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EvelynEVF
Guest
I know that Orthodox Christians drink holy water. Do Eastern Rite Catholics also do this?
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5Loaves
Guest
Christ is Baptized!
At the end of the Liturgy on the Great Feast of Theophany last week, during which the priest celebrates the blessing of water, we all shared glass fulls of the blessed water and filled containers to bring home.
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EvelynEVF
Guest
Do you drink it on more ordinary occasions? I have an Orthodox friend who will often sprinkle it into water glasses at dinnertime.
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Ghosty
Guest
I can’t speak to others, but I always save a bottle of Theophany water for use throughout the year, including putting some in newly opened bottles of wine.
Peace and God bless!
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EvelynEVF
Guest
Fascinating 
Thanks for the info!
Thanks for the info!
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bpbasilphx
Guest
In the Byzantine tradition (Orthodox and Catholic), there are many pious uses of Holy Water.
Some take a sip daily as part of their morning devotions, especially if they are not going to Communion that day.
Some take it with their medicines.
St. John of Kronstadt visited a convent that had a lot of sick farm animals. He celebrated the Lesser Blessing of Water (which is not done at Theophany), read the usual prayers for sick animals, and directed the Holy Water to be put in the livestock’s drinking water and sprinkled over their feed.
Some take a sip daily as part of their morning devotions, especially if they are not going to Communion that day.
Some take it with their medicines.
St. John of Kronstadt visited a convent that had a lot of sick farm animals. He celebrated the Lesser Blessing of Water (which is not done at Theophany), read the usual prayers for sick animals, and directed the Holy Water to be put in the livestock’s drinking water and sprinkled over their feed.
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davinpa
Guest
This may be off topic, but even the Romans do, although they do not drink the usual holy water. In a Jesuit church that I attended, they had a novena in which they bless water with the relic of St. Ignatius Loyola. Everyone then drink some on the spot and took bottles of them home.
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Patchunky
Guest
I mix holy water in with my pysanky dyes and also into the my paints when I’m painting an ikon
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Frbrendan
Guest
I often put a few drops of Holy Water into a glass of water/milk/whatever just before I take my morning medicines. Thus, I not only take my meds, but receive a blessing at the same time. Maybe it will make the medicines more effective, or bring a healing into my life. In this respect, it’s a lot like chicken soup. It wouldn’t hurt.
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redrosetea
Guest
I have heard the Lourdes water is drank right from the baths by the attendants at the end of each day
I think they do it as an act of faith…I confess I would never be able to
I am not sure if the Lourdes water is actually blessed or people just feel it is naturally blessed…
I have never consumed Holy Water from my parish…and I wouldn’t now because we used the Baptistery for our blessing and people have walked in it, and countless hands have been dipped in it
If it was fresh water untouched by anyone but the priest I would be fine doing it
I think they do it as an act of faith…I confess I would never be able to
I am not sure if the Lourdes water is actually blessed or people just feel it is naturally blessed…
I have never consumed Holy Water from my parish…and I wouldn’t now because we used the Baptistery for our blessing and people have walked in it, and countless hands have been dipped in it
If it was fresh water untouched by anyone but the priest I would be fine doing it
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5Loaves
Guest
I’m putting a note on a Pascha dye packet I have left to remember this. Thank you.
In my Latin parish there is a big canteen with a spigot in a side chapel. I thought these were common.
My priest’s hand as well as his cross were plunged into the water many times during the blessing of water.
It’s such an important image for me.
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redrosetea
Guest
That wouldn’t bother me, but I don’t want to drink anything people have walked in when they were baptized , not that hundreds of hands have been dipped in either
WE just have the pool that we use and nothing else…it is filtered but that isn’t enough for me to drink it
WE just have the pool that we use and nothing else…it is filtered but that isn’t enough for me to drink it
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aspirant
Guest
I know Latin Catholics who do this.
