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
Despite the break with Rome under Henry VIII, Anglicanism preserved the ecclesiastical government of bishops in the apostolic succession and the central place of corporate liturgical worship.
From Time Magazine Archive
It is only an apostolic succession of great souls that understands anything in this world.
From Dreamers of the Ghetto by Zangwill, Israel
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
There may be some who have never given any study to the Apostolic succession of ministers in the church founded by Christ.
From Twentieth Century Negro Literature Or, A Cyclopedia of Thought on the Vital Topics Relating to the American Negro by Culp, Daniel Wallace
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
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 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
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.
