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christian-customsWe're still mapping where this idea was first discussed. Key passages and related ideas below.

Last Rites / Anointing of the Sick

Oil, confession, and final Communion at the threshold of death

Last Rites minister to the seriously ill or dying through anointing with blessed oil, confession, and a final Communion called viaticum. The Letter of James commends anointing the sick, and Pope Innocent I addressed the practice in a letter of 416. Catholics and Orthodox, who call it Holy Unction, both keep it as a sacrament. Most Protestants reject it as a sacrament, though some retain prayer and anointing for the sick.

Key passages(13)

Very high

The Ecclesiastical History of Socrates Scholasticus · Socrates Scholasticus

High

James · James the Just

High

The Life of Constantine with Orations of Constantine and Eusebius · Eusebius of Caesarea

High
Moderate

The Instructions of Commodianus. · Commodianus

Moderate