1883 Haydock Douay Rheims Bible

Presents commentary in a tabular format for ease of reading.Click to learn more.

Mark 6:13

And they cast out many devils, *and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them:

James 5:14.

It was usual for the Jews to prescribe oil as a proper thing to anoint the sick; but its virtue in the present instance, when used by the apostles, was not natural but supernatural, and was derived from him who sent them; because this unction always produced a certain and constant cure in those who were anointed. This miraculous gift of healing the sick with oil, which Christ conferred on his apostles, was a prelude or gradual preparation to the dignity to which he raised this unction, when he established it a perpetual rite in his holy Church. (Rutter) --- With oil, etc. This anointing the sick, was at least a figure of the sacrament, which Christ was pleased to institute for the spiritual relief of persons in danger of death: and which is fully expressed by St. James, in his Catholic Epistle. (James vi.[v.?]) The Council of Trent says this sacrament was insinuated in St. Mark, and published in the Epistle of St. James. (Council of Trent, session xiv., Mark 1.) (Witham)