GREGORIAN WATER. - It is prepared with salt, ashes and wine and is used in the consecration of a church for exorcistic purposes. St. Gregory the Great recalls it (Epist., 11, 56), designating it for the purification of the pagan temples of England, and the rite is attributed to him; but it was probably already in use before (cf. Optatus, De schismate Donatist., 66, 6; Pope Vigilius, Epist. ad Profuturum, 4).

The Gelasian Sacramentary and the Missale Francorum allude to a mixture of wine and water; and the Gregorian Sacramentary of the 9th-10th century alludes to one of salt and ashes, with many exorcistic formulas deriving from the Gallican rite. The present formula of blessing contains the Ordo ad aquam benedictam faciendam, the prayer Sanctificare, which is also found in Ambrosian and Visigothic rituals, and a praise of the water taken from a homily of St. Ambrose (Expositio Evang. sec. Lucam, 10, 48). Gregorian water is used with a sprig of hyssop, because this too in ancient times indicated a means of purification (cf. Lev. 14, 4. 49. 52; Num. 19, 6. 17 ff.; Ps. 50, 8).

Bibliography5 works

BIBL.: E. Martène, De antiquis Ecclesiae ritibus, II, Antwerp 1736, col. 681 ff.; J. Catalani, Pontificale Romanum... commentariis illustratum, II, ed. Paris 1851, pp. 231-35; P. de Puniet, Bénédiction de l'eau, in DACL, II, col. 711; L. Eisenhofer, Handbuch der kath. Liturgik, II, Freiburg 1933, pp. 455-468; R. Aigrain, Liturgia, Paris 1935, p. 149 ff.

Filippo Oppenheim

@incollection{ec6_gregoriana_acqua, author = {Oppenheim, Filippo}, title = {Gregoriana, acqua}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VI}, pages = {1081}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1951}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/gregoriana-acqua} }

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Gregorian Water

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