Why is this holy sacrament called an anointing?

St. Theophilus of Antioch says, “we are called Christians on this account, because we are anointed with the oil of God.”¹⁴⁰⁷

St. Cyprian says, “It is necessary also for him who is baptized to be anointed that, having received chrism, that is anointing, he can be anointed of God and have in himself the grace of Christ.”¹⁴⁰⁸

St. Augustine says, “The name of Christ is ‘the Anointed One’ and every Christian receives this anointing, not as a sign that he is a partaker in the kingdom only but also since he has become a warrior against demons.”

St. Cyril of Jerusalem says, “You are properly called christs, and of you God said, ‘Do not touch my anointed ones, and do my prophets no harm’ (Ps. 105:15). Now you have been made christs, by receiving the antitype¹⁴⁰⁹ of the Holy Spirit; and all things have been wrought in you by imitation, because you are images of Christ. He washed in the river Jordan, and having imparted the fragrance of His Godhead to the waters, He came up from them; and the Holy Spirit in the fullness of His being lighted on Him, like resting upon like. And to you in like manner, after you had come up from the pool of the sacred streams, there was given an Unction , the antitype of that wherewith Christ was anointed; and this is the Holy Spirit; of whom also the blessed Isaiah, in his prophecy respecting Him, said in the person of the Lord, ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me: He has sent Me to preach glad tidings to the poor’ (Isa. 61:1).

1406 St. Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies 4.38.2 (ANF 1:521).

1407 St. Theophilus of Antioch, To Autolycus 1.12 (ANF 2:92).

1408 St. Cyprian of Carthage, The Epistles of Cyprian 70.2 (FOTC 51:260).

1409 The Greek word used here does not imply an “antitype” in the allegorical sense but is the same word used in Heb. 9:24.

“For Christ was not anointed by men with oil or material ointment, but the Father having before appointed Him to be the Saviour of the whole world, anointed Him with the Holy Spirit, as Peter says, Jesus of Nazareth, whom God anointed with the Holy Spirit (Acts 10:38). David also the Prophet cried, saying, ‘Your throne, O God, is for ever and ever; a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Your kingdom; You have loved righteousness and hated iniquity; therefore God even Your God has anointed You with the oil of gladness above Your fellows’ (Ps. 45:6–7). And as Christ was in reality crucified, and buried, and raised, and you are in Baptism accounted worthy of being crucified, buried, and raised together with Him in a likeness, so is it with the unction also. As He was anointed with an ideal oil of gladness, that is, with the Holy Spirit, called oil of gladness, because He is the author of spiritual gladness, so you were anointed with ointment, having been made partakers and fellows of Christ.

“But beware of supposing this to be plain ointment. For as the Bread of the Eucharist, after the invocation of the Holy Spirit, is mere bread no longer , but the Body of Christ, so also this holy ointment is no more simple ointment, nor (so to say) common, after invocation, but it is Christ's gift of grace, and, by the advent of the Holy Spirit, is made fit to impart His Divine Nature … and while your body is anointed with the visible ointment, your soul is sanctified by the Holy and life-giving Spirit.

“And you were first anointed on the forehead, that you might be delivered from the shame, which the first man who transgressed bore about with him everywhere; and that with unveiled face ye might reflect as a mirror the glory of the Lord (2 Cor. 3:18). Then on your ears; that you might receive the ears which are quick to hear the Divine Mysteries, of which Esaias said, The Lord gave me also an ear to hear (Isa. 50:4); and the Lord Jesus in the Gospel, He that has ears to hear let him hear (Matt 11:15). Then on the nostrils; that receiving the sacred ointment you may say, We are to God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved (2 Cor. 2:15). Afterwards on your breast; that ‘having put on the breast-plate of righteousness’ (Eph. 6:14), you may ‘stand against the wiles of the devil’ (Eph. 6:11). For as Christ after His Baptism, and the visitation of the Holy Spirit, went forth and vanquished the adversary, so likewise you, after Holy Baptism and the Mystical Chrism, having put on the whole armour of the Holy Spirit, are to stand against the power of the adversary, and vanquish it, saying, ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me’ (Phil. 4:13).”¹⁴¹⁰

St. Athanasius says, “It is very plain that the Spirit’s descent on Him in Jordan was a descent upon us, because of His bearing our body. And it did not take place for promotion to the Word, but again for our sanctification, that we might share His anointing, and of us it might be said, ‘Do you not know that you are God’s Temple, and the Spirit of God dwells in you?’ (1 Cor. 3:16). For when the Lord, as man, was washed in Jordan, it was we who were washed in Him and by Him. And when He received the Spirit, we it was who by Him were made recipients of It. And moreover for this reason, not as Aaron or David or the rest, was

1410 St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures 21.1–4 (NPNF II/7:149–150) amended.

He anointed with oil, but in another way above all His fellows, ‘with the oil of gladness’ (Ps. 45:7–8), which He Himself interprets to be the Spirit, saying by the Prophet, ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me’ (Isa. 61:1); as also the Apostle has said, ‘How God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit’ (Acts 10:38). When then were these things spoken of Him but when He came in the flesh and was baptized in Jordan, and the Spirit descended on Him (Matt. 3:16)? And indeed the Lord Himself said, ‘The Spirit shall take of what is Mine’ (John 16:14); and ‘I will send Him (John 16:7); and to His disciples, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’ (John 20:22). And notwithstanding, He who, as the Word and Radiance of the Father, gives to others, now is said to be sanctified, because now He has become man, and the Body that is sanctified is His.”¹⁴¹¹

“No otherwise should we have partaken in the Spirit and been sanctified, but that the Giver of the Spirit, the Word Himself, has spoken of Himself as anointed with the Spirit for us. And therefore have we securely received it, He being said to be anointed in the flesh; for the flesh being first sanctified in Him, and He being said, as man, to have received for its sake, we have the sequel of the Spirit grace, receiving ‘out of His fullness.’”¹⁴¹²