Orthodox Holy Water at Home: How to Keep and Use It

Orthodox holy water is water the Church has sanctified with prayer, above all at Theophany. Families take it home in a clean, labelled bottle and keep it near the icons. They drink a little in the morning before food, with a short prayer, and sprinkle the house, the car and the sick with it. Old water is poured out with reverence into clean ground or a plant, never down the drain. Here is how it works, step by step.

Where Orthodox holy water comes from

There are two services that sanctify water.

The Great Blessing of the Waters at Theophany. Theophany, the Baptism of Christ, falls on 6 January, or 19 January on the Old Calendar. The rite is served twice: on the eve (5 January, or 18 January on the Old Calendar) and on the feast itself. The grace given to the water is the same on both days, since they are one feast with one rite. This water is called the “great agiasma”; Russians call it kreshchenskaya voda, Theophany water.

The priest asks God to make it, in Isabel Hapgood’s 1906 translation, a water “unto the purification of their souls and bodies, unto the healing of their passions, unto the sanctification of their houses, and unto every expedient service.” That one line is the whole of this guide: the water is for the soul, the body and the home.

The lesser sanctification of water. A priest can sanctify water at any time, at a short moleben (a service of prayer). Russian parishes serve it on 1 August, or 14 August on the Old Calendar, the Procession of the Cross, before or after the Liturgy. Families also ask for it when a home is new, someone is ill, or a journey begins. You can ask for a moleben through our prayer services.

Does Theophany water really stay fresh?

St John Chrysostom noticed it in the fourth century. In his homily on the Baptism of Christ he says that people carry the water home and keep it all year, and that “for one whole year and often for two or three years, they remain unharmed and fresh.” St John Maximovitch said the same in the twentieth century: the water becomes incorrupt, staying clear and fresh for many years.

So most families simply keep one year’s water until the next Theophany. If a bottle ever clouds or smells, don’t drink it. Pour it out as described below. Russian priests note that such water has not lost its holiness and can still be used for sprinkling.

How to keep holy water at home

• Use a clean glass bottle with a lid. Glass or ceramic keeps best. The faithful bring their own jars or small holy water bottles to church at Theophany, and church shops sell an Orthodox holy water bottle made for it.
• Label it. Write “Holy water, Theophany 2027” so no one pours it out or makes tea with it.
• Keep it near the icons. The icon corner is the natural holy water holder for home: a shelf beside the icons, out of direct sun. See how to set up an icon corner and the icons and crosses in the beautiful corner.
• Keep it apart from food. Not in the fridge door with the milk, not in the pantry with the juice. A cool, dark, clean place near the icons is best.

You don’t need gallons. St John Maximovitch advised keeping enough to last the year, and some parishes say a supply can be stretched by adding clean ordinary water. Russian practice speaks of pouring holy water into ordinary water with a prayer, and a priest who answered on azbyka.ru added that this means a real portion, “not a drop in a barrel.”

How to use holy water

In the morning, before food

The oldest habit is the simplest. After your morning prayers and before you eat, take a sip of holy water, often with a small piece of antidoron or prosphora, the bread given out after the Liturgy. Many families keep both in the icon corner for this.

The Russian prayer book has a short prayer for it. In our translation: “O Lord my God, may Thy holy gift and Thy holy water be for the forgiveness of my sins, the enlightenment of my mind, the strengthening of my powers of soul and body, the health of my soul and body, and the subduing of my passions and infirmities, by Thy boundless mercy, through the prayers of Thy most pure Mother and of all Thy saints. Amen.”

The empty stomach is a custom of reverence, not a wall. Orthodox teachers say that in illness or need you may take it at any time of day.

In need

St John Maximovitch named the moments: illness, leaving on a journey, being upset, students before examinations. A sip and a prayer before a surgery, a long drive or an exam is a very Orthodox thing to do. Give a sip to a sick child or a parent in the hospital.

Sprinkling the home, the car, the sick

Any Orthodox Christian may sprinkle the rooms, the beds and the doorposts with holy water with a prayer. Russian guides add the car and the things you use.

A new icon or cross

You can sprinkle a new icon at home. Its consecration, though, is a priest’s rite: the clergy sanctify icons, crosses and medallions with holy water and the Church’s prayers. That is what Consecration is. Our Orthodox priest performs it for $49 on our crosses, icons and medallions before they ship, and on our folding diptychs before they leave the workshop, where a diptych’s page offers it. Each Consecration comes with a signed certificate and a vial of holy water for your home. Consecrated items are final sale. Read more in what Consecration is.

The priest’s Theophany house visit

After Theophany, the priest visits the members of his parish to pray with them at home and sanctify the house with the new water, asking God to rid it of every evil. The family sets a table with a lighted candle, an icon and a wide bowl for the water. Everyone in the house gathers by it, and a child can lead the priest from room to room with a candle. Print the first names of those to be prayed for on a sheet of paper, the living and the departed kept apart. If your priest has not come yet, call and ask.

What holy water is not

• Not a substitute for the sacraments. Holy water does not replace Confession or Holy Communion. A dip at Theophany is not a confession.
• Not a medicine instead of a doctor. The Church has many accounts of healing through holy water, and it also says plainly that this is no reason to avoid doctors.
• Not magic. St John Maximovitch said it helps when used “with prayer and reverence,” and not with a mechanical result in mind.

How to pour out old holy water

When the new Theophany water comes home, many families pour the old supply onto plants and fill the bottles again. Choose a clean place where people don’t walk: a potted plant, a tree, the garden soil or a river. Never pour it into the sink, the toilet or a drain. Russian priests are firm about this, so that what is holy does not mix with waste.

Holy water as a gift

For a baptism, holy water is part of the gift. The Godparent Set ($149) includes a holy-water vial with the godchild’s patron saint diptych, a crucifix and a prayer rope. The Icon Corner Set, Complete ($349) comes with its diptychs consecrated and a vial of holy water, ready for a new home.