HH Pope Tawadros II heads the ritual of producing Chrism oil at St. Bishoy monastery in Wadi Natroun

HH Pope Tawadros II, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the see of St. Mark’s headed on Tuesday morning, the mass of the Holy Chrism oil ritual for the 39th time in the history of the Orthodox Church.

The ceremony, which took place at the Monastery of St. Bishoy in Wadi Al-Natroun, began with the entry of His Holiness Pope Tawadros II, to the mass hall, in the midst of a ceremonial procession of bishops and priests of the Orthodox Church.

Chrism is a Greek word meaning good or aromatic, and the production of chrism is the second sacrament of the seven ecclesiastical sacraments in the church after baptism, worshiper is anointed only once in his life. Chrism has several uses in the Coptic Orthodox Church, sanctification of baptism water, annotation of newly baptists,  inauguration of churches, consecration of altars, consecration of the Holy Table, consecration of altar vessels, consecration of icons of the church, and annotation of kings.

Pope Athanasius the Apostolic (the 20th Pope of the Orthodox Church – lived between 296 and 373 AD) was the first to produce the Chrism in the history of the Coptic Orthodox Church based on what was brought by St. Mark founder the Church of Alexandria of saplings and fringes mixture found in the Shroud of Christ.

Chrism consists of 27 substances extracted from aromatic oils added to highly pure olive oil. The traditional method of extracting these oils from plants is based on some chemical processes, which consume a lot of time and effort, in addition to the loss of up to 30% of volatile aromatic substances during heating.

The Orthodox Church began to use modern science and technology to develop the process of producing the chrism. These pure essential oils are supplied from several international companies and high purity olive oil from the monasteries, with the practice of ecclesiastical rituals readings, hymns and prayers. This method was first applied in 2014 the 38th time in the history of church) after the approval of members of the Holy Synod on this new method, which it’s results was impressive.