t by members of the
congregation, as follows: "Do thou now sanctify this water and this
oil, through Christ, in the name of him that offered or of her that
offered, and give to these things a power of producing health and of
driving away diseases, of putting to flight demons, of dispersing
every snare through Christ our Hope," etc.

About 390, St. Jerome wrote a life of St. Hilarion (291-371) in which
the latter is thus set forth as a healer: "But lo! that parched and
sandy district, after the rain had fallen, unexpectedly produced such
vast numbers of serpents and poisonous animals that many, who were
bitten, would have died at once if they had not run to Hilarion. He
therefore blessed some oil, with which all the husbandmen and
shepherds touched their wounds and found an infallible cure."

Oil was not always employed for anointing, but might be drunk by the
sick, and this use of it was made in healing a girl, by St. Martin of
Tours, about 395. St. Germain, Bishop of Auxerre (418-448), when the
physicians were powerless during a plague, blessed some oil and
anointed the swollen jaws of those who were sick, whereupon they
recovered; and St. Genevieve of Paris, who died about 502, used to
heal the sick with oil.

In Bede's biography of St. Cuthbert we find an instance of this saint
healing a girl about the year 687. A young woman was troubled for a
whole year with an intolerable pain in her head and side which the
physicians were unable to relieve. Cuthbert "in pity anointed the
wretched woman with oil. From that time she began to get better, and
was well in a few days."

At the beginning of the eighth century the anointing of the sick began
to decline, largely on account of the changed attitude of the church.
At this time this ceremony began to be used for spiritual ills rather
than for bodily diseases. Before long, anointing was monopolized by
the church for spiritual advantage, and is still so used by the Roman
Catholic Church in the ceremony of Extreme Unction.

In returning to the more direct methods of healing, we find that St.
Gregory of Nazianzus (329-390) confirmed the reports of the marvellous
cures wrought by the martyrs, Cosmo and Damian, who were beheaded in
303. During the life of Gregory of Tours (538-594), the healing
efficacy of the saints' relics was rivalled by the miraculous aid
rendered to the sick by St. Julian. The solitude of the holy anchorite
was interrupted by the persistent and despairin