# The aspergillum

**Aspergillum*; *aspersorium**

**Known today as.** The brush, or perforated ball on a handle, with which holy water is sprinkled.

Kind: Sacramental

## What was it used for?

Used at the *Asperges* before the Sunday Mass, at blessings and funerals, and in exorcism.

## What does modern science say?

Still in use.

## What lore surrounds it?

The chant of the *Asperges* is Psalm 51, “Thou shalt sprinkle me with hyssop,” and early sprinklers were bunches of hyssop and other herbs.

## What did the older authorities say?

**The Catholic Encyclopedia.** The Catholic Encyclopedia relates that in the Middle Ages holy water “was not even taken from the font unless by means of an aspersorium or holy water sprinkler, attached by a small chain.” The ancients “used laurel branches,” and Christians “branches of hyssop, palm, and boxwood, and wisps of straw … and finally the tail of the fox was pressed into service, its long silky hair making it singularly adaptable. In Old French the fox was called goupil, hence the word goupillon, one of the expressions for holy water sprinkler.” About the thirteenth century it took “the modern form of a stick surmounted by a rose covered with bristles.”

## Sources

- *The Catholic Encyclopedia* (New York, 1907–1914), “Fonts, Holy Water.” newadvent.org/cathen/07433a.htm

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*The aspergillum.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-10-01. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/aspergillum

Historical description, not medical advice.