mystagogue

American  

[mis-tuh-gawg, -gog] / ˈmɪs təˌgɔg, -ˌgɒg /

noun

1. someone who instructs others before initiation into religious mysteries or before participation in the sacraments.

2. a person whose teachings are said to be founded on mystical revelations.

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mystagogue British  

/ ˌmɪstəˈɡɒdʒɪk, ˈmɪstəˌɡɒdʒɪ, ˈmɪstəˌɡɒɡ /

noun

1. (in Mediterranean mystery religions) a person who instructs those who are preparing for initiation into the mysteries

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Other Word Forms

• mystagogic adjective
• mystagogical adjective
• mystagogically adverb
• mystagoguery noun
• mystagogy noun

Etymology

Origin of mystagogue

1540–50; < Latin mystagōgus < Greek mystagōgós, equivalent to mýst ( ēs ) ( mystic ) + ágōgos -agogue

Example Sentences

Now, everyone knows everything, and the glance into the kitchen of cinema has made us at once suspicious and nostalgic—suspicious of the mystagogue with the secret recipe, nostalgic for the comforts of home and for the transparency of the storyteller at the hearth.

From The New Yorker

Henri Bergson is a mystagogue, and all mystagogues are mythomaniacs.

From Project Gutenberg

Superstition With Philosophy so ready to be our mystagogue and to lead us into the true knowledge of divine goodness, and with so helpful a theory to explain away all that is offensive in traditional religion, faith ought to be as easy as it is happy and wholesome.

From Project Gutenberg

Mystagogue, 78, 99, 253, 269 Mysteries, 6, 76, 92, 145, 158, 230, 269, 284, 287.

From Project Gutenberg

Mystagogue, mis′ta-gōg, n. an initiator into religious mysteries, a teacher or catechist—also Mystagō′gus.—adj.

From Project Gutenberg