Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- n. Supreme blessedness or happiness.
- n. Any of the declarations of blessedness made by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount.
- n. Used as a title and form of address for a patriarch in the Armenian Church or a metropolitan in the Russian Orthodox Church: Your Beatitude.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. Supreme, utmost bliss and happiness.
- n. Any one of the Biblical blessings given by Jesus in Matthew 5:3–12. E.g.: "Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth"(Matthew 5:5).
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- n. Felicity of the highest kind; consummate bliss.
- n. Any one of the nine declarations (called the Beatitudes), made in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. v. 3-12), with regard to the blessedness of those who are distinguished by certain specified virtues.
- n. Beatification.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Supreme blessedness; felicity of the highest kind; consummate bliss; hence, in a less restricted sense, any extreme pleasure or satisfaction.
- n. One of the eight ascriptions of blessedness to those who possess particular virtues, pronounced by Christ in the Sermon on the Mount, Mat. v. 3-11: so named from the word “blessed” (in the Latin, beati), with which each declaration or ascription begins.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- n. one of the eight sayings of Jesus at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount; in Latin each saying begins with `beatus' (blessed)
- n. a state of supreme happiness
Etymologies
Examples
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Now hope seems to correspond especially to the last beatitude, which is: "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God," since it is said in Rom. 5: 2: "we ... rejoice in hope of the glory of God."
Nature and Grace: Selections from the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas
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On the first point: a beatitude is the actuality of a perfect virtue.
Nature and Grace: Selections from the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas
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Hence the last beatitude, which is the term of spiritual perfection, fittingly corresponds to hope in point of its ultimate object, while the first beatitude, which involves recoil from worldly things which hinder submission to God, fittingly corresponds to fear.
Nature and Grace: Selections from the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas
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Neither could the needs of any other man whatsoever have merited this union condignly: first, because the meritorious works of man are properly ordained to beatitude, which is the reward of virtue, and consists in the full enjoyment of God.
Summa Theologica, Part III (Tertia Pars) From the Complete American Edition
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But eternal beatitude, which is the reward of good works, is bestowed by God alone: thus Augustine says
Summa Theologica, Part III (Tertia Pars) From the Complete American Edition
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Now all human affairs are ordered for the end of beatitude, which is everlasting salvation, to which men are admitted, or from which they are excluded by
Summa Theologica, Part III (Tertia Pars) From the Complete American Edition
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Objection 1: It would seem that the fifth beatitude, which is that of mercy, does not correspond to the gift of counsel.
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Whenever we meet with the positive element of human personality, we experience this feeling of beatitude, which is the aesthetic emotion.
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Christ himself, the objective happiness, is far above a created and formal beatitude, which issueth from him, as the whole is more excellent than the part, the cause than the effect.
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All who remember this "beatitude" will be helped to solve many perplexing problems of dress, diet, play, education, philanthropy, morals, and civics.
hernesheir commented on the word beatitude
It means "is generally not believed", in the shorthand notation of railway telegraphers. --US Railway Association, Standard Cipher Code, 1906.
January 20, 2013
seanahan commented on the word beatitude
The world would be so much better if religions spent more time with the Beatitudes than with proselytization.
September 1, 2007
oroboros commented on the word beatitude
See beatnik.
September 1, 2007
brtom commented on the word beatitude
... and from his sight receiv'd
Beatitude past utterance ...
Milton, Paradise Lost III
December 18, 2006