ABLUTION (Lat. *ab-luo*, Gr. ἀπο-λούω = I wash away) — Ablution is a rite intended to place an individual or a group in a state of ritual purity with respect to a divinity, or a person, object, or place invested with sacredness. Before contact with what is sacred, ablution serves to remove the filth accumulated on the person; afterward, it serves to terminate the contact with the "sacred" and restore the individual to a normal condition. It is distinguished from purification (v.), which aims to cleanse physical or moral pollution, and from lustration, which has a collective expiatory character.
1. IN NON-CHRISTIAN RELIGIONS — Ablution is performed especially with water, either by immersion or infusion, as documented in the rituals of all religions. Running water, particularly from rivers, is especially suitable for removing impurities. Hence the very frequent ablutions of Hindus in the Ganges and their concern to die in its waters or on its banks, or at least with their thoughts directed toward the sacred river; in Shintoism, the washing of hands and mouth before entering the temple to pray; in Islam, ablutions before prayer, before reading the Qur’an, or before touching a copy of it, to free oneself from impurities arising from the normal functioning of the body. Other means are not excluded, such as desert sand for Muslims who are far from a water source (Qur’an 4:46; 5:9), or the urine of a cow for ancient Persians and modern Hindus.
Ablution, then, as a religious rite does not have a hygienic purpose in the modern sense; it is directed to cleanse filth, inasmuch as this almost deteriorates and spoils the condition of the person or thing, which, after washing, emerges regenerated to new life and is considered a possible receptacle of miasmas that must be removed. This is seen in the Greek custom (Aeschylus, *Choephori* 95) of turning one’s eyes away when casting out the vessel of filth, and in the Roman custom of the Vestal Virgins, who cast temple refuse from the Capitoline slope (Varro, *De lingua lat.*, VI, 32) or into the Tiber from the Temple of Vesta (Ovid, *Fasti*, VI, 228, 713).
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2. ETHNOLOGY — Ablutions with a religious or at least ritual background are found among primitives and more advanced peoples in various forms, with different materials, and under different meanings. They are, however, rarely found among the most culturally ancient peoples, some of whom recite their morning prayers to the Creator after washing their faces: in this case, ablution has no religious character but merely constitutes preparation for prayer. Ritual aspects, however, are found in the washings that other peoples of the same cultural level practice at the first manifestation of puberty, accompanied by ethical teachings, often linked to appeals to the will of the Creator; here we are in the presence of a religious substratum.
In more recent cultures, still among primitive peoples, ablutions appear with religious or at least ritual significance, with various meanings. Certain ritual ablutions in the sea or in rivers are noted in almost all initiation ceremonies for the young; yet their purpose remains obscure. A particular type of ablution is almost exclusively manifested in the initiation of young women, when the mother pours beer (Africa) or *chicha* (America) over the daughter’s body as an augury of every happiness and perhaps also of numerous offspring.
Other ablutions are performed with medicines or blood to heal diseases or to defend against all kinds of baleful influences. The same purpose is sought through anointings, aspersion, and the like. Finally, there are ablutions intended to remove impurities—whether material, moral, or imaginary—that arise spontaneously from important states or phases of existence, such as puberty, marriage, childbirth, widowhood, remarriage, etc., or that are contracted through contact with impure things (corpses), or derived from evil occult forces, or from moral responsibility.
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Michele Schulien
3. IN LITURGY — In many regions of the West, it was customary in the Middle Ages to wash one’s head during the Palm Sunday service (*Capitilavium*), perhaps as a last remnant of the bath that catechumens underwent before baptism in Holy Week. Following the example of pagans and Jews, the first Christians also washed their hands in the fountain (*cantharus*) placed in the atrium before entering the church, because they were to receive the Eucharist in their hands and then communicate themselves. Priests did the same. The last vestige of this custom is the ablution of the hands or fingers that priests perform, reciting an appropriate prayer, before putting on sacred vestments; and for the faithful, the use of holy water upon entering the temple. Another hand-washing in the Mass occurred at the Offertory, either because the priest needed to wash his hands after receiving the bread and wine offerings from the faithful, or because he had imposed hands on the catechumens at their dismissal.
In the present-day liturgy, the ablution of the priest’s fingers at the Offertory remains, while he recites the psalm *Lavabo*. After Communion, out of respect for the Sacrament that he has touched (and likewise whenever he has had direct contact with the Eucharist), the celebrant has used, since the 10th century, to purify the chalice that was used.
Ablution — Washbasin for ablutions (2nd–3rd century) — Rome, Cloister of the Basilica of the Holy Four Crowned Martyrs.