Churchgoers Beware! Your Holy Water Might Make You Sick

The bar nuts aren’t safe, the public pools aren’t safe, and — Surprise! — your holy water isn’t safe, either.

It makes sense when you think about just how many fingers reach into the bowls of holy water at the entrance to your local church, and think about how many of those fingers were washed before going directly into that water.

That’s right, people. We’re talking about fecal matter.

A new study conducted by the Institute of Hygiene and Applied Immunology at the MedUni Vienna found that water from both the Austrian holy springs that attract tourists from all over the world, and the water used in churches and hospitals for blessings contained excessive amounts of bacteria. Enough to classify the water as unsafe for drinking.

The exact results are pretty startling: Only 14% of the holy water samples tested didn't contain any fecal matter. The water also contained traces of E. coli and other bacteria known to cause inflammatory diarrhea.

“In one milliliter, up to 62 million cultivatable bacteria were detected,” explained microbiologist Alexander Kirschner, who will be presenting the study’s findings at the Vienna Hygiene Further Education Days. “The more well-attended the church, the more bacteria were found. This may represent a problem that has hitherto been underestimated, especially in hospitals, since there are a lot of people with weakened immune systems there.”

Our favorite solution? The holy water dispensers that became popular during the swine flu outbreak a few years back. Though they may seem comical, we’ll take anything over unknowingly shaking hands with someone who just dunked their hands in a bunch of poop. You could also bring your own bottled water to church and ask your priest to bless it for you, we suppose, but do you really want to be labeled as the most pretentious member of your congregation?

If it’s that versus poop-filled water, we truly hope your answer is “yes.”

[Pic via Flickr - Our Lady of Peace Geneva]