« ASPERGES ME ». — Formula with which the ritual sprinkling of blessed water is performed (v. ASPERSIONE). It is not easy to determine whether the use of the formula always coincided with that of the water. In the ninth century it was certainly used for the sprinkling of the sick (Theodulf of Orléans [d. in 815], Capitulare alterum, 105, 220; Synod of Nantes, can. 4, in Mansi, XI, 658, falsely attributed to 658). It was probably also used in the Sunday sprinkling of the people (in which perhaps each person sprinkled himself without being sprinkled by another), which Hincmar of Reims (Capitula Synod., I, 5: PL 125, 774) prescribed in 852, whereas it seems that at first the sprinkling of places and things was performed to the singing of psalms (S. Baluze, Capit. Regum Francor., I, Paris 1677, p. 903), or perhaps only with the recitation of collects. The use of the A. in the Sunday sprinkling is certainly attested in the eleventh century by the Consuetudines of the Cassinese abbot Oderisius (E. Martène, De ant. Eccl. ribus, Antwerp edition, 1738, book IV, p. 134).
During the Easter season, Vidi aquam is sung in its place, a composition inspired by Ez. 47:1, with an evident allusion to Baptism, whose remembrance Easter celebrates. Indeed, during the evening Easter procession of the neophytes, this same antiphon was sung at Rome (Ordo Roman., I, chap. 13: PL 78, 966). The baptismal meaning, which in the Middle Ages supplanted the primitive lustral and exorcistic meaning of the rite and formula of sprinkling, as well as the traditional practice of not singing Psalm 50 during the Easter season, perhaps provided the reason—more than the Roman historical reminiscence—for introducing the Vidi aquam into that same liturgical season.