SACRAMENTS

SACRAMENTS. The Latin word, sacramentum, finds its equivalent in the Orthodox use of the term, “mystery” (Greek, mysterion). The “mysteries” in the Orthodox Church are usually numbered seven as in the Roman Catholic Church (q.v.) as a result of the latter’s influence in the 13th c.: Baptism (q.v.), Chrismation (anointing of the newly baptized), Communion or Eucharist (q.v.), Ordination (q.v.) (of bishop, priest, and deacon), Matrimony, Confession (q.v.), and Unction (the solemn anointing of the sick).

While seven has been the usual count since the 15th c., reinforced by the conciliar decision at Bethlehem (1692) presided over by Patriarch Dositheus, earlier numbering was considerably more fluid. The 4th c. Church Fathers (q.v.) usually speak of Baptism, Chrismation, and Eucharist. In the 5th c. or early 6th c., Dionysius the Areopagite (q.v.) added ordination, monastic tonsure, and Christian burial to the latter three. In addition, his chapter devoted to the Chrism concentrates on the consecration of the oil itself, the Holy Myron, used both to administer the post-baptismal anointing and to consecrate the altar. The latter, consecration of a church, together with the great blessing of water on Theophany (6 January), are included among the sacraments in some early medieval lists. Orthodox monks follow Dionysius with enthusiasm, still insisting on monastic tonsure as a sacrament. Thus, the list of seven that generally prevails cannot be said to be as fixed in Orthodoxy as in Roman Catholicism. Orthodox theologians sometimes quip that the sacraments may be numbered variously as one, two, three, seven, nine-or 232.

Finally, the notion of sacrament (mysterion) as that which pertains to the one mystery of Christ, and as communicating that mystery, extends into the worshiping Church’s every action: the painting of icons (q.v.), blessings of different objects, etc. Far more important, then, than any enumeration is the idea of sacrament as that which manifests Christ and enables the participant to partake of him. From this the Eucharist, a collective action in cooperation with the Holy Spirit (q.v.) fully manifesting the Church, is the only sacrament to which Orthodox refer without qualification as “the mysteries.” In this sense it is the Church itself that is finally the sacrament par excellence.