What is Blessed Salt?

How is blessed Salt Used?

Used non-superstitiously, modest amounts of salt may be sprinkled in one’s bedroom, or across thresholds, around a home or property, in cars for safety, etc. A few grains in drinking water or used in cooking or as food seasoning can bring spiritual and physical benefits. 

As with the use of Sacraments, much depends on the faith and devotion of the person using salt or any sacramental. This faith must be centered in solid Catholic faith. A good example is the faith of the blind man in John 9; he had faith in Jesus Christ the Son of God, not in the mud and spittle used by Jesus to heal him. Remember, it is the faith, devotion and prayer joined to the use of exorcized and blessed salt a blessing rather than a superstition.

Exorcized and blessed salt provides a great deal of protection from evil spirits if it has been properly blessed and is used with faith. Legendary exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth said "It is important that the faithful know how to use the sacramentals correctly. It makes no sense to keep large quantities of blessed water, salt, and blessed oil if one does not have faith." 

Why is the salt exorcized before it is blessed? ¹

When we examine into the blessing of salt, it is found to consist of an exorcism and a prayer.  By the fall of our first parents the spirit of evil obtained an influence not only over man but also over inanimate nature, whence he is called in Scripture "the prince of this world." For this reason, when any material object is to be devoted to the service of God, an exorcism is generally first pronounced over it, to banish the evil spirit and destroy his influence; after which one or more prayers are read over it to call down the blessing of God upon it, and upon those who use it in a spirit of faith. 

In the exorcism of salt,² the priest addresses it, declaring that he exorcises it by the Living God, the True God, the Holy God, by the God who commanded the prophet Eliseus to cast salt into the water to purify it; that it may become exorcised for the use of the faithful; that whosoever uses it may enjoy health of soul and body; that all phantasms and wickedness and all deceits of the devil may depart from the places where it is sprinkled, and that every evil spirit be adjured by Him who is to come to judge the living and the dead and the world by fire. 

The salt, having been exorcised, is blessed with the following beautiful prayer: 

"O almighty and eternal God we humbly implore Thy boundless clemency that Thou wouldst mercifully deign to bless and sanctify this salt, Thy creature, which Thou halt given for the use of mankind, that it may bring health of mind and body unto all that take it, and that whatever is touched or sprinkled with it may be freed from all uncleanness and from all attacks of the spirit of wickedness." 

We see from this prayer that the Church begs God to attach a triple efficacy to the blessed salt:
1) that it may be a means of salvation to the soul;
2) that it may be a preservative against corporal dangers;
3) that it may sanctify everything with which it comes in contact.

Blessed salt does not produce these effects of itself, as a sacrament does, but it obtains actual graces for the pious user, which will, if co-operated with, obtain them.

Benefits of the Use of Blessed Salt

Salt is frequently referred to in both the Old and New Testaments.⁴ The union of water and salt is not without mystery. The property of the first is to cleanse, of the second to preserve. Salt, from its preservative properties, represents the care which the true penitent takes to avoid future relapses.

There is a remarkable instance in the Fourth Book of Kings, Chapter 2, v 20-22 of which reference is made in the exorcism of salt and of the efficacy which God attaches to salt. The inhabitants of Jericho complained to the prophet Eliseus that the water of their town was bad and the ground barren. The holy man said to them: Bring me a new vessel, and put salt into it. And when they had brought it, he went out to the spring of the waters, and cast the salt into it, and said: Thus saith the Lord: I have healed these waters, and there shall be no more in them death or barrenness.

Here are a few quotes from the Catena Aurea, a compilation of scripture commentary from the Fathers of the Church.

St. Hilary:

The Apostles are preachers of heavenly things, and thus, as it were, salters with eternity; rightly called “the salt of the earth,” as by the virtue of their teaching, they, as it were, salt and preserve bodies for eternity.

St. Remigius of Auxerre:

Moreover, salt is changed into another kind of substance by three means, water, the heat of the sun, and the breath of the wind. Thus Apostolic men also were changed into spiritual regeneration by the water of baptism, the heat of love, and the breath of the Holy Spirit. That heavenly wisdom also, which the Apostles preached, dries [p. 161] up the humors of carnal works, removes the foulness and putrefaction of evil conversation, kills the work of lustful thoughts, and also that worm of which it is said “their worm dieth not.” [Isa 66:24]

In time of a cattle plague St. Bernard would administer blessed salt to the infected cattle and save them from perishing. St. Monagunda gave blessed salt to some people, who were cured by its use long after the saint had died. The holy abbot St. Columban blessed some salt and by applying it restored eyesight to several persons, though it is well known that salt is naturally detrimental to the eyes. The holy Genevieve healed with blessed salt a child which from birth had been deaf, hunchbacked, and blind. The holy Bishop Parthemnis blessed some salt and had it cast over a vineyard which for lack of rain had withered: in the harvest-time a very large crop of grapes was gathered. Innumerable instances more could be given.