Meanings
The odour of sanctity can be understood to mean two things:
- An ontological state (a state of being), not usually related to an actual olfactory sensation, indicating that the individual possessing it is in a state of grace (i.e., a state characterized by the absence of mortal sin). Usually refers to the state of an individual's soul at the time of death. Some canonized saints are said to have died in an odour of sanctity.
- An actual odour (scent or aroma) present at the time of death and for some time thereafter.
Read more about this topic: Odour Of Sanctity
Famous quotes containing the word meanings:
“Our mother gives us our earliest lessons in love—and its partner, hate. Our father—our “second other”Melaborates on them. Offering us an alternative to the mother-baby relationship . . . presenting a masculine model which can supplement and contrast with the feminine. And providing us with further and perhaps quite different meanings of lovable and loving and being loved.”
—Judith Viorst (20th century)
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—Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)
“The first green night of their dreaming, asleep beneath the Tree,/God said, “Let meanings move,” and there was poetry.”
—Muriel Rukeyser (1913–1980)