HOLY WATER (Lat. aqua benudietu). Water blessed by a priest for religious uses, and employed in the Roman Catholic and Oriental churches. In most ancient religious. the use of lustral or purifying water not only formed part of the public worship, but also entered largely into the personal acts of sanctification prescribed to individuals. The Jewish law contained many provisions to the same effect; and Christ, by estab lishing baptism with water as the necessary form of initiation into the religion instituted by Dim, gave ]his sanction to the use. The usage of sprinkling the hands and face with water before entering the sanctuary, which was prescribed in the Jewish law, was retained. or at least very early adopted. in the Christian Church. It is expressly mentioned by Tertullian in the end of the second century. And that the water so employed was blessed by the priests we learn from Saint Jerome, and from the Apostolic Con stitutions, which contain a formula for the pur pose. That now given in the Itoman missal and
ritual has !nen preserved unaltered from the saeramentary of Saint Gregory. It includes an exorcism (q.v.) and the admixture of salt which has been blessed. The water so prepared is sprinkled by the priest on the congregation be fore high mass (this rite being called the as perqes, from the first word of the antluln which is sung during its progress), and is publicly em ployed as part of the rites for funerals and for the blessing of various objects and persons; that used in the consecration (q.v.) is prepared in a special manner. The ordinary holy water is also used privately by devout Roman Catholics on entering and leaving the church, and at other times. It is considered by them as included among saeramentals (q.v.). Although it is diffi cult to fix the precise time, it cannot be doubted that the practice of mingling salt with the water is of very ancient origin.