First recorded in 1830–40
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The blessing the Holy Father brings to us – and the reason why we salute him so joyfully – is the reaffirmation of our Catholic faith, grounded in the apostolic succession and tradition.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 14, 2013
This made him wonder how many bishops a space colony would have to take along to uphold apostolic succession.
From Slate ● Oct. 5, 2011
The cultlike nature of Straussianism is evident from the pride that many Straussian intellectuals take in delineating the apostolic succession that links them to the prophet himself.
From Salon ● Jun. 15, 2010
Scratch a drama critic and find the latest priest of aesthetics in an apostolic succession from Aristotle.
From Time Magazine Archive
The true apostolic succession is—not a succession in an hereditary line, or line marked by visible signs which men can always identify, but a succession emphatically spiritual.
From Sermons Preached at Brighton Third Series by Robertson, Frederick William
Age was joined again to age in the unbroken sequence of continuous recollection, and Greece laid her hands to transmit an Apostolic succession of memory on the bowed and studious head of the modern world.
From The Library and Society Reprints of Papers and Addresses by Bostwick, Arthur Elmore
The natural result of this changed organization was the doctrine of Apostolic succession.
From The Next Step in Religion An Essay toward the Coming Renaissance by Sellars, Roy Wood
There were people who could trace the Apostolic succession of the old Cornish bishops, and people who could pronounce authoritatively upon the exact distinction between justification and remission of sins.
From Philistia by Allen, Grant
The Clementines were composed later in the century, when Pauline Christianity was giving way to the new school, and the dogma of an Apostolic succession had taken possession of the church.
From The Christ Of Paul Or, The Enigmas of Christianity by Reber, George
When he was asked once whether he believed in the Apostolic succession, he replied that he had never thought of it, and aimed only to become a "real Christian."
From A Life of Gen. Robert E. Lee by Cooke, John Esten
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
