Consecrated Oil for King Charles III Coronation Arrives in London

The sacred olive oil to be used at the coro­na­tion of King Charles III at Westminster Abbey in London on May 6^th has arrived from Jerusalem.

The oil was pro­duced from the hand-picked fruit of two olive groves on the Mount of Olives in the Orthodox monas­ter­ies of Mary Magdalene and Ascension of the Lord, where King Charles’ grand­mother is buried.

The anoint­ing oil for King Charles and the royal fam­ily was con­se­crated in a spe­cial cer­e­mony by the Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilus III and the Anglican Archbishop of Jerusalem Hosam Naoum.

The announce­ment was made by Buckingham Palace, which con­sid­ers the cer­e­mony a fun­da­men­tal step in antic­i­pa­tion of King Charles’ ascen­sion to the throne.

Reflecting on the event, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, thanked Patriarch Theophilus ​“for pro­vid­ing the oil for this coro­na­tion, which reflects the King’s per­sonal fam­ily con­nec­tion with the Holy Land and his great con­cern for its peo­ples.”

He noted that from the very begin­ning of the plan­ning of the coro­na­tion, he wanted ​“the new coro­na­tion oil to be made from olive oil from Mount of Olives.”

According to the arch­bishop, the fact that the oil is made from olives har­vested from the Mount of Olives ​“shows the deep his­tor­i­cal con­nec­tion between the coro­na­tion, the Bible and the Holy Land.”

“From the ancient kings to the present day, mon­archs have been anointed with oil from this holy place,” Welby added. ​“Now, as we pre­pare for the anoint­ing of the King and Queen Consort, I pray that they will be guided and strength­ened by the Holy Spirit.”

The anoint­ing cer­e­mony will take place as part of the coro­na­tion. Traditionally, oil is poured from an ampoule onto the 13^th-cen­tury sil­ver coro­na­tion spoon, and then the ruler’s hands, breasts and head are anointed with the oil. 

The oil is pro­duced accord­ing to a cen­turies-old recipe used in the anoint­ing of Charles’ mother, Queen Elizabeth II, in 1953, but with one impor­tant dif­fer­ence. 

The coro­na­tion oil of the late queen included a blend of oils of orange, rose, cin­na­mon, musk and amber­gris, a sub­stance derived from sperm whale intes­tine. 

Charles’ oil blend is made with sesame, rose, jas­mine, cin­na­mon, neroli, ben­zoin, amber and orange blos­som oils, with no ani­mal ingre­di­ents. The same oil will be used to anoint Queen Camille.

• CNN