simple vow

American  

noun

Roman Catholic Church.

1. a public vow taken by a religious, under which property may be retained and marriage, though held to be illicit, is valid under canon law.

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Etymology

Origin of simple vow

First recorded in 1900–05

Example Sentences

It might help if all public actors, from leaders and investigators to journalists and voters, made a simple vow to make it a little better, not a little worse.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 15, 2017

Patients he has saved can vividly recall the surge of hope they felt when Najarian gave them his simple vow: "I can do it."

From Time Magazine Archive

And the murmur lasted longer than a simple vow would have.

From "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho

Now a simple vow takes its efficacy from the deliberation of the mind, whereby one intends to put oneself under an obligation.

From Summa Theologica, Part II-II (Secunda Secundae) Translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province by Thomas, Aquinas, Saint

They had to take a year’s novitiate, and a simple vow to observe the rule.

From The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 21 of 55 1624 Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century. by Robertson, James Alexander