FORMOLA SACRA. — In non-Christian religions, the f. s. is linked to the sacred-magical value attributed to the word; the latter is not regarded as a mere flatus vocis, but as something active that produces what it expresses. This explains, in primitive or uncultivated minds, the concern to avoid the names of dangerous things or persons, or at least to designate them with euphemistic words, so that their evocation may not make them present.
The efficacy of the word increases in value when it is linked to a formula that more precisely defines its imperative meaning. But for its efficacy to be complete, the f. s. must be pronounced in its entirety (carta verba) and with the intended modulation of the voice (carmen), and at times with threefold repetition.
For the powerful word to become a prayer f. s., however, the person who uses it must acknowledge above himself a conscious will that must be made propitious, by setting before it the purpose of the sacred action directed to II. Thus there are f. s. that interpret the significance of a rite and are pronounced at the culminating moment of the ceremony; for example, among the Romans, at the dedication of a temple, the dedicator, resting his hand on the doorpost, pronounces the formula, declaring the conditions and obligations of the offering: «ollis legibus dabo dedicabque quas hic hodie palam dixero»; there are laudatory or imperative prayer f. s. proposed by the person directing the ceremony and repeated or confirmed by those present with a phrase of assent; f. s. of doctrinal content, in which the teaching or the mystical aspiration of a given religion is epitomized or expressed; for example, «There is no other God but Allāh and Miometto is the prophet of Allāh» among Muslims; or «O jewel in the lotus! amen» among Buddhists: a formula which, literally, refers to the depiction of Buddha seated upon a lotus flower, and mystically means: Glory to religion (Buddha) on earth (lotus); this formula has salvific value for Buddhists.
For the f. s. of the Christian ritual V. Sacraments; for doctrinal f. s. V. SUBROLO.
BIBLI: Fr. Heller, Das Gebet, Monaco 1921, pp. 58-68; G. van der Leeuw, Phänomenologie der Religion, Tübing 1933, pp. 379-84. Nicola Turchi