The Rite of Myron in Pseudo-Dionysius

The rite of myron as practiced in Syro-Palestine at the time of Pseudo-Dionysius is largely forgotten. Also called unction or chrismation, it used to be part of the Divine Liturgy, like the communion rite and baptism. Nowadays, however, it is celebrated as a separate rite, distinct from the Divine Liturgy, as the rite of healing. Romanians, however, still chrismate (rub oil on) the people on the foreheads and hands as part of the dismissal at the end of each Divine Liturgy. They also celebrate, as others, a separate liturgy of unction with the seven sets of the Scriptural readings (sever Epistles and sever Gospels) recited by seven priests on Holy Wednesday and on other occasions.

Myron is a mixture of olive and balsamic oil (Louth, 1989: 63, 64).

‘Christ’ means ‘anointed,’ which in turn means ‘chrismated’ or ‘rubbed with chrism.’ The root word is χρίω meaning “to touch on the surface, to rub.”

Chrism is defined as “a consecrated oil, usually mixed with balsam or balsam and spices, used by certain churches [in Syro-Palestine] in various rites, as in baptism, confirmation, and the like.”

As a mixture of olive oil (ἔλαιον) and balsamic oil, myron has a sweet perfume-like smell. When applied, it gets absorbed into the skin, making its application invisible, leaving only the sweet aroma behind. When applied, it changes nothing but leaves the aroma.

For Pseudo-Dionysius this symbolizes “Christ, as unchanged, in the complete incarnation among us” (EH 484A). Christ becoming man does not diminish his Divinity nor does it alter the humanity he assumes. His two natures remain the same, united without confusion. The anointment of myron operates in the same way: There is absorption without alteration. Thus, chrismation symbolizes Christ’s Incarnation: His divinity being actualized “among us” without altering (though transforming) our humanity, and the divinized humanity being actualized without diminishing or degrading His divinity. The rite of myron, in short, symbolizes (and thus actualizes) union between God and human without confusion: the humanity divinized, and the divinity humanized without mixing or confusion.

Pseudo-Dionysiu—an unknown Hierarch of the Syro-Palestinian origin (b/d. ~500)—defines myron and explains it as follows:

[A] mixture of aromatic substances which have an abundance of fragrant qualities with which those who partake [μετασχὀντες] become perfumed in accordance with the fragrance that comes to them as their share [μεθἐξεως].

Ecclesiastical Hierarchy (EH) 477C; Campbell translation.

Dionysius calls the rite of myron the “perfecting rite” (EH 472D), as he does in reference to the Eucharist (EH, 473B, 476D). As a perfecting or completing rite, it is ranked equal to the rite of the Eucharist. But the latter is also called the “arch-symbol of rites” (EH 428B) and “the rite of rites” (EH 424C).

The rite of myron (unction) is specifically designated as the rite that “completes every sacred consecration” (EH 484B; cf., 484C-D, 485A). Thus, the Romanian practice of chrismating people at the end of the Divine Liturgy is appropriate. If the goal of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, as Dionysius says, is the imitation of and union with God (CH 164D, EH 393A), the rite of myron completes or fulfills the ecclesiastical hierarchy set up to achieve the goal (EH 473B). For unction completes imitation and union with Christ that is to happen in the Liturgy.

Dionysius writes in referring to what we nowadays might call “the blessing of the oil” as follows:

After the bishop’s procession around the whole church with the fragrant incense,* the chanting of the Psalms, and the reading of the most divine Scriptures; the orders of the imperfect [the unbaptized] are excluded, just as [the baptized are excluded] in the synaxis. Then, the bishop takes the oil covered over with the twelve wings [like the two seraphims’ with 6 wings on each as described in Isaiah 6] and places it on the divine altar, while all sing the sacred and inspired canticle of the God-rapt prophets. When he has finished the prayer of consecration over it, he uses it in the most holy consecrations of the things that are sanctified in almost every hierarchical function.

EH, Ch 4.2; 473A; Campbell translation. *The Greek only reads εὔοσμου, ‘fragrant.’ John Parker translates “fragrant incense.” Colm Luibheid translates “the fragrance.”

Here Dionysius does not seem to distinguish the rite of preparation/blessing of myron from the rite of chrismation/anointment/unction. The two rites became separate in the later period of the evolution (see Gorodenchuk’s discussions below).

