beatitude
(biːˈætɪtjuːd)
Also 5 beatitud, 5–6 beatytude.
[a. F. béatitude (15th c. in Littré), ad. L. beātitūdo blessedness, f. beāt-us blessed: see -tude.]
1. a. Supreme blessedness or happiness.
| 1491 Caxton Vitas Patr. (W. de W.) i. xliv. (1495) 75 a/2 How by abstynence..myghte be goten the souerayne beatytude or blessydnesse. a 1555 Bradford Wks. 397 There shall be joy..and all kind of beatitude. 1643 Prynne Power Parl. i. 48 Knowing better..what conduced to the beatitude of the Empire. 1667 Milton P.L. iii. 62 The Sanctities of Heaven..from his sight receiv'd Beatitude past utterance. 1794 Coleridge Relig. Musings Wks. I. 105 Such strange beatitudes Seize on my young anticipating heart. 1875 Ruskin Lect. Art i. 5 The consummate beatitude of being rich. |
b. An honorific title (rendering
Gr. µακαριότης) applied
esp. to ecclesiastics of the Eastern Church of patriarchal rank.
| 1658 J. Burbury tr. Gualdo Priorato's Hist. Christina Q. Swedland 127 When his Beatitude had declared four extraordinary Nuntii, to receive her on the confines of the Ecclesiastical State. 1751 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Holyness, S. Gregory compliments some of his cotemporary bishops with, your beatitude, and your holyness. 1925 Glasgow Herald 7 Sept. 11 His Beatitude the Lord Photios, Patriarch and Pope of Alexandria. |
2. A declaration or ascription of special blessedness;
esp. (in
pl.) those pronounced by Christ in the Sermon on the Mount.
| 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (1531) 43 b, The viii beatitudes that..spryngeth of grace and the other vertues. 1588 A. King Canisius' Catech. 186 These quhilk S. Ambrose callis our Lords beatitudes. 1777 Fletcher Reconcil. Wks. 1795 IV. 319 Bent upon the inheriting the seventh beatitude. 1877 Farrar Thy Youth i. 10 The priceless beatitude of the pure in heart. |
3. = beatification 2.
| 1847 Disraeli Tancred (1871) i. v. 30 The saint was scarcely canonised, before his claims to beatitude were impugned. 1865 Bushnell Vicar. Sacr. v. (1868) 116 Candidates for beatitude. |
| fig. 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. I. ii. viii. 69 Burnt by the commmon hangman..perhaps the last notable Book that had such fire-beatitude. |