Holy smoke

Posted by ESC on June 05, 2005

In Reply to: Holy smoke posted by Dick Lacy on June 05, 2005

: Does the phrase "holy smoke" have anything to do with the Catholic Church and how it announces that a new Pope has been named?

I don't know. From the archives:
From the archives under "holy":

"Holy smoke!, 1889; Holy cats!, Holy mackerel!, both 1803; Holy Moses!, 1906, Holy cow!, 1942." From I Hear America Talking: An Illustrated History of American Words and Phrases by Stuart Berg Flexner (Von Nostrand Reinhold Co., New York, 1976).