Holy Water Font at Santa Maria dei Angeli Church in Rome, Italy

TABLE OF CONTENTS

What Is Holy Water?
> Sacramentals
> Pre-Christian Origins
> Typology Explained
> Three Kinds of Holy Water

 What Is Holy Water’s History?
> The Earliest Surviving Blessing-Texts
> Turning Points: Gelasian and Gregorian Sacramentaries
> Most Recent Developments

 Why Is Salt Used in Holy Water?
> What Really Happened in Jericho?
> Salt’s Other Uses and Symbolism

 Probabilism, Balance, Normative Principle, Non-Legalism
> Probabilism
> Balance
> The Normative Principle
> Non-Legalism

 Can Only a Priest Bless Holy Water?
> St. Epiphanius of Salamis
> St. Gregory of Tours
> Lawful Enchantment in the Malleus Maleficarum

 Is a Priest’s Holy Water Different from a Layperson’s?
> Euchology: Constitutive versus Invocative Blessings
> Type of Blessing Holy Water Receives
> Type of Blessing a Layperson Can Give
> The Question…