These words refer to things that a particular religion holds to be dedicated to its god and worthy of adoration. Sacred suggests something associated with a divinity as being worthy of reverence: a temple scared to Apollo; a mountain thought to be sacred by Shintoists. In another use, the word can simply demarcate from everyday life a sphere of things belonging to a religion: the strict separation of sacred and secular laws: sacred and profane love. Consecrated may suggest, most specifically, that human beings have by a prescribed ritual recommended something to their divinity as being of special worth: the bishop who consecrates a king. One would, thus, say that the king was consecrated to his God, but not necessarily that he was sacred to his God. Reinforcing this distinction, consecrated can mean also a giving over or utter dedication to a deity or even to some other ideal: consecrating himself to the civil-rights struggle. Divine is more like sacred but goes even further in suggesting something that is of a deity or issues from him: holding that the Pentateuch was divine in origin. It can, like sacred , also distinguish the religious realm from more ordinary ones: St. Augustine’s effort to mediate between the divine and mundane worlds.

The remaining words, like consecrated , suggest something that has been made worthy of worship. Of these, only blessed (pronounced as two syllables) may suggest the official or ritual declaration such as consecrated may indicate. At its most specific, blessed

• bles’id

is the title for a deceased person who has been beatified by the Roman Catholic Church in an appropriate ceremony. More generally, the word simply indicates something worthy of reverent adoration or something given significance by the particular act of a clergyman: the blessed

• bles’id

Bible; a crucifix blessed

• pronounced blest

by the Pope. Hallowed may suggest something that has been made an object of adoration or it may, less specifically, refer to something that is in actual fact revered: the hallowed saints; his wish to be buried in hallowed ground. Holy is the least specific of all these words, suggesting anything dedicated to God or anything righteous or godly: the holy church; the holy days of Lent; a holy man from Calcutta.