A few pages later Dionysius continues to describes the mixing of the oil as follows—still inside the sanctuary, not visible from the people in the nave:

The open consecration of the oil is not strange or invisible to those around the bishop. On the contrary, it is manifest to them while it is reverently concealed from the multitude [the baptized laymen] because its contemplation is beyond them. By hierarchical directive, it is turned away from them. The splendor of that which is all-holy shines out clearly and without intermediary to godliness men because they live on a spiritual plane, and it perfumes their spiritual faculties without concealment. … it is unostentatiously concealed by the secret contemplators of the spiritual under the enigmas of the wings…

EH, 476B-C; Campbell trans.

By “the enigmas of the wings” Dionysius is referring to the bottle of myron wrapped in 12 wings (or 12 leaves representing the wings of the two Seraphim that Isaiah describes at the occasion of his vision of God in the Temple (Isaiah 6.2).

Dionysius goes on further to state:

… you may see the bishop carrying forth the fragrant incense* [καλὴνεὐωδίαν, ‘the beautiful and sweet smelling thing’] from the sanctuary to the holy places beyond it, teaching, by his return again to the same place, that participation [μετουσίαν] in divine things come to every holy person according to his merits, and that it remains without diminution or modification, unchangeable in its proper identity with a divine immutability.

EH, 476D; Campbell trans. Parker translates “the sweet perfume.” Luibheid translates “the lovely fragrance.”

The rite of myron is first and foremost a rite of participation, symbolizing (and thus actualizing) our “participation” in the divine by way of contact; whereas the Eucharist symbolizes the same by way of ingestion; and baptism by that of immersion. In all these sacred Symbols (or Sacraments) our participation in the divine is symbolized and thus actualized. (Dionysius never uses the Latin word sacramentum.)

In the following, Dionysius describes the myron being prepared for the baptism, again emphasizing participation:

So even the perfecting gift and grace of divine regeneration is accomplished with the most divine consecrations of the oil. I think that the bishop pouring the oil in effusions in the form of a cross on the purifying baptismal font illustrates for contemplative eyes the descent of Jesus in most sublime and divine humility to death itself on the cross for our regeneration in God, His generously snatching from the ancient gulf of corrupting death those who… ‘are baptized unto His death,’ and His effecting a renewal in a godly and eternal existence.

EH, 484B; Campbell trans.

Dionysius does not mention the rite of unction that we are familiar with, the rite of chrismation where the oil is smeared on the forehead and hands accompanied by the reading of Psalms.

Pouring oil into the water in the baptismal font symbolizes Christ’s descent to death, which is followed by the Resurrection that “snatch[es]” us up from death, as re-enacted by the rise of the initiate from the water imbued with water mixed with myron. Both the rite of anointment and that of baptism, then, effectuate “our regeneration in God” and our “godly and eternal existence.” Both symbolize (and thus actualize) our “participation [μετουσίαν] in divine things” (EH, 476D), materially and spiritually, i.e., by the water and the oil.

If the rite of the Eucharist symbolizes (and thus actualizes) our “participation in divine things” in the manner of ingesting, the rite of baptism and that of unction symbolize (and thus actualizes) our “participation in divine things” in the manner of immersion and chrismation. All these rites enable our participation in and communion with (μετουσία, κοινωνία) the divine Being/Movement/Work/Energy.

If baptism joins us to Christ’s death and resurrection, the anointment of oil (myron) brings Christ to an intimate physical contact with us, symbolically and literally. Here, the symbolic and the literal enforce each other in mutual application.

By being anointed (‘rubbed on’) with myron, one wears the “aroma of Christ” (2 Cor 2.15), the Anointed One, the Messiah. We become a messiah; and our conduct (virtue) begins to rise like the sweet fragrance of Christ. Our action and “smell” become those of Christ. For our wearing of myron is putting on “the aroma of Christ [that rises] to God…” like prayer (2 Cor 2.15).

The rite of myron is the Symbol/Sacrament through which Christ—the “well-spring of the wealth of the Divine sweetness” and “the most Divine perfumes” (EH 480A)—is imbued with us in chrismation. Chrismation, then, completes our imitation of Christ, as it brings to the perfection/completion of “every sacred consecration” (EH 484B).

The Difference Between Communion Rite and the Rite of Myron

Now, there is a significant difference between the rite of myron and the communion rite, notwithstanding the use of different materials.

The Communion is initially shared among the clergy within the sanctuary before it is brought out to the faithful in the nave (or synaxis, σύναξις, ‘gathering’) for distribution.

The rite of (blessing of) myron, in contrast—at least in Pseudo-Dionysius’ time and region—is celebrated only among the hierarchs and only within the sanctuary: “it is kept from the gaze of the multitude” (EH 476C; Parker trans.). Not even the clergy can participate in it. Unction as the rite of healing is a later development, as Gorodenchuk shows below.