Viaticum is a term used – especially in the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

– for the

Eucharist The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was instit ...

(also called Holy Communion), administered, with or without Anointing of the Sick (also called Extreme Unction), to a person who is dying; viaticum is thus a part of the

Last Rites The last rites, also known as the Commendation of the Dying, are the last prayers and ministrations given to an individual of Christian faith, when possible, shortly before death. They may be administered to those awaiting execution, mortall ...

Usage

The word ''viaticum'' is a Latin word meaning "provision for a journey", from ''via,'' or "way". For Communion as Viaticum, the Eucharist is given in the usual form, with the added words "May the Lord Jesus Christ protect you and lead you to eternal life". The Eucharist is seen as the ideal spiritual food to strengthen a dying person for the journey from this world to life after death. Alternatively, ''viaticum'' can refer to an ancient Roman provision or allowance for traveling, originally of transportation and supplies, later of money, made to officials on public missions; mostly simply, the word, a

haplology Haplology (from Greek "simple" and , "speech") is, in spoken language, the elision (elimination or deletion) of an entire syllable through dissimilation (a differentiating shift that affects two neighboring similar sounds). The phenomenon was ...

of ''viā tēcum'' ("with you on the way"), indicates money or necessities for any journey. ''Viaticum'' can also refer to the enlistment bonus received by a

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

legionary, auxiliary soldier or seaman in the Roman Imperial Navy.

Practice

The desire to have the bread and wine consecrated in the Eucharist available for the sick and dying led to the reservation of the

Blessed Sacrament The Blessed Sacrament, also Most Blessed Sacrament, is a devotional name to refer to the body and blood of Christ in the form of consecrated sacramental bread and wine at a celebration of the Eucharist. The term is used in the Latin Church of the ...

, a practice which has endured from the earliest days of the Christian Church. Saint Justin Martyr, writing less than fifty years after the death of

Saint John the Apostle John the Apostle ( grc, Ἰωάννης; la, Ioannes ; Ge'ez: ዮሐንስ;) or Saint John the Beloved was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus according to the New Testament. Generally listed as the youngest apostle, he was the son of Zebedee a ...

, mentions that "the

deacons A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Churc ...

communicate each of those present, and carry away to the absent the consecrated Bread, and wine and water". (Just. M. Apol. I. cap. lxv.) If the dying person cannot take solid food, the Eucharist may be administered via the

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...

alone, since Catholicism holds that Christ exists in his entirety (body, blood, soul, and divinity) in both the consecrated solid and liquid elements. The sacrament of

Extreme Unction In the Catholic Church, the anointing of the sick, also known as Extreme Unction, is a Catholic sacrament that is administered to a Catholic "who, having reached the age of reason, begins to be in danger due to sickness or old age", except in t ...

is often administered immediately before giving Viaticum if a

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particu ...

is available to do so. Unlike the Anointing of the Sick, Viaticum may be administered by a priest,

deacon A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Chur ...

or by an extraordinary minister, using the

reserved Reserved is a Polish apparel retailer headquartered in Gdańsk, Pomerania, Poland. It was founded in 1999 and remains the largest company of the LPP group, which has more than 1,700 retail stores located in over 20 countries and also owns such ...

Blessed Sacrament.

Relation to pre-Christian funerary practice

Late Antiquity Late antiquity is the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, generally spanning the 3rd–7th century in Europe and adjacent areas bordering the Mediterranean Basin. The popularization of this periodization in English ha ...

and the

Early Mediaeval The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th or early 6th century to the 10th century. They marked the start of the Mi ...

period in the West, the

host A host is a person responsible for guests at an event or for providing hospitality during it. Host may also refer to: Places * Host, Pennsylvania, a village in Berks County People *Jim Host (born 1937), American businessman * Michel Host ...

was sometimes placed in the mouth of a person already dead. Some claim this could relate to a traditional practice that scholars have compared to the pre-Christian custom of

Charon's obol Charon's obol is an allusive term for the coin placed in or on the mouth of a dead person before burial. Greek and Latin literary sources specify the coin as an obol, and explain it as a payment or bribe for Charon, the ferryman who conveyed ...

, a small coin placed in the mouth of the dead for passage to the afterlife and sometimes also called a ''viaticum'' in Latin literary sources.A. Rush, ''Death and Burial in Christian Antiquity'' (Washington, D.C. 1941), pp. 93–94; Gregory Grabka, “Christian Viaticum: A Study of Its Cultural Background,” ''Traditio'' 9 (1953), 1–43; Frederick S. Paxton, ''Christianizing Death: The Creation of a Ritual Process in Early Medieval Europe'' (

Cornell University Press The Cornell University Press is the university press of Cornell University; currently housed in Sage House, the former residence of Henry William Sage. It was first established in 1869, making it the first university publishing enterprise in t ...

1990), pp. 32–3
online
G.J.C. Snoek, ''Medieval Piety from Relics to the Eucharist: A Process of Mutual Interaction'' (Leiden 1995), ''passim'', but especially pp. 102–10
online
and 122–12
online
Paul Binski, ''Medieval Death: Ritual and Representation'' (Cornell University Press 1996), p. 3
online
J. Patout Burns, “Death and Burial in Christian Africa: The Literary Evidence,” paper delivered to the North American Patristics Society, May 1997

/ref>

References

Bibliography

* Rubin, Miri, ''Corpus Christi: The Eucharist in Late Medieval Culture'', Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991. * Snoek, C. J. K., ''Medieval Piety from Relics to the Eucharist: A Process of Mutual Interaction'', Leiden: Brill, 1995, {{CatholicMass Eucharistic devotions