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bpbasilphx
Guest
Is there not an infusion of Holy Oil (usually the Oil of the Catechumens) into the baptismal water when it is blessed in both the Latin and Byzantine traditions? (I don’t know about the other Eastern Churches.)
Therefore, baptismal water would not be suitable for drinking.
Therefore, baptismal water would not be suitable for drinking.
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lambwell
Guest
Hi to all,
Holy water is used in Orthodox rites of blessing and exorcism, and is the water normally used for baptisms. A quantity of holy water is typically kept in a font placed near the entrance of the church where it is available for anyone who needs it. Holy water is sometimes sprinkled on items or people when they are blessed, as part of the prayers of blessing.
Holy water is used in Orthodox rites of blessing and exorcism, and is the water normally used for baptisms. A quantity of holy water is typically kept in a font placed near the entrance of the church where it is available for anyone who needs it. Holy water is sometimes sprinkled on items or people when they are blessed, as part of the prayers of blessing.
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redrosetea
Guest
I am a Latin rite and I think they only use salt in our water but at Easter I think the water is also exorcised
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EvelynEVF
Guest
When we run out of Easter font water, we continue on with more ordinary water that has been blessed but never involved in baptism. Our regular fonts are simply tiny dishes which dirty quickly, so that water often needs to be poured out on the ground and replaced with newly blessed holy water. There is a small jug with a spigot for this, and it goes right from the sacristy tap into the clean jug, so personally I wouldn’t hesitate to drink it if it were part of my tradition.
I don’t know what they do with the midyear baptismal water.
I don’t know what they do with the midyear baptismal water.
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informed
Guest
Why would water be considered ‘holy’? Is there any biblical basis to back this up?
Just looking for an answer, not a backlash of criticism for asking a question.
Just looking for an answer, not a backlash of criticism for asking a question.
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redrosetea
Guest
It is holy because it has been blessed and exorcised by a priest…
It has been in the tradtion of the church since the early times…You must remember Catholics have very Jewish roots and ritual cleansing was done in the temple
from the Catholic encyclopedia
The use of holy water in the earliest days of the Christian Era is attested by documents of only comparatively late date. The “Apostolic Constitutions”, the redaction of which goes back to about the year 400, attribute to the Apostle St. Matthew the precept of using holy water. The letter written under the name of Pope Alexander I, who lived in the second century, is apocryphal and of more recent times; hence the first historical testimony does not go back beyond the fifth century. However, it is permissible to suppose for the sake of argument that, in the earliest Christian times, water was used for expiatory and purificatory purposes, to a way analogous to its employment under the Jewish Law. As, in many cases, the water used for the Sacrament of Baptism was flowing water, sea or river water, it could not receive the same blessing as that contained in the baptisteries. On this particular point the early liturgy is obscure, but two recent discoveries are of very decided interest. The Pontifical of Scrapion of Thumis, a fourth-century bishop, and likewise the “testamentum Domini”, a Syriac composition dating from the fifth to the sixth century, contain a blessing of oil and water during Mass. The formula in Scrapion’s Pontifical is as follows: “We bless these creatures in the Name of Jesus Christ, Thy only Son; we invoke upon this water and this oil the Name of Him Who suffered, Who was crucified, Who arose from the dead, and Who sits at the right of theUncreated. Grant unto these creatures the power to heal; may all fevers, every evil spirit, and all maladies be put to flight by him who either drinks these beverages or is anointed with them, and may they be a remedy in the Name of Jesus Christ, Thy only Son.” As early as the fourth century various writings, the authenticity of which is free from suspicion, mention the use of water sanctified either by the liturgical blessing just referred to, or by the individual blessing of some holy person. St. Epiphanius (Contra haeres., lib. I, haer. xxx) records that at Tiberias a man named Joseph poured water