A few questions about holy water:
In particular, are there official guidelines from the Roman Catholic church or other christian denominations, or as an aside, in vampire folklore?
I think you are trying to apply scientific/secular concepts to something that is essentially a matter of metaphysics and faith. My guess is that such an attempt is doomed to be a disappointment!..TRM
Not at all. The Catholic church must have rules dealing with this. The OP is simply asking what they are.
Doesn’t answer all the OP’s questions, but this discusses holy water.
This I know the answer of thanks to Home Improvement. Just another of one of those “little random things you’re suprised you know”.
Holy water should be disposed of in a piscina.
You don’t dilute holy water – that would corrupt it. You bless what you need; if you need more, you bless more. If you need to dispose of it, you – that’s right – dispose of it in a piscina.
Thanks, Kozmik. I think that answers #2.
According to wikipedia: “The purpose of the piscina or sacrarium is to dispose of water used sacramentally, and particles of the consecrated Eucharist by returning these particles directly to the earth. For this reason, it is connected by a pipe directly to the ground.” I wonder what’s wrong with the sewage system.
Do you know if that is official Church policy?
I just found this story from a few years ago about holy water car washes. Maybe Baptists have different rules.
There is no such thing as holy water. There is simply water that someone has muttered mumbo-jumbo nonsense words over.
:rolleyes:
This isn’t about whether holy water is real or not, but how what is considered or believed to be holy water is disposed of. And even if you don’t believe in it, at least there is such a thing CALLED holy water. Whether you believe it has powers or not is irrelevant.
Not surprisingly, wiki has a fairly good article on this:
Moderator note
Clothahump. Don’t take this so literally. As others have said.
samclem Moderator, General Questions
Baptists don’t have priests, so they don’t have water that has been blessed by priests. Baptism as performed by Baptist churches is (usually) a complete immersion into water. The water itself isn’t holy, and the body of water can be anything from a baptismal font to the local river.
If you dilute it serially with succussion, you get unholy water, which has the opposite effect.
Thanks DrDeth. I should have looked there first. It’s not cited but it says that holy water can be diluted up to 1:2 with ordinary water. It sort of answers my first question although it’s unclear if this applies to a particular denomination.
Do Baptists call it holy water or is has the BBC article misused the term?
If true, the implications are monumental. If holy water can be diluted, then it can also be concentrated by distillation or even ordinary evaporation. We’re talking weapons-grade holy water.
So why not just bless the oceans and be done with it?
Too salty.
That would mean heathens could touch it!