PURIFICATION. - It has the same general meaning as lustration (v.) and, like that, its purpose is to make things and persons fit to enter into contact with what is sacred, either by consecrating them, or by purifying them, or by preserving them from possible evil influences. And since the passage from the sacred to the profane (as well as that from the profane to the sacred) must be carried out with the proper precautions, the word "purify" also means "desecrate," and it is used, for example, in the Catholic liturgy to return to common use objects that have been in contact with sacred things; thus one speaks of purifying the chalice after the consumption of the sacred Species; purificator is the name of the small linen cloth for wiping the chalice itself; the purification of the fingers is that which the priest performs at the end of the sacrificial action and every time he has directly touched the Most Holy Sacrament.
This special sense, excluding the sacredness of the "pure" object, was known to the Roman jurists; Ulpian (D. 7, 2-4) calls "pure" that place "qui nec sanctus, nec sacer, nec religiosus est," that is, one on which no sacral prescription rests that would prevent its profane use.