I cant recall who was the last person to be anathema. Its a very
serious punishment.
While "minor excommunication" could be incurred by associating with
an excommunicate, and "major excommunication" could be imposed by
any bishop, "anathema" was imposed by the Pope in a specific
ceremony described in the Pontificale Romanum.
Wearing a purple cope (the liturgical color of penitence) and
holding a lighted candle, he, surrounded by twelve priests, also
with lighted candles, pronounced the anathema with a formula that
concluded with the phrase:
"Wherefore in the name of God the All-powerful, Father, Son, and
Holy Ghost, of Blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles, and of all
the saints, in virtue of the power which has been given us of
binding and loosing in Heaven and on earth, we deprive (Name)
himself and all his accomplices and all his abettors of the
Communion of the Body and Blood of Our Lord, we separate him from
the society of all Christians, we exclude him from the bosom of our
Holy Mother the Church in Heaven and on earth, we declare him
excommunicated and anathematized and we judge him condemned to
eternal fire with Satan and his angels and all the reprobate, so
long as he will not burst the fetters of the demon, do penance and
satisfy the Church; we deliver him to Satan to mortify his body,
that his soul may be saved on the day of judgment."
The priests responded: "Fiat, fiat, fiat" (Let it be done), and
all, including the pontiff, cast their lighted candles on the
ground.
