Cathar

American  

[kath-ahr] / ˈkæθ ɑr /

noun

plural

Cathari, Cathars

1. (in medieval Europe) a member of any of several rigorously ascetic Christian sects maintaining a dualistic theology.

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Cathar British  

/ ˈkæθərɪst, ˈkæθə /

noun

1. a member of a Christian sect in Provence in the 12th and 13th centuries who believed the material world was evil and only the spiritual was good

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Other Word Forms

• Catharism noun
• Catharistic adjective

Etymology

Origin of Cathar

First recorded in 1630–40; from Late Latin Catharī (plural), from Late Greek hoi Katharoí “Novatians,” literally, “the pure”; applied in Medieval Latin to various sects

Example Sentences

This is the second, through Cathar country in the rarely visited eastern Pyrenees.

From The Guardian • Jul. 10, 2021

The blood of St. Peter Martyr, who was killed by Cathar heretics in 1252, was also accorded medicinal properties.

From The New Yorker • Jan. 7, 2019

The Cathar defenders pose a question to the skeptics: If the crusade was not about quashing this religious movement, then what motivated so many Christians to take up arms and kills thousands of other Christians?

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 31, 2018

This latest wave of attention has been vexing to local Cathar scholars who have spent decades battling to have their work taken seriously.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 31, 2018

The Ritual in Slavonic written by the Bosnian Radoslavov, and published in vol. xv. of the Starine of the South Slavonic Academy at Agram, shows great resemblance to the Cathar ritual published by Cunitz, 1853.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Slice 1 "Bisharin" to "Bohea" by Various