All Water is Holy on Epiphany?

[JPUSC]

Orthodox Russians celebrate Epiphany
The holy water blessed on Epiphany is considered to preserve its special qualities – the ability to improve spiritual and physical health – throughout the year.

Orthodox Christians believe that on Epiphany all water around the world becomes holy, and immersing oneself in it three times will prevent illnesses.

Usually there is no lack of those brave enough for a sacred ice swim as it’s said one cannot catch a cold on this day.

russiatoday.com/news/news/36067

Do Eastern Catholics also believe this?

Is it true that all the water around the world becomes holy on Epiphany and you can’t catch a cold on this day? Where did this belief come from? Is there any validity to this or is it just superstition?

 

[Eucharisted]

From New Advent.

It is, however, by way of actual baptism on this day that the West seems to enter into connection with the East. St. Chrysostom (Hom. in Bapt. Chr. in P.G., XLIX, 363) tells us how the Antiochians used to take home baptismal water consecrated on the night of the festival, and that it remained for a year without corruption. To this day, the blessing of the waters by the dipping into river, sea, or lake of a crucifix, and by other complicated ritual, is a most popular ceremony. A vivid account is quoted by Neale (“Holy Eastern Church”, Introduction, p. 754; cf. the Greek, Syriac, Coptic, and Russian versions, edited or translated from the original texts by John, Marquess of Bute, and A. Wallis Budge). The people consider that all ailments, spiritual and physical, can be cured by the application of the blessed water. The custom would seem, however, to be originally connected rather with the miracle of Cana than with the Baptism. That baptism on this day was quite usual in the West is proved, however, by the complaint of Bishop Himerius of Tarragona to Pope Damasus (d. 384), that baptisms were being celebrated on the feast of the Epiphany. Pope Siricius, who answered him (P.L., XIII, 1134) identifies the feasts of Natalitia Christi and of his Apparitio, and is very indignant at the extension of the period for baptisms beyond that of Easter and that of Pentecost. Pope Leo I (“Ep. xvi ad Sicil. episcopos”, c. i, in P.L., LIV, 701; cf. 696) denounces the practice as an irrationabilis novitas; yet the Council of Gerona (can. iv) condemned it in 517, and Victor Vitensis alludes to it as the regular practice of the (Roman-) African Church (De Persec. Vandal., II, xvii, in P.L., LVIII, 216). St. Gregory of Tours, moreover (De gloriâ martyrum in P.L., LXXI, 783; cf. cc. xvii, xix), relates that those who lived near the Jordan bathed in it that day, and that miracles were then wont to take place. St. Jerome (Comm. in Ez., I, i, on verse 3 in P.L., XXV, 18) definitely asserts that it is for the baptism and opening of the heavens that the dies Epiphaniorum is still venerable and not for the Nativity of Christ in the flesh, for then absconditus est, et non apparuit – “He was hidden, and did not appear.”

 

[JPUSC]

OK, so since the Catholic Church recognizes the Orthodox Church as a valid Church, if I were to get some water from anywhere in the world on Epiphany, would it be holy water?

 

[Eucharisted]

OK, so since the Catholic Church recognizes the Orthodox Church as a valid Church, if I were to get some water from anywhere in the world on Epiphany, would it be holy water?

Yes, if it was holy water to begin with.

 

[JPUSC]

Yes, if it was holy water to begin with.

Yeah, but the article says that “all water around the world becomes holy”.

 

[samcarter14]

You may be confused by the tradition of the “Great Blessing of Waters”; many Orthodox churches go to a large body of water (lake, sea, or even reservoir here in the landlocked Midwest) and the priest performs the blessing over that body of water.

I have never been to such a blessing; the priest always just blessed a large container of water at the church and people took that water home. I currently have a large jar on my icon stand, and it stands ready for our house blessing tomorrow.

 

[Eucharisted]

Yeah, but the article says that “all water around the world becomes holy”.

My answe was actually a joke. Sorry about the poor execution

The belief about all water becoming holy is ceremonial, i.e., by dipping a crucifix into water, it becomes holy. Whether or not this is true would be a good question to ask an apologist, but I believe that the power of the cross can change water into holy water just as the Lord changed water into wine. Nonetheless, I am not an apologist.

 

[JPUSC]

Hey, we should do this in the Latin Church too. Looks like fun, . I think there’s some game going on where they have to find the Crucifix in the water or something.

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[malphono]

My answe was actually a joke. Sorry about the poor execution

The belief about all water becoming holy is ceremonial, i.e., by dipping a crucifix into water, it becomes holy. Whether or not this is true would be a good question to ask an apologist, but I believe that the power of the cross can change water into holy water just as the Lord changed water into wine. Nonetheless, I am not an apologist.

FWIW, in the West Syriac tradition, water is blessed in a vessel. Jesus was baptized in the Jordan, which was (and is) a major source of live-sustaining water in the region. We, in turn, bless water in a vessel, and it is the vessel that symbolizes the river.

One of the processional hymns for Theophany/Epiphany in the Syriac tradition begins:

John mixed the waters of baptism and Christ sanctified them when He went down and was baptized in them.

I’ve neither seen nor heard of it being done at a natural body of water in the Syriac Churches. Perhaps it is in some seaside locations, but if so, it would seem to be a paraliturgical rite, since the rubrics make no mention of blessing a body of water.

Of course the Greeks considered themselves more of a seafaring people, and with that in mind to me it would make sense that the sea would be symbolically blessed as a sign of protection to the sailors and fishermen. But I would also think that it is more of a symbolic blessing than an actual one.

Maybe one of our Melkite or Greek Orthodox brethren would be able to shed some more light on the practice.

 

[Cluny]

Orthodox Christians believe that on Epiphany all water around the world becomes holy, and immersing oneself in it three times will prevent illnesses.

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In all my years of Orthodoxy I’ve never heard this.

 

[Mickey]

In all my years of Orthodoxy I’ve never heard this.

Me neither. But I am reminded of a joke that a Byzantine Catholic priest once told me.

How to you make your own holy water?

Put it in a pot and boil the hell out of it.

 

[prodromos]

Do Eastern Catholics also believe this?

Is it true that all the water around the world becomes holy on Epiphany and you can’t catch a cold on this day? Where did this belief come from? Is there any validity to this or is it just superstition?

If you want to learn what the Orthodox believe, don’t go to a news site.

Somewhat related to this, when the Orthodox celebrate Epiphany at the Jordan river where Christ was baptised by John the Forerunner, when the bishop throws his cross into the river the Jordan reverses flow for a few minutes. This happens every year.

John