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When I was a boy I remember my brother and I would leave the church on Ash Wednesday with a big black mark on our foreheads. The priest had applied it in the shape of a cross but it generally ended up as a smudge. While some of my schoolmates left the mark untouched, others rubbed it out immediately as they did not want to draw stares from strangers. I was brought up in Glasgow in Scotland at a time when the city was more divided over religion and the smudge on our foreheads would mark us out as Catholics and a possible target for abuse from Protestants.
However, when I moved to Brazil I noticed that it was more common for the priest to sprinkle ashes over the worshipper´s head. I was confused the first time and also displeased as I liked to display my sign of faith publicly. There would certainly be no problem with hostile Protestants in São Paulo as I was living in the country with the biggest Catholic community in the world.
The sprinkling was more common in Italy and perhaps this tradition spread to Latin American countries. However, the sign of the cross is more common in the United States and I have a fond memory of attending the Ash Wednesday ceremony in St Patrick´s Cathedral in New York in 2013. Afterwards 5th Avenue was filled with people from all ethnic backgrounds bearing ashes on their foreheads. It was a wonderful feeling on that cold winter day to know I was surrounded by so many fellow Catholics.
According to this fascinating article on the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops news service* there is no right or wrong way the ashes should be applied.
The article quotes Benedictine Father Eusebius Martis, a professor at the Pontifical Athenaeum of St. Anselm in Rome, as saying both forms are approved by the Church and there is no text explicitly outlining how the ashes are to be received. He said he personally preferred the sprinkling of ashes on top of the head as it was more in line with the Gospel reading from Matthew, saying that the three pillars of Lent - prayer, fasting and almsgiving - should be practiced quietly and sincerely, not for public recognition.
*https://www.usccb.org/news/2026/foreheads-crowns-how-ash-wednesday-looks-different-worldwide
© John Brander Fitzpatrick 2026
John Brander Fitzpatrick is a Scotsman who lives in São Paulo, Brazil. He spent many years as a journalist and translator and has published three books of fiction - two collections of short stories and a novel - and a collection of articles that have appeared on Catholic365.com called "Mystery of Faith". John Brander Fitzpatrick can be contacted at: johnfitz668@gmail.com
