In the medieval period, the chrismation of the dead body, while it
retained the connection with baptism, came to be associated with the
forgiveness of sins. In a twelfth- century euchologion, the prayer that
accompanies the rite asks God “to sanctify this oil, so that it becomes for
those anointed by it a means for the remission of sins and deliverance from
trespasses.” (Vasileios Marinis, Death and Afterlife in Byzantium:
The Fate of the Soul in Theology, Liturgy, and Art [Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2017], 67)
The author provides the Greek at ibid., 155 n. 77. She
quotes from Themistoklis Christodoulou,
Ἡ Νεκρώσιμη ἀκολουθία κατὰ τοὺς χειρόγραφους κώδικες 10 ου - 12 ου αἰῶνος .
2 vols. (Thira, Greece, 2005), 2:377:
Δέσποτα ἁγίασον καὶ τὸ ἔλαιον τοῦτο
· ὥστε γενέσθαι τοῖς χριομένοις ἐξ αὐτοῦ , εἰς ἄφεσιν ἁμαρτιῶν , εἰς ἀπαλλαγὴν
τῶν πλημμελημάτων αὐτοῦ
