Holy water font
Vessel containing holy water in a church
A holy water font or stoup is a vessel containing holy water which is generally placed near the entrance of a church. It is often placed at the base of a crucifix or other Christian art. It is used in Catholic, as well as many Lutheran and Anglican churches, to make the sign of the cross using the holy water upon entrance of the church. Holy water is blessed by a priest or a deacon, and its usage by Christians serves as a reminder of their baptismal vows. The holy water font is a derivative of the cantharus, which has been used by Christians since the time of the early Church to perform ablutions before entering the church (while these are no longer normative in Western Christianity, canthari are found at the entrance of certain Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Orthodox churches).
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Holy water font”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Our Lady of Walsingham, Houston IMG 1178 (24622330061).jpg by Fr James Bradley from Southampton, UK, CC BY 2.0
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