Last Rites (trope)

"...I smelled chrism oil: the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick. It's often - erroneously - called Last Rites, and it's often portrayed that way in movies, but in fact, it's often done for anyone suffering from a serious illness or trauma."

- From It's Just A Habit by Captain Boulanger

The Last Rites are the final ministrations to the dying in various Christian churches. In the West, the version performed by the Roman Catholic Church is probably the most common, and is composed of three sacraments: the Anointing of the Sick (sometimes referred to as Unction or Supreme Unction), Penance and the Eucharist (Holy Communion). In Eastern churches -- particularly the Eastern Orthodox Church and Byzantine-Rite Catholic Churches -- there are two parts to the Last Rites, the Sacred Mysteries of Confession and the reception of Holy Communion. In general, Protestant churches do not have a distinct, separate set of rites for the dying.

When the Last Rites appear in fiction (if they appear at all), they are almost always and only depicted as the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick from Catholicism, to the point that the Anointing is frequently mistaken outside of fiction as being the entirety of the Last Rites, and sometimes mistaken for a universally Christian ritual. It's also mistakenly presented as only ever used for those in immediate danger of death, but in reality it is performed suffering from severe illness or injury, even if their condition is not immediately life-threatening. (In reality, it is the reception of the Eucharist -- called in this instance the Viaticum (Latin for "provision for the journey") -- that is the only sacrament essentially associated with dying, not the Anointing.)

This trope encompasses all use, misuse or misidentification of the Last Rites in fiction, including the use of Roman Catholic rites in non-Catholic contexts.

Fan Works

 * Averted in the "Teraverse" side-story It's Just A Habit by "Captain Boulanger". POV character Marie O'Neill is a Catholic eucharistic minister -- a variety of Catholic lay-clergy with a very limited remit -- and in one chapter she remarks on the difference between the movies and reality when it comes to the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick.

Live-Action Television

 * Father Mulcahy is frequently seen administering the Last Rites in M*A*S*H. We rarely get to see him do more than begin the process, though, but it's clear that it's the Anointing that he's performing, not the Viaticum -- if only because he's usually performing it on an unconscious soldier.