Salt, always used for the seasoning of food and for the preservation of things from corruption, had from very early days a sacred and religious character.

The Prophet Eliseus employed it to make palatable the waters of a well ( 2 Kings 2:19 sqq. ). The Orientals used it to cleanse and harden the skin of a newborn child ( Ezekiel 16:4 ); by strewing salt on a piece of land they dedicated it to the gods; in the Jewish Law it was prescribed for the sacrifices and the loaves of proposition ( Leviticus 2:13 ). In Matthew 5:13 , salt symbolizes wisdom, though perhaps originally it had an exorcistic signification.

Its use in the Church belongs exclusively to the Roman Rite. The Ritual knows two kinds of salt for liturgical purposes, the baptismal salt and the blessed salt.

The former, cleansed and sanctified by special exorcisms and prayers, is given to the catechumen before entering church for baptism. According to the fifth canon of the Third Council of Carthage it would seem that salt was administered to the catechumens several times a year. This use of salt is attested by St. Augustine (Conf., I. 1, c. xi) and by John the Deacon. St. Isidore of Seville speaks of it (De off., II, xxi), but in the Spanish Church it was not universal.

The other salt is exorcized and blessed in the preparation of holy water for the Asperges before high Mass on Sunday and for the use of the faithful in their homes. The present formula of blessing is taken from the Gregorian Sacramentary (P.L., LXXVIII, 231). Both baptismal salt and blessed salt may be used again without a new benediction.

The appendix of the Roman Ritual has a blessing of salt for the use of animals and another in honour of St. Hubert. The Roman Pontifical orders salt to be blessed and mixed in the water (mixed in turn with ashes and wine) for the consecration of a church. This is also from the Gregorian Sacramentary. Again salt (not specially blessed ) may be used for purifying the fingers after sacred unctions.

The Catholic Encyclopedia is the most comprehensive resource on Catholic teaching, history, and information ever gathered in all of human history. This easy-to-search online version was originally printed in fifteen hardcopy volumes.

Designed to present its readers with the full body of Catholic teaching, the Encyclopedia contains not only precise statements of what the Church has defined, but also an impartial record of different views of acknowledged authority on all disputed questions, national, political or factional. In the determination of the truth the most recent and acknowledged scientific methods are employed, and the results of the latest research in theology, philosophy, history, apologetics, archaeology, and other sciences are given careful consideration.

No one who is interested in human history, past and present, can ignore the Catholic Church, either as an institution which has been the central figure in the civilized world for nearly two thousand years, decisively affecting its destinies, religious, literary, scientific, social and political, or as an existing power whose influence and activity extend to every part of the globe. In the past century the Church has grown both extensively and intensively among English-speaking peoples. Their living interests demand that they should have the means of informing themselves about this vast institution, which, whether they are Catholics or not, affects their fortunes and their destiny.

Copyright © Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company New York, NY. Volume 1: 1907; Volume 2: 1907; Volume 3: 1908; Volume 4: 1908; Volume 5: 1909; Volume 6: 1909; Volume 7: 1910; Volume 8: 1910; Volume 9: 1910; Volume 10: 1911; Volume 11: - 1911; Volume 12: - 1911; Volume 13: - 1912; Volume 14: 1912; Volume 15: 1912

Catholic Online Catholic Encyclopedia Digital version Compiled and Copyright © Catholic Online