The Oil of Saints, also known as the Manna of the Saints, is "an aromatic liquid with healing properties"[1] or "holy water (very much like myrrh)"[2] which "is said to have flowed, or still flows, from the relics or burial places"[3] of certain Christian saints, who are known as myroblytes while the exudation itself is referred to as myroblysia[4] or myroblytism. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, some icons are also believed to release such oil.[1]
According to Michael Ott, the term also refers to "the oil in the lamps that burn before the shrines of saints" or "the water that flows from the wells near their burial places", or "the oil and the water which have in some way come in contact with their relics."[3]
According to Michael Ott:
These oils are or have been used by the faithful, with the belief that they will cure bodily and spiritual ailments, not through any intrinsic power of their own, but through the intercession of the saints with whom the oils have some connection. In the days of the St. Paulinus of Nola (d. 431) the custom prevailed of pouring oil over the relics or reliquaries of martyrs and then gathering it in vases, sponges, or pieces of cloth. This oil, oleum martyris, was distributed among the faithful as a remedy against sickness [Paulini Nolani Carmen, XVIII, lines 38-40 and Carmen, XXI, lines 590-600, in Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum (Vienna, 1866 sq.), XXX, 98, 177]. According to the testimony of [Paulinus of Pétrigeux] (wrote about 470) in Gaul this custom was extended also to the relics of saints that did not die as martyrs, especially to the relics of St. Martin of Tours (Paulini Petricordiae Carmen de vita S. Martini, V, 101 sq. in Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, XVI, 111). In their accounts of miracles, wrought through the application of oils of saints, the early ecclesiastical writers do not always state just what kind of oils of saints is meant. Thus St Augustine (City of God, Book XXII) mentions that a dead man was brought to life by the agency of the oil of St Stephen. [3]
InMugnano del Cardinale, a local woman on 26 August 1805 placed her hands into the oil lamp that burned in front of the sacred body of Saint Philomena and anointed the eyes of her blind child. The child's vision was said to be immediately restored.[5] Every year, the oil at the Sanctuary of St. Philomena is blessed by the local bishop (Roman Catholic Diocese of Nola, in Italy) and distributed to faithful Christians.[5] The Oil of Saint Philomena has the status of a sacramental and devotees are usually anointed on the forehead with it by either a priest or layperson.[citation needed]
"Gregory of Tours (De Gloria martyrum, xxx: Patrologia Latina, LXXI, 730) testifies that a certain substance like flour emanated from the sepulchre of John the Evangelist. The same Gregory writes (ibid., xxxi) that from the sepulchre of the Apostle St. AndrewatPatrae emanated manna in the form of flour and fragrant oil."[3]
