Editing Viaticum (section)

== Practice ==
[[File:Alexey Venetsianov 25.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|left|Administration of the ([[Eastern Orthodox]]) Eucharist to a dying woman (1839 painting by artist [[Alexey Venetsianov]])]]

The desire to have the bread and wine consecrated in the Eucharist available for the sick and dying led to the reservation of the [[Blessed Sacrament]], a practice which has endured from the earliest days of the [[Christian Church]]. [[Justin Martyr|Saint Justin Martyr]], writing less than fifty years after the death of [[John the Apostle|Saint John the Apostle]], mentions that "the [[Deacon|deacons]] communicate each of those present, and carry away to the absent the consecrated Bread, and wine and water". (Just. M. Apol. I. cap. lxv.)

If the dying person cannot take solid food, the Eucharist may be administered via the [[Blood of Christ|wine]] alone, since Catholicism holds that Christ [[Real presence of Christ in the Eucharist|exists in his entirety]] (body, blood, soul, and divinity) in both the consecrated solid and liquid elements.

The sacrament of [[Extreme Unction]] is often administered immediately before giving Viaticum if a [[priest]] is available to do so. Unlike the Anointing of the Sick, Viaticum may be administered by a priest, [[deacon]] or by an [[extraordinary minister of Holy Communion|extraordinary minister]], using the [[Reservation of the Blessed Sacrament|reserved]] Blessed Sacrament.