| 释义 |
saint-errant ironical. ? Obs.
[Modelled on knight-errant.]
A saint who travelled in quest of spiritual adventures.
1674J. Josselyn Voy. New Eng. 156 Rhode-Island a Harbour for the Shunamitish Brethren, as the Saints Errant, the Quakers..&c. 1688H. Wharton Enthus. Ch. of Rome 24 At last he [sc. Ignatius Loyola] resolved to become Saint-Errant. Ibid. 33 Don Quixot fancied that all Knight-Errants went to Heaven, or at least to Purgatory; and surely Saint-Errants deserved to be placed in a higher degree. 1839–40W. Irving Wolfert's R. 316 The fate of these saints-errant had hitherto remained a mystery.
Hence saint-errantry, the character, practice, or spirit of a saint-errant.
1688H. Wharton Enthus Ch. of Rome 24 Saint-Errantry was a much easier, and more certain way than Knight-Errantry. 1711Shaftesbury Charac. I. 20 If something of this militant Religion, something of this Soul-rescuing Spirit, and Saint-Errantry prevails still. 1760Sterne Serm. (1764) I. 30 If we can so order it, as not to be led out of the way, by the variety of prospects, edifices, and ruins which solicit us, it would be a nonsensical piece of saint-errantary to shut our eyes. 1826Southey Vind. Eccl. Angl. 173 The system of Saint-Errantry..forms as conspicuous a part of history in this age, as Knight-Errantry in the succeeding centuries. |