holy water

English

Etymology

From Middle English holy water, haly water, hali water, holiwater, halywater, from Old English hāliġwæter (“holy water”), equivalent to holy +‎ water.

Pronunciation

Noun

holy water (usually uncountable, plural holy waters)

  1. (Christianity) In certain Christian churches, water that has been sanctified by a priest or bishop for the purpose of baptism or for the blessing of persons, places, or things.
    • 1660, Jeremy Taylor, “Of Faith, as It is a Necessary Disposition to the Blessed Sacrament. Sect[ion] I. Of Catechumens or Unbaptized Persons.”, in The Worthy Communicant or A Discourse of the Nature, Effects, and Blessings Consequent to the Worthy Receiving of the Lords Supper […], London: […] R. Norton for John Martyn, James Allestry, and Thomas Dicas […], published 1661, →OCLC, page 199:
      None comes to this holy feaſt but they vvhoſe ſins are cleanſed in baptiſme, vvho are ſanctified in thoſe holy vvaters of regeneration, vvho have obedient ſouls, ears attentive to the Sermons of the Goſpel, and hearts open to the vvords of Chriſt.
    • 1889, Charles Paschal Telesphore Chiniquy, Fifty Years in the Church of Rome, page 307:
      [W]ith our signs of the cross and holy waters, our crucifixes and prayers to the saints, our scapulars and medals, our so humiliating auricular confession
    • 1979, “The Catechesis of Cyril of Jerusalem”, in Lucien Deiss, Matthew J. O'Connell, transl., Springtime of the Liturgy:
      In a parallel way, when you came up from the font and its holy waters, you received chrismation and the mark with which Christ was chrismated.

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