odour of sanctity
Britishnoun
Etymology
Origin of odour of sanctity
C18: originally, the sweet smell said to be exhaled by the bodies of dead saints
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
If it is difficult to credit the legend that traces the King's death to an act of impiety, it is also hard to believe that he died in the odour of sanctity.
From Canute the Great The Rise of Danish Imperialism during the Viking Age by Larson, Laurence Marcellus
This saint was an Abbot of Iona who died in the odour of sanctity when he had been Superior of that monastery for about three years.
From A Calendar of Scottish Saints by Barrett, Michael
There he spent many years in the practice of every virtue and finally expired in the odour of sanctity.
From Saint Bonaventure The Seraphic Doctor Minister-General of the Franciscan Order by Costelloe, Laurence
For the flame of them all had gone into one desire—the resolve to die in the odour of sanctity, and so to pass into Paradise safely and unafraid.
From The Unknown Quantity A Book of Romance and Some Half-Told Tales by Van Dyke, Henry
They both assumed the same name of Pachomius, and died in the odour of sanctity.
From Visits To Monasteries in the Levant by Curzon, Robert
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.
