Holy (pronounced hoh-lee)
(1) Specially
recognized as or declared sacred by religious use or authority; consecrated.
(2) Dedicated
or devoted to the service of God, the church, or religion; godly, or virtuous;
of, relating to, or associated with God or a deity; sacred.
(3) Saintly;
godly; pious; devout; having a spiritually pure quality; endowed or invested
with extreme purity or sublimity.
(4) Entitled
to worship or veneration as or as if sacred.
(5) A
place of worship; sacred place; sanctuary.
(6)
Inspiring fear, awe, or grave distress (archaic).
Pre 900:
From the Middle English holi & hali, from the Old English hālig, hāleġ & hǣlig, (holy, consecrated, sacred, venerated, godly,
saintly, ecclesiastical, pacific, tame), a variant of the Old English hālig, hǣlig & hāleg, the construct being hāl (whole) + -eg (-y), from the Proto-West Germanic hailag, from Proto-Germanic hailaga
& hailagaz (holy, bringing
health). It was cognate with the Old
Saxon hēlag, the Gothic hailags the Dutch & German heilig, the Old Frisian helich and the Old Norse heilagr.
Ultimate root was the primitive Indo-European kóhzilus (healthy, whole). It
was adopted at conversion for the Latin sanctus
although the Middle English form emerged as holi
which remained a common spelling until the sixteenth century.
The
primary (pre-Christian) meaning is not possible to determine; documentary
evidence simply doesn’t exist but most think it probably meant something like “that
must be preserved whole or intact, that cannot be transgressed or violated” and
was connected with the Old English hal (health) and the Old High German heil
(health, happiness, good luck (source of the German salutation Heil which became so well-known in the
1930s)). Holy water was in Old English
and holy has been used as an intensifying word from 1837 and used in expletives
since the 1880s; a “holy terror” generally meaning “a difficult or frightening
person” but which in Irish informal use means a man thought a habitual gambler,
womanizer etc.
The adjectival
forms are holier & holiest while the noun plural is holies but “the holy”
functions as a plural when referring to persons or things (eh holy relics) invested
with holiness. When used in a religious
context, it’s common to use an initial capital and probably obligatory when
referencing the Christian God, or Christ.
The old alternative spellings holi, hali, holie & hooly are all
obsolete. Words that depending on
context may be synonymous or merely related include divine, hallowed, humble,
pure, revered, righteous, spiritual, sublime, believing, clean, devotional,
faithful, good, innocent, moral, perfect, upright, angelic, blessed & chaste.
The Old
Testament book of Leviticus is regarded by many as a long list of proscriptions, noted especially for the things thought to be an abomination to the Lord
and within the text (Leviticus 17-26) that surprisingly succinct list is known
as the “Holiness code” (often referred to in biblical scholarship as the “H
texts”), "Holy" in this context understood as “set apart”. The Holiness code exists explicitly as the set
of fundamental rules which the ancient Israelites were required to follow believed
they had to follow in order to be close to God and in that sense are the foundational
basis for all the moral imperatives in scripture. What makes them especially interesting historically
is the suggestion by a number of scholars that additional laws, written in a
style discordant with the rest of the Holiness Code yet in accord with the
remainder of Leviticus, were interpolated into the code by a later priest or
priests, notably some concerning matters of ritual and procedure hardly in
keeping with high moral tone of the apparently original entries. The contested passages include:
The
prohibition against an anointed high priest uncovering his head or rending his
clothes (21:10).
The
prohibition against offerings by Aaronic priests who are blemished (21:21–22).
The
order to keep the sabbath, passover, and feast of unleavened bread (23:1–10a).
The
order to keep Yom Kippur, and Sukkot (23:23–44).
The
order for continual bread and oil (24:1–9).
Case
law concerning a blasphemer (24:10–15a and 24:23).
The
order for a trumpet sounding on Yom Kippur (25:9b).
Rules
concerning redeeming property (25:23 and 25:26–34).
Order
to release Israelite slaves at the year of jubilee (25:40, 25:42, 25:44–46).
Rules
concerning redeeming people (25:48–52, and 25:54).
The
Holy Alliance
The
Holy Alliance (styled in some contemporary documents as “The Grand Alliance”)
was something not quite a treaty yet more than a modus vivendi (memorandum of agreement). Executed soon after the conclusion of the
Congress of Vienna (1814-1815), it linked three of the monarchist great states
of Europe, Austria, Prussia, and Russia and existed very much at the behest of
Tsar Alexander I (1777–1825; Emperor of Russia from 1801-1825) who had observed
the French Revolution (1789) and the convulsions which spread across the continent
in its wake and, especially having no taste for the idea of the mob leading
kings to their execution by the guillotine, sought an alliance which would hold
in check the forces of secular liberalism.
Nevertheless,
the Holy Alliance remains an interesting cul-de-sac in European history and
one noted for (by diplomatic standards) the brevity of its three articles:
(1) That all members are brethren, beholden when necessary to assist one
another to protect religion, peace, and justice, (2) That the members are
Christian nations who owe the treasure of their existence to God, and recommend
to their subjects to enjoy God’s gifts, and exercise his principles and (3), That
members agree this alliance shall utilize the principles of God and
Christianity to shape the destinies of mankind over which they have influence. One suspects Metternich (Prince Klemens von
Metternich, 1773–1859, Austrian foreign minister 1809-1848, chancellor
1821-1848) and others might have shared Castlereagh’s opinion of the spiritual
flavor of the Tsar’s wording but it was recognized by even the most cynical of
pragmatists as at least potentially useful and was eventually signed by all
European rulers except (1) the Prince Regent of the UK because of the cabinet’s
opposition, (2) the Ottoman sultan who could hardly countenance such a
Christian document and (3), the Pope in Rome, the papal councilors and bishops
approving not at all of something which, for the sake of unanimity, embraced schism,
heresy, and orthodoxy alike. To the Holy
See, it was the paperwork of politicians.
Whatever
it wasn’t, the Holy Alliance was a symbol of the old social order and liberals
viewed it with disdain, revolutionaries with hatred. Although effectively it was in 1825 buried
in the tomb of the dead Tsar, its spirit endured until the revolutions of 1848
and in a sense it continued to influence the actions of statesmen until the Crimean
War (1853-1856). That crafter of
alliances, Prince Otto von Bismarck (1815–1898; Chancellor of the German
Empire, 1871-1890), attracted to something so over-arching yet meaning so
little, sort of resurrected it after the unification of Germany in 1871 but the
withered idea of a unifying Christendom proved by the 1880s not strong enough
to prevail over Austrian and Russian self-interest in the squabbles in the Balkans as the edges
of the Ottoman Empire began to fray.
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