCESS OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL DISCIPLINE REGARDING THE SACRAMENT OF EXTREME UNCTION AND ITS CANON LAW HISTORICAL SOURCES*

I. Legal Historical Sources Before The Council of Trient; II. The Provisions Of The Codified Canonical Discipline - Their Sources And Interpretation; Conclusion

I. Legal Historical Sources Before The Council of Trient

Anointing with blessed oil expresses the believer’s purgation and trust in God1, and signifies at the same time also communion with Christ.2 It is well known that the New Testamental source of anointment is, beside Mk 6:12-13, fundamentally the letter of St. James (Jm 5:14). The Extrema unctio (its other names: oleum infirmorum, sacramentum infirmorum, unctio infirmorum, etc.) got on the list of the seven sacraments as a result of a long dogmatic development.3 There remained from antiquity even more prayers of blessing of the oil4, but the Church’s liturgy - in comparison with the other sacraments - dedicated less attention to this sacrament until the 8th-9th centuries

.5 In spite of this among the patristic sources such important authors have treatise of the anointing of the sick like Origen (t ca. 254), St. John Chrysostom (|407), St. Augustine (+430),

* This article was written at the University of Notre Dame, Medieval Institute (USA, IN), in the Collegio S. Norberto (Rome) and in the Saint Michael’s Abbey of the Norbertine Fathers (Silverado, CA). Our research was supported by the TÁMOP 4.2.2 and the OTKA K 106300 projects.

1 Le Bras, G., Le Istituzioni ecclesiastiche della cristianità medievale (Storia della Chiesa XII/1 ), Torino 1973. 186.

2 Piolanti, A., Estrema unzione e Corpo mistico Coordinamento dei testi di S. Tomaso, in Euntes docete (1955) 359-377.

3 Radó, P., Enchiridion Liturgicum, II. Romae-Friburg Brisg.-Barcinone 1966. 920-924; cf. Ortemann, C., Il sacramento degli infermi: Storia e significato, Torino 1972.

4 Szuromi Sz. A., Fejezetek az egyházi jogalkotás történetéből - források és intézmények - (Bibliotheca Instituti Postgradualis Iuris Canonici Universitatis Catholicae de Petro Pázmány nomi- natae III/15), Budapest 2011. 122-123.

5 Ramos, M., Notas para una história liturgica de la Uncián de los infermos, in Phase: Revista de pastoral liturgica 27 (1987) 303-402. Vanyó, L., Az ókeresztény kor dogmatörténete, I. Budapest 1988. 104.