Holy water damages undead creatures and evil outsiders almost as if it were acid. A flask of holy water can be thrown as a splash weapon.
Treat this attack as a ranged touch attack with a range increment of 10 feet. A flask breaks if thrown against the body of a corporeal creature, but to use it against an incorporeal creature, you must open the flask and pour the holy water out onto the target. Thus, you can douse an incorporeal creature with holy water only if you are adjacent to it. Doing so is a ranged touch attack that does not provoke attacks of opportunity.
A direct hit by a flask of holy water deals 2d4 points of damage to an undead creature or an evil outsider. Each such creature within 5 feet of the point where the flask hits takes 1 point of damage from the splash.
Temples to good deities sell holy water at cost (making no profit).
Sprinkling holy water onto a corpse will prevent it from rising as an undead unless a particularly powerful force intervenes.
Holy water is water that has been blessed by a member of the clergy or a religious figure, or derived from a well or spring considered holy. The use for cleansing prior to a baptism and spiritual cleansing is common in several religions, from Christianity to Sikhism. The use of holy water as a sacramental for protection against evil is common among Lutherans, Anglicans, Roman Catholics, and Eastern Christians.
The water of lustration or water of purification was the water created with the ashes of the red heifer, according to the instructions given by God to Moses and Aaron in the Book of Numbers.
The Hebrew Bible taught that any Israelite who touched a corpse, a Tumat HaMet (literally, "impurity of the dead"), was ritually unclean. The water was to be sprinkled on a person who had touched a corpse, on the third and seventh days after doing so, in order to make the person ritually clean again. A tent in which someone had died was similarly considered to be unclean.
The water was to be used as follows:
An unclean person they shall take some of the ashes of the heifer burnt for purification from sin, and running water shall be put on them in a vessel. A clean person shall take hyssop and dip it in the water, sprinkle it on the tent, on all the vessels, on the persons who were there, or on the one who touched a bone, the slain, the dead, or a grave. The clean person shall sprinkle the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day; and on the seventh day he shall purify himself, wash his clothes, and bathe in water; and at evening he shall be clean.
The water was used again in Numbers 31:23 for the purification on the metallic booty brought back by the Israelites following their victory over the Midianites.
In other biblical translations the water is referred to as water of expiation (Douay–Rheims Bible), water of separation (King James Version), water of cleansing (New International Version) or water for impurity (American Standard Version, Revised Standard Version). The Jerusalem Bible uses the term lustral water. In Hebrew, the water was called mei niddah by the Torah and mei chatat by Chazal.
John Wesley stated that the term 'water of separation' indicated that the water was 'appointed for the cleansing of them that are in a state of separation, who for their uncleanness are separated from the congregation'. Thomas Coke noted that 'the heathens had their water of lustration with which to sprinkle themselves in token of purification', and thought this was probably borrowed from the Mosaic law. Albert Barnes used both terms: 'the water of purification' to describe the purifying effect of the water, and 'the water of separation' to refer to the state of legal separation from the community, for which the water was to act as a remedy.
In Catholicism, Lutheranism, Anglicanism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and some other churches, holy water is water that has been sanctified by a priest for the purpose of baptism, for the blessing of persons, places, and objects, or as a means of repelling evil.
History
The Apostolic Constitutions, whose texts date to about the year 400 AD, attribute the precept of using holy water to the Apostle Matthew. It is plausible that the earliest Christians may have used water for expiatory and purificatory purposes in a way analogous to its employment in Jewish Law ("And he shall take holy water in an earthen vessel, and he shall cast a little earth of the pavement of the tabernacle into it", Numbers 5:17). Yet in many cases, the water used for the sacrament of Baptism was flowing water, sea- or river-water, which - in the view of the Roman Catholic church - could not receive the same blessing as that water contained in the baptisteries. However, Eastern Orthodox Christians do perform the same blessing, whether in a baptistery or for an outdoor body of water.
Use and storage
Sprinkling with holy water is used as a sacramental that recalls baptism. In the West the blessing of the water is traditionally accompanied by exorcism and by the addition of exorcized and blessed salt.
Holy water is kept in the holy water font, which is typically located at the entrance to the church (or sometimes in a separate room or building called a baptistery). Smaller vessels, called stoups, are usually placed at the entrances of the church, to enable people to bless themselves with it on entering.
In the Middle Ages Christians esteemed the power of holy water so highly that in some places fonts had locked covers to prevent the theft of holy water for unauthorized magic practices. The Constitutions of Archbishop Edmund Rich (1236) prescribe that: "Fonts are to be kept under lock and key, because of witchcraft (sortilege). Similarly the chrism and sacred oil are kept locked up."
Proper disposal
In Catholicism, holy water, as well as water used during the washing of the priest's hands at Mass, is not allowed to be disposed of in regular plumbing. Roman Catholic churches will usually have a special basin (a sacrarium) that leads directly into the ground for the purpose of proper disposal. A hinged lid is kept over the holy water basin to distinguish it from a regular sink basin, which is often just beside it. Items that contained holy water are separated, drained of the holy water, and then washed in a regular manner in the adjacent sink.
found in the Book of Blessings for blessing water. They are to be accompanied by the priest blessing the water with the sign of the cross. They are as follows:
V. Blessed are you, Lord, all-powerful God, who in Christ, the living water of salvation, blessed and transformed us. Grant that when we are sprinkled with this water or make use of it, we will be refreshed inwardly by the power of the Holy Spirit and continue to walk in the new life we received at Baptism. We ask this though Christ our Lord. R. Amen.
V. Lord, holy Father, look with kindness on your children redeemed by your Son and born to a new life by water and the Holy Spirit. Grant that those who are sprinkled with this water may be renewed in body and spirit and may make a pure offering of their service to you. We ask this through Christ our Lord. R. Amen.
V. O God, the Creator of all things, by water and the Holy Spirit you have given the universe its beauty and fashioned us in your own image. R. Bless and purify your Church. V. O Christ the Lord, from your pierced side you gave us your sacraments as fountains of salvation. R. Bless and purify your Church. V. Priest: O Holy Spirit, giver of life, from the baptismal font of the Church you have formed us into a new creation in the waters of rebirth. R. Bless and purify your Church.
In his book The Externals of the Catholic Church, originally published in 1917, Fr. John F. Sullivan writes:
"The prayers said over the water are addressed to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, that through the power of the Blessed Trinity the spirits of evil may be utterly expelled from this world and lose all influence over mankind. Then God is besought to bless the water, that it may be effective in driving out devils and in curing diseases; that wherever it is sprinkled there may be freedom from pestilence and from the snares of Satan."
Catholic saints have written about the power of holy water as a force that repels evil. Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), a Doctor of the Church who reported visions of Jesus and Mary, believed fervently in the power of holy water and stated that she used it with success to repel evil and temptations. She wrote:
I know by frequent experience that there is nothing which puts the devils to flight like Holy water.
The 20th-century nun and mystic Saint Faustina in her diary (paragraph 601) said she once sprinkled a dying sister with holy water to drive away demons. Although this was wrong to do, since it was the priest's duty, she remarked, "holy water is indeed of great help to the dying".
In Holy Water and Its Significance for Catholics, Cistercian priest Henry Theiler states that in addition to being a strong force in repelling evil, holy water has the twofold benefit of providing grace for both body and soul.
The new Rituale Romanum excludes the exorcism prayer on the water. Exorcized and blessed salt has traditionally been added to the holy Water as well. Priests can continue to use the older form if they wish as confirmed by Pope Benedict XVI in Summorum Pontificum, which states "What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too".
