You can physically drink holy water, but it is usually not recommended for health and sometimes for religious reasons. Whether it is appropriate also depends on your church’s custom and how the water is stored.
Health considerations
Open holy water fonts and stoups in churches are often contaminated with bacteria from many people’s hands and from the environment, and studies have found fecal bacteria in a large majority of samples and considered them unsafe to drink. Even bottled or stored holy water may be ordinary tap or rainwater that has not been treated to drinking-water standards, so it can still pose a risk if the source or storage is not hygienic. If someone insists on drinking it, many Catholic writers advise only using water known to be potable (for example, blessed drinking water kept in a clean, closed container) or boiling it first to reduce microbial risk.
Religious/practice considerations
From a Catholic perspective, holy water is a sacramental (a blessed object used to help people recall and receive God’s grace) and is most typically used externally for signs of the cross, blessings, and liturgical sprinkling. Official teaching does not clearly forbid or mandate drinking holy water, and some Catholic and Orthodox traditions do include drinking specially blessed water on certain feast days or from specific springs, as long as it is safe to consume. Pastoral advice often stresses avoiding superstition (for example, treating holy water like magic) and using it in a way that fits its connection to baptism, which is primarily an external washing rather than something normally drunk.
Practical guidance
- Do not drink from open church fonts or stoups; these are often microbiologically unsafe.
- If your community has a tradition of drinking holy water, use only water that is known to meet normal drinking standards and is kept in a clean, closed container.
- If unsure, ask a priest or minister how holy water is meant to be used in your particular church, and when in doubt, limit yourself to the usual external use (sign of the cross, sprinkling).