Repeating of Extreme Unction

Extreme unction prepares a sick person to face hisjudgment. If a person who has received this sacrament recovers fromhis sickness, he must some day come again into danger of death. Andhe will need again the strengthening of soul afforded by extremeunction. Thus the sacrament of extreme unction can be received morethan once.

But a person does not receive extreme unction more thanonce while he is in the same danger. He may receive itmore than once in the same sickness, for a sickness maycontinue for a long time, with only now and again a period of realperil. A sick person, therefore, may receive extreme unction ineach new danger. Indeed, it is the practice of the Church, in caseof a person continuing in serious illness without showing muchchange, to permit the administering ofextreme unction once amonth. For, after a month of serious sickness with no markedimprovement, a person may well be considered to be in a new danger,a more immediate peril of death.