A SICK-CALL CRUCIFIX

The last conversation that I had with Chuck Pullman was sitting in the grandstand at Santa Anita Racetrack, where he shared with me, in the best one-to-one conversation that I'd ever had with him, that my parents loved being Catholics.  There certainly were a number of reminders of that fact in the house.  My mom bought Guardian Angel light switch covers for each room in the house.  Our mother did love her little babies.  

And in one, maybe two, of the bedrooms of our house was a sick-call crucifix.  I'd seen them at the homes of friends whose parents also were Catholic.  These crucifixes are large, wooden, and a bit heavy because this crucifix has compartments filled with candles, holy water, a white cloth, and even instructions on how and what to do with each item.  Catholic Faith Store explains that, 

Many Catholic Families will have a sick call set as they are used for anointing a sick family member or friend. When the sick call crucifix is not in use it can be hung on a wall as any other wall crucifix. The set is comprised of two parts, the top with the corpus and the base which holds the candles and the Holy Water vessel. The top part of the set is the front of the crucifix. This piece comes off the base and stands upright at the top of the base (please note that with most sets, the top will often stand at an angle). The bottom part of the set is the base. In the base are found two candles, one for each side of the base and a small vessel for Holy Water.

But these crucifixes were last-rites crucifixes.  What were they doing in our house?  I'd always thought that they were souvenirs from some special service that Dad did with the different churches that he'd been connected to.  But they weren't.  They were part of the last-rites sacrament.  That sounds ominous but I think they were also used for any time anyone in the household was sick, regardless of severity.  

I do recall going with my dad on several occasions to the funerals of different relatives, friends, and coworkers.  Yeah, he wanted a companion, some type of consolation even if it was with his 12-year-old son, so I was the one who went with him.  I will never forget how I used to step up to the altar rails (also referred to as communion rails), kneel, and pray for a person I never knew.  

A set of altar rails in Saint Teresa's Carmelite Church, Dublin.  

Chest-high rails around the altar were used as early as the fifth century to prevent the people from interfering with the ministers of the eucharist. The people came to the altar rails to receive the sacrament, which meant that the altar rails served as communion rails. Some places continued the early church practice of administering communion by ministers who moved among the people. Standing was the normal posture for receiving communion until the thirteenth century, when kneeling to receive the sacrament became customary. This practice was related to the elevation of the host by the celebrant. Altar rails were first used in England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. The Puritans disliked altar rails. They often removed them from churches and moved the altar into the body of the church. William Laud (1573-1645), Archbishop of Canterbury, directed that altars be returned to the east wall of churches and fenced by altar rails for protection against desecration. The altar rails were latticed. Bishop Wren of Norwich noted that they were "so thick with pillars that doggs may not gett in." The English clergy continued to move among the people to administer the sacraments until the eighteenth century, when the altar rail came to be used as the communion rail. In the nineteenth century, the chancel was seen as the room for the sacrament and the nave was seen as the room for the liturgy of the word. Altar rails in the Episcopal Church are low, reflecting the assumption that the people will kneel to receive communion. Altar rails may be made of metal or wood. Current liturgical usage has emphasized the shared participation of celebrant and people in the eucharist, and tended to remove barriers between the altar and the congregation.

Back to the sick-call crucifix.

When a person is homebound, bedridden, or suffering from a severe ailment, Catholics are taught to call the priest. Decades ago the sacrament reserved for the very ill or dying was known as Extreme Unction (last anointing) or more commonly “Last Rites.” Today we know it as the Anointing of the Sick, and it is not given exclusively to those who are on their deathbed. It is one of the seven sacraments and invokes God’s divine aid for those suffering in a physical way.

In days when people more often died at home, there developed the custom of having a “sick-call” crucifix on hand for emergency visits by a priest. This type of crucifix was hung on the wall of a person’s home (usually above the bed). The crucifix contained a hidden compartment, revealed by sliding the face of the cross downward. Within the compartment were two candles, a small bottle of holy water and sometimes a white cloth.

The purpose of the sick-call crucifix — they are still made today — is to facilitate the ritual connected to the Anointing of the Sick, making the bedside a sacred space for the sacrament. Interestingly, it used to be a popular wedding present, meant to be hung over the bed of a married couple, ready to be of used when a spouse was in need of anointing. It reminded the couple of their commitment to be true to each other “in sickness and in health.”

Here is a brief instruction on how to prepare for a home visit by a priest to celebrate the Anointing of the Sick.