(ZENIT News – Holy Land / Jerusalem, 03.22.2023).- The chrism oil that the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, will use to anoint King Charles III, during the coronation ceremony in Westminster Abbey, in London on May 6, 2023, comes from Jerusalem, announced a press release of the British Royal Household.
The oil was consecrated on Friday morning, March 3 in the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher, during a Rite presided over by the Greek-Orthodox Patriarch Theophilus III and the Anglican Archbishop of Jerusalem and the Near East, Hosam Naoum. It will be used on May 6 to anoint the head, chest and hands of the Sovereign, who is also head of the Anglican Church. The ceremonial calls for the Queen Consort, Camilla, to receive the anointing also after her husband.
The oil was obtained in an oil press near Bethlehem, pressed fruit of two olive trees of the Mount of Olives, included in the properties of the Monastery of the Ascension and of the Russian Orthodox Magdalena Church, outstanding for its golden onion domes, just above the Basilica of the Agony, where King Charles’ paternal grandmother, Princess Alice of Greece, is buried. The chrism is perfumed with orange blossom buds and sesame, rose, jasmine, cinnamon, neroli, musk and amber essences, in keeping with a formula in use for centuries in the English Court. A similar oil was used to anoint Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.
