Call for the Priests of the Church: St. Catherine Celebrates its first Unction Healing Service

by: Noelle A.R. Liddell

The parking lot across from Saint Catherine Orthodox Church in Columbus, Mississippi was remarkably full on the morning of Saturday, September 5, 2026. I walked across the lot to the parish, noticing license plates from Alabama and Mississippi counties spanning a hundred miles. Inside the parish, I found a packed building; men, women, children, priests, and altar servers. Several women were preparing food in the kitchen while a handful of mothers rocked infants in the library. In the nave, mellifluous voices sang in harmony from behind the choir stand, faces that were unfamiliar to me, but melodies that rang familiar. The earthy-sweet aroma of incense mingled with the summer heat as three missions joined together under one roof to celebrate the first Holy Unction healing service in Saint Catherine's Mission history.

Holy Unction was presided over by Fr. Herman Garrison of Saint Catherine’s and concelebrated by Fr. David Bibeau and Deacon Gerasimos Klein of Saint Paul’s in Tupelo, Mississippi, along with Fr. Rupert Cole and Protodeacon Ephraim Rivers of Saint Herman’s in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Altar servers included Paul Cole and Constantine Downey and the choir was skillfully led by Reader Michael King.
Not only was this the first Unction service at Saint Catherine Orthodox Church but it was also the first assembly of its size and the first time all three regional Orthodox missions celebrated a service together.

The rite of Holy Unction, much like the liturgies and feasts I have attended over the last year, have a quality of timelessness, or rather, existing outside of time. Nothing about these rites and services feel particularly American or contemporary, rather they transport the participants to some other place. In a world where modernity seems ubiquitous, many find themselves seeking something that feels ancient, traditional, and holy.

Father David shared a homily on doubt, recounting the numerous miracles he has witnessed as a priest, while urging us to remember the meaning of words we pray continually: "Thy will be done". He describes the sacrament of Holy Unction as the “putting on of God’s mercy,” reminding us that suffering and death are the reality of this life and that our prayer should be for His mercy to help us persevere. He describes this miracle as a heart transformation, explaining that he has seen incredible healing in the form of a life of filth transformed into a life in Christ. In his words, “changed hearts are the greatest miracle.”

Toward the end of the service, soft murmurs of female voices could be heard in the kitchen along with shuffling bodies and chairs, as Presbytera Ruth and several other women prepared the agape meal of fried chicken, potato salad, and homemade cobbler, in addition to a dozen more desserts and side dishes provided from visitors and local parishioners. For an hour after Holy Unction, everyone ate and mingled while children tossed a football in the front churchyard. Every available chair was occupied during the agape meal and still some individuals stood with their plates around the coffee bar and kitchen counters.

I talked for a while with a woman from Saint Paul’s mission in Tupelo. She is a convert to Orthodoxy and as we discussed our surprisingly similar paths to the fullness of the faith, she said something that resonated with me and seemed to encapsulate the experience of most converts I’ve spoken with: “I was searching for Truth, and it was right here all along.” The feeling of finding the Orthodox church is much like one who has wandered in the desert without water being led to a fresh stream.

As an inquirer to the Orthodox faith, the proper words to describe liturgical rites and sacraments escape me. I am limited to sights and sounds and feelings, but these are the only way I can experience the holy mysteries, for now. When Saint Paul writes, “now we see through a mirror, dimly; but then face to face,” I internalize this as the feeling I have witnessing these mysteries at a distance. I cannot touch them or see them with true clarity; I am watching it all unfold, with awe and yearning, as if through a veil.

This was a beautiful and historic moment for Orthodoxy in Mississippi and for Saint Catherine Orthodox Church. The first Holy Unction serves as a mile marker of sorts, a means of measuring just how much Saint Catherine’s has grown since its founding in 2018. There is hope to make this at least an annual gathering for the faithful - rotating hosts around the three missions in the region. In the meantime, we are thankful that this ancient mystery of the Church can be celebrated here in Northeast Mississippi.