Unction is one of the seven Orthodox sacraments to which it is recommended that a believer proceed to heal the soul and body. Despite the great benefits of unholy, there are superstitions among the people that distort the idea of the very essence of the sacrament.
The Orthodox church tradition, drawing on the truth from the Holy Scriptures, defines unification (bare sanctification) as a sacrament during which a person receives divine grace that heals mental and physical ailments. In addition, in the sacrament, forgotten sins are forgiven. Believers believe that in the sacrament of unification, a Christian can receive healing from physical illnesses, and in church practice, cases of miraculous healings from various ailments are known. Often the sacrament is performed on sick people. From this practice, many mistakenly conclude about the very essence of the sacred action, believing that unification is obligatory before death.
The main superstition regarding the blessing of sanctuary can be called the performance of the sacrament necessarily before bodily death. Many mistakenly believe that death itself follows this priesthood. Therefore, some people in relatively healthy condition are afraid to proceed to unction. Such an interpretation of the sacrament has nothing to do with the Orthodox faith. There are no sacraments in the church that are performed for an imminent death or that carry any harm to a person. On the contrary, all the sacraments are a means of helping a person during his lifetime. Therefore, unification takes place not only before death, but at any time with the aim of asking God for grace to heal the body and soul. Blessing is not done for death, but for life. Of course, unification can also take place over the dying, but this is done so that a person receives help, weakening in his serious illness.
In modern times, it is difficult to find a completely healthy person. Therefore, one can speak of absolute health only in the categories of relativity. From this it follows that any believing Christian has the right to begin the priesthood. In addition, we must not forget about the spiritual component - forgiveness in the mystery of forgotten sins. By them we mean those sins that a person forgot in his life or made in ignorance, but not the actions that were concealed in confession.
There are other superstitions regarding catholicism. So, it is mistakenly believed that after this sacrament it is imperative to keep virginity. There is no prohibition of marriage after this sacrament in the Orthodox Church.
Another superstition is the ban on eating meat after unction for the rest of your life. But even this statement has no Orthodox justification. Believers observe fasting on days established by the Church, which in no way depends directly on bare sanctification. The derivative of this superstition can be called mandatory post storage not only on Wednesday and Friday, but also on Monday.
Sometimes you can hear that after unction, you can’t wash yourself at all, and as long as possible. There is a practice in the church not to take a shower or bath on the day of the council, but not for a longer time. Orthodoxy does not induce man to bodily impurity.
Thus, a believer needs to understand the very essence of the sacrament of unification and not to adhere to false superstitions that harm the spiritual state of a person, because some of the errors completely deprive a person of the opportunity to proceed to holy clergy if necessary.
