odour of sanctity
nounEtymology
A calque of French odeur de sainteté (“sweet smell said to be emitted by bodies of saints at or after death”), from Late Latin odor sānctitātis (literally “odour of sanctity”) (compare odor suāvitātis (literally “sweet odour”)), from odor (“(sweet) smell, odour”) + sānctitātis (genitive singular of sānctitās (“sacredness, sanctity; holiness, virtue”)).
- derived from odor sānctitātis
Definitions
A sweet smell, usually likened to that of flowers, said to be emitted by the bodies of…
A sweet smell, usually likened to that of flowers, said to be emitted by the bodies of saints during their life, or especially at or after death.
- The odours of sanctity differ both in quality and degree. St. Benedicta tells us from "personal observations" she finds that the odours of the angelic hierarchy differ as much as the perfume of flowers.
A person's reputation for, or state of, holiness.
- to die in odour of sanctity
- [S]he [Saint Margaret of England] made her profession in the Cistercian nunnery at Laon, where she died in odour of sanctity in 1192.
A (supposed) general aura of goodness or virtue.
The neighborhood
Vish — recursive loop
No curated loop yet for odour of sanctity. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA