Sacred oils and where they are produced. Someone please tell me

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Bob_Needham

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Interested in where the sacred oils are produced, USA , Vatican or where?
 
Sorry, I’ve got no idea. But I’d assume they are made in the country where they are used.
 
There is no requirement for “sacred oil” other than it be a vegetable oil, although it is almost always olive oil scented with balsam. However, I doubt that the bishop sends his assistant out to buy several gallons from the local grocery store before the chrism Mass. I tried googling the “usual” sources with no success, just as I cannot figure out who makes the communion wafers or who actually burns the palm branches to produce the ashes for Ash Wednesday. Apparently everyone who needs to know these things just knows, and the manufacturers don’t need to advertise (they might very well be nuns secluded somewhere).
 
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jbuck919:
just as I cannot figure out who … actually burns the palm branches to produce the ashes for Ash Wednesday.
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Our priest burns the blessed palms from the previous years that parishioners have brought in. Those ashes are then used. He does this with the Catholic school children present.
 
I can tell you that I used to see the oil used. It was canola oil bought in bulk from costco.

Sorry to dissapoint.

I’m not sure where the aromatic nard for the chrism comes from
 
They make it in the secret archives of the Vatican, where they keep the real documentation on the Inquistion and the 12 affadavits signed by the apostles saying “Nyaah, nyaah, we hid the body and Mary Magedeline is the true leader of the Church.” 😃

Just kidding. I don’t know where it comees from.
 
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jbuck919:
I cannot figure out who makes the communion wafers or who actually burns the palm branches to produce the ashes for Ash Wednesday. Apparently everyone who needs to know these things just knows, and the manufacturers don’t need to advertise (they might very well be nuns secluded somewhere).
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I know nuns in a cloistered Carmelite monastary in Piedmont, OK make the communion hosts and ship them all over the country. It is a business that allows them to work in the monastary and pay their bills.

I read somewhere on these threads that a firm in Dallas, TX produces the ashes for Ash Wednesday if the priest doesn’t want to make his own. There is apparently an art to producing the ashes so that they stick to the forehead and aren’t too powdery.
 
palms, candles, paschal candles, ashes, communion wafers, sacramental wine, incense and all the other ephemera are purchased from commercial religious supply houses and from non-profits like monasteries and cloistered convents. Parishes who try burning their own palms quickly find out how difficult it is to produce a product that can be used. I was surprised to see that one company we order from, Autom, has sent us a new catalog full of communion sets, garb, choir robes, etc. obviously intended for Protestant churches - disposable wine cups that look like coffee creamer you get in a diner, etc.
 
the Sacred Oils should be a mixture of Olive Oil and an aromatic “balsam”…Oils are prepared at the chancery of the diocese probably by someone in the Office of Liturgy. Don’t know where the “balsam” comes from or exactly what is it, but someone from the Office of Liturgy should be helpful or a Catholic Encyclopedia. Oils are blessed or consecrated (not sure exactly ) at the Diocesan Mass of Chrism, usually held on Wednesday of Holy Week or the morning of Holy Thursday, all the priests of the Diocese attend and pledge their obedience to their Bishop. It is a lovely and very moving Liturgy, all should try to attend if possible. Great distances in Dioceses often prevent this. After the Mass , each priest receives oils to take back to his Parish. The oils from last year should be burned. Several years ago, Father burned them in an oil lamp, while a group of us said Morning Prayer and the Office of Readings.
Ashes are still obtained from the burned palm…difficult, yes but after doing it year after year, it becomes a perfected science. Never heard of ashes being purchased from a religious supply .
Blessings and peace.
Teresa :cool:
 
In our diocese the Archbishop has on occasion asked for contributions of oil - only olive oil - for the Chrism Mass in Holy Week. Where they get the balsalm from I do not know.
 
Joan M:
In our diocese the Archbishop has on occasion asked for contributions of oil - only olive oil - for the Chrism Mass in Holy Week. Where they get the balsalm from I do not know.
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This is astonishing. Asking for contributions of olive oil? An archdiocese lacks the funds to go out and by it buy the gallon? Or is he just trying to make everyone feel involved? Olive oil can turn rancid. It is irresponsible to rely on oil from unvetted sources, even the faithful, for the chrism. That oil may have been sitting around for five years. And besides, who wants to consolidate 5000 small bottles of store-bought individual-use olive oil?
 
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jbuck919:
There is no requirement for “sacred oil” other than it be a vegetable oil, although it is almost always olive oil scented with balsam. However, I doubt that the bishop sends his assistant out to buy several gallons from the local grocery store before the chrism Mass. I tried googling the “usual” sources with no success, just as I cannot figure out who makes the communion wafers or who actually burns the palm branches to produce the ashes for Ash Wednesday. Apparently everyone who needs to know these things just knows, and the manufacturers don’t need to advertise (they might very well be nuns secluded somewhere).
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You find them in the religious goods catalogues.
Autom (sp?) is one.
The Oil is usually olive oil.
 
try to attend the Chrism Mass in your diocese, used to be on Holy Thursday, but now may be during Holy Week or 5th week of Lent. You will see the oils prepared and blessed by the bishop, with all the priests of the diocese attending. A truly awesome experience. The oil is ordinary olive oil, usually purchased from a liturgical supply company, and the spices may be added during the rite. then it is put in containers and representatives from each parish come forward to receive the oils that will be used in their parish for the coming year. You just have to be there.
Bob Needham:
Interested in where the sacred oils are produced, USA , Vatican or where?
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Has anyone here ever heard of the candles called " His essence"?
I’d like to buy some myself. My sister sells essential oils, and one
in particular she has is frankincense. I bought that from her, and
can’t wait to get it! Good for alot of maladies! But I’d really like to
get my hands on one of those candles.
 
If I mad add a couple of clarifications. The “sacred oils” are supposed to be olive oil, but other vegetable oils may be used if olive oil is not available. Any commercial olive oil will suffice and, yes, most dioceses buy it in bulkk before the Chrism Mass where the oils are blessed/consecrated.

The Oil of Catechumens and Oil of the Sick are just plain olive oil that the bishop has blessed. The Sacred Chrism is plain olive oil to which the bishop has added balsam (an aromatic fragrance made from different plants or trees) and then consecrated by the bishop. Balsam may usually be purchased from suppliers of incense.

Note that in the Eastern Churches the myron (the Eastern equivalent of Chrism) must be blessed by the Patriarch if it is a patriarchal Church or by the Metropolitan if it is a metropolitan Church.

Deacon Ed
 
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