The Sacrament of Holy Unction – Healing and Strength for All

On Saturday, 22 August 2026, at 09:00, in the Orthodox Church dedicated to Saint Nicholas the Hierarch in the village of Hîrtopul Mic, Criuleni District, the Sacrament of Holy Unction will be celebrated — the service through which the Church prays for the sick, bestowing upon them the grace of healing and the forgiveness of sins through anointing with holy oil, accompanied by the priests’ prayers.

The term ‘maslu’ is of Slavic origin: ‘maslo’, meaning ‘oil’, though the term ‘eleoungere’ – ‘anointing with oil’ – is also used.

It is the Epistle of Saint James the Apostle that attests to the practical origin of the Sacrament of Holy Unction, when the Apostle speaks of the healing of the sick through the ‘prayer of faith’: ‘If anyone is sick, let them call the priests of the Church to pray for them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him’ (James 5:15). We understand from these words that the healing of the sick person lies in their faith in God, united with the prayer of the priests; and even the very fact that the sick person calls upon the priests to pray for them implies their faith in the work of God, ‘the Healer of souls and bodies’, thereby making it a work of God’s Grace with the aim of healing him (both spiritually and physically) and strengthening him.