Saint Geneviève and the Anointing of the Sick

By the twelfth century anointing of the sick, the sacrament of Extreme Unction, was tied to penance and was the province of priests. Nonetheless, the Scholastics treated the past role of holy persons not ordained to the priesthood as healers, who anointed with oil. The example they treated most often was that of Saint Geneviève of Paris. The theologians concluded that prayers of saints might be more effective than those of a priest in physical healing, but any anointing they did was not sacramental, neither forgiving venial sins nor abolishing "remnants of sin" to prepare the soul for the afterlife.