Viaticum

(vi-al'e-kum.) [L.; from via, a journey.] (Antiq.) Among the Romans, an allowance or provision made by the republic for such of its officers or magistrates as travelled upon the busine of the state into any of the provinces. The term V. implies not only money for defraying the expenses of travelling, but their clothes, ornaments, baggage, .-(Eccl. Hist.) In the Roman Catholic Church, an appellation given to the eucharist when administered to persons at the point of death, 58 [s. 937]