on a madman, having first made the sign of the cross and pronounced these words over the water: “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, crucified, depart from this unhappy one, thou infernal spirit, and let him be healed!” Joseph was converted an subsequently used the same proceeding to overcome witchcraft; yet, he was neither a bishop nor a cleric. Theodoret (Church History V.21) relates that Marcellus, Bishop of Apamea, sanctified water by the sign of the cross and that Aphraates cured one of the emperor’s horses by making it drink water blessed by the sign of the cross (“Hist. relig.”, c. viii, in P.G., LXXXII, col. 1244, 1375). In the West similar attestations are made. Gregory of Tours (De gloria confess., c. 82) tells of a recluse named Eusitius who lived in the sixth century and possessed the power of curing quartan fever by giving its victims to drink of water that he hadblessed; we might mention many other instances treasured up by this same Gregory (“De Miraculis S. Martini”, II, xxxix; “Mirac. S. Juliani”, II, iii, xxv, xxvi; “Liber de Passione S. Juliani”; “Vitae Patrum”, c. iv, n. 3). It is known that some of the faithful believed that holy water possessed curative properties for certain diseases, and that this was true in a special manner of baptismal water. In some places it was carefully preserved throughout the year and, by reason of its having been used in baptism, was considered free from all corruption. This belief spread from East to West; and scarcely had baptism been administered, when the people would crown around with all sorts of vessels and take away the water, some keeping it carefully in their homes whilst others watered their fields, vineyards, and gardens with it (“Ordo rom. I”, 42, in “Mus. ital.”, II, 26).
continued because of the length
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redrosetea
Guest
However, baptismal water was not the only holy water. Some was permanently retained at the entrance to Christian churches where a clerk sprinkled the faithful as they came in and, for this reason, was called hydrokometes or “introducer by water”, an appellation that appears in the superscription of a letter of Synesius in which allusion is made to “lustral water placed in the vestibule of the temple”. This water was perhaps blessed in proportion as it was needed, and the custom of the Church may have varied on this point. Balsamon tells us that, in the Greek Church, they “made” holy water at the beginning of each lunar month. It is quite possible that, according to canon 65 of the Council of Constantinople held in 691, this rite was established for the purpose of definitively supplanting the pagan feast of the new moon and causing it to pass into oblivion. In the West Dom Martène declares that nothing was found prior to the ninth century concerning the blessing and aspersion of water that takes place every Sunday at Mass. At that time Pope Leo IV ordered that each priest bless water every Sunday in his own church and sprinkle the people with it: “Omni die Dominico, ante missam, aquam benedictam facite, unde populus et loca fidelium aspergantur” (P.L., CXV, col. 679). Hincmar of Reims gave directions as follows: “Every Sunday, before the celebration of Mass, the priest shall bless water in his church, and, for this holy purpose, he shall use a clean and suitable vessel. The people, when entering the church, are to be sprinkled with this water, and those who so desire may carry some away in clean vessels so as to sprinkle their houses, fields, vineyards, and cattle, and the provender with which these last are fed, as also to throw over their own food” (“Capitula synodalia”, cap. v, in P.L., CXXV, col, 774). The rule of having waterblessed for the aspersion at Mass on Sunday was thenceforth generally followed, but the exact time set by Leo IV and Hincmar was not everywhere observed. At Tours, the blessing took place on Saturday before Vespers; at Cambrai and at Aras, it was to be given without ceremony in the sacristy before the recitation of the hour of Prime; at Albi, in the fifteenth century, the ceremony was conducted in the sacristy before Terce; and at Soissons, on the highest of the sanctuary steps, before Terce; whereas at Laon and Senlis, in the fourteenth century, it took place in the choir before the hour of Terce. There are two Sundays on which water is not and seems never to be blessed: these are Easter Sunday and Pentecost. The reason is because on the eve of these two feasts water for the baptismal fonts is blessed and consecrated and, before its mixture with the holy chrism, the faithful are allowed to take some of it to their homes, and keep it for use in time of need.
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