No. 95 of 124 · A Name of God · The Long Healing Prayer
The Sanctified One
In calling upon the Sanctified One, we turn toward a God whose very nature exceeds every limit we might try to place upon it.
I call on Thee O Most Lauded, O Most Holy, O Sanctified One! Thou the Sufficing, Thou the Healing, Thou the Abiding, O Thou Abiding One! Bahá'u'lláh, The Long Healing Prayer · read the full prayer
Plain meaning · Sanctified
Made holy; also, made to have the air of sanctity; sanctimonious.
Definition from Webster's Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain). When these Writings were translated into English, the translator relied on Webster's New International Dictionary, 1934 edition, of the same Webster's tradition. source
What “The Sanctified One” means
The meaning above is the plain dictionary definition of the word. What follows reflects on it as a name of God, offered for your own contemplation, and not as an authoritative interpretation of the Bahá'í Writings, which rests with ‘Abdu'l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi alone.
The word 'sanctified' carries the sense of being set apart, not in the way a precious object is locked away, but in the way that light is set apart from darkness simply by what it is. To say that God is the Sanctified One is to acknowledge that the divine nature is wholly other than anything created or contingent. No human category, no matter how lofty, fully reaches it. Every idea we form of God is, in some sense, already a reduction of the reality. The name invites a kind of honest humility: we are reaching toward something that will always exceed our grasp, and that is not a disappointment, it is the point.
At the same time, sanctity in this sense is not cold or remote. Many traditions speak of holiness as a kind of radiance that spills over into the world rather than withdrawing from it. The sun does not become less itself by illuminating a valley; its light is precisely the way it touches what is beneath it without being contained by it. When Bahá'u'lláh places this name alongside 'the Most Lauded' and 'the Most Holy' in a single breath of the prayer, the cumulative feeling is one of overwhelming brightness, a reality so pure that it becomes the ground of all healing rather than a presence too distant to care.
There is also something quietly liberating in the name for a person in pain. If God is truly sanctified, truly beyond the tangle of human limitation, partiality, and error, then whatever healing wisdom flows from that source is untainted by the compromises that mark every human endeavor. The Sanctified One does not heal badly, or with hidden motives, or out of partial understanding. Whatever comes from that reality comes whole.
Calling on The Sanctified One for healing
When someone sits with this name in a moment of illness or anguish, it can become an anchor against despair. Pain has a way of making the world feel contaminated, the body broken, the mind clouded, relationships strained. Calling on the Sanctified One is a quiet act of placing all of that before a presence that is not itself broken or clouded. It does not mean the illness will vanish; healing belongs to God's wisdom, and no prayer functions as a guarantee. But the act of invoking divine sanctity can shift something inward, a loosening of the grip of fear, a sense that the situation, however serious, is being held by something incorruptibly good.
It is worth remembering that the Long Healing Prayer itself addresses both the body and the spirit, and that physical care and prayerful trust are not in competition with each other. Seeking the help of skilled physicians is wise and appropriate, and this prayer can accompany that care rather than replace it. When you call on the Sanctified One, you are not bypassing the world; you are bringing the world, your symptoms, your worry, your hope, into the presence of a holiness that receives it without flinching.
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Living the Word
Applying The Sanctified One in your life
A name of God is a virtue to grow into. Where is The Sanctified One being asked of you right now, and how will you practice it? Keep a short note each time you return, and watch your own path with this name take shape over time. It stays on this device.
In the Bahá'í Writings
“Sanctified is the Lord, Who with the dazzling rays of this strange, heavenly power has made our world of darkness the envy of the worlds of light: “And the earth shall shine with the light of her Lord.” and exalted is He, Who has caused the nature of man to be the dayspring of this boundless grace: “The God of mercy hath taught the Qur’án, hath created man, hath taught him articulate speech.” O ye that have minds to know! Raise up your suppliant hands to the heaven of the one God, and humble yourselves and be lowly before Him, and thank Him for this supreme endowment, and implore Him to succor us until, in this present age, godlike impulses may radiate from the conscience of mankind, and this divinely kindled fire which has been entrusted to the human heart may never die away.”
Read in full at bahai.org →“15.3O handmaid of God! The prayers which were revealed to ask for healing apply both to physical and spiritual healing. Recite them, then, to heal both the soul and the body. If healing is right for the patient, it will certainly be granted; but for some ailing persons, healing would only be the cause of other ills, and therefore wisdom doth not permit an affirmative answer to the prayer. 15.4O handmaid of God! The power of the Holy Spirit healeth both physical and spiritual ailments. Acquiring Divine Virtues”
Read in full at bahai.org →“45 However, let none construe these utterances to imply the incarnation or descent of the worlds of God into the grades of His creatures, nor should they lead thine eminence to such misapprehensions. For God, in His Essence, is sanctified above all ascent and descent, egress and regress; He hath through all eternity been exalted beyond the attributes of His creation, and will ever remain so. No man hath ever known Him; no soul hath ever fathomed the nature of His Being. In the valley of His knowledge every mystic wandereth astray; in the comprehension of His Essence every saint standeth bewildered. Sanctified is He above the understanding of the wise; exalted is He beyond the knowledge of the knowing! “The way is barred and all seeking rejected. His proof is His signs, His evidence His being.””
Read in full at bahai.org →Questions about The Sanctified One
- What does it mean to call God 'the Sanctified One' in the context of a healing prayer?
- It is an acknowledgment that the source of healing stands entirely beyond human limitation or corruption. When we invoke this name, we are orienting ourselves toward a divine nature that cannot be diminished, confused, or partial, which is precisely why turning to it in moments of vulnerability makes sense. It is not a magic formula but a sincere act of trust in a reality greater than our understanding.
- Does praying the Long Healing Prayer guarantee physical recovery?
- No, and the Bahá'í writings are clear on this point. Whether healing comes, and in what form, rests with divine wisdom, which may perceive dimensions of a situation we cannot see. The prayer is a genuine act of supplication and trust, not a transaction. It is always wise to seek qualified medical care alongside prayerful reflection.
- Why is divine sanctity, being 'set apart', relevant to someone who is suffering?
- Suffering can make it feel as though everything good is fragile or compromised. The name 'the Sanctified One' points toward a reality that is not fragile, one that exists beyond the reach of illness, loss, or decay. For a person in pain, that can be quietly steadying: whatever healing or comfort becomes possible flows from a source that itself needs no healing.
- Is 'the Sanctified One' a different name from 'the Most Holy' in the same line of the prayer?
- They are closely related but carry slightly different resonances. 'The Most Holy' emphasizes a supreme degree of holiness in relation to all other things, while 'the Sanctified One' stresses the quality of being set apart or purified in essence. Together in the prayer they build a layered portrait of divine purity rather than simply repeating the same idea.
Listen to, recite, and reflect on the whole prayer, its more than one hundred names of God.
Hear the Long Healing Prayer