beatify

verb be·at·i·fy \ bē-ˈa-tə-ˌfī \

|Updated on: 27 May 2018

Definition of beatify

beatified; beatifying

1 : to make supremely happy

2 Christianity : to declare to have attained the blessedness of heaven and authorize the title "Blessed" and limited public religious honor

She was beatified six years after her death.

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beatification

play \-ˌa-tə-fə-ˈkā-shən\ noun

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Examples of beatify in a Sentence

She was beatified by the Pope one hundred years after her death.

Recent Examples of beatify from the Web

The Vatican must still confirm a miracle attributed to his intercession for him to be beatified, and a second one for him to be made a saint.

— Washington Post, "Jewish group questions sainthood for WWII-era cardinal," 23 May 2018
Pope Paul, whom Pope Francis beatified in 2014, oversaw most of the Second Vatican Council, which lasted from 1962 to 1965, and opened the door for a variety of modernizing changes, including Mass in local languages instead of Latin.

— francis x. rocca, WSJ, "Pope Francis to Make El Salvador’s Oscar Romero a Saint," 19 May 2018
Elena Mortara, who led a public protest by the family and Italy's Jewish community when St. John Paul II beatified Pius in 2000, dismissed the value of the even the Spanish version of the memoir as a document.

— nicole winfield, Fox News, "Case of Jewish boy taken by pope flares over doctored memoir," 20 Apr. 2018
Pope Paul, whom Pope Francis beatified in 2014, oversaw most of the Second Vatican Council from 1962 to 1965, which opened the door for a variety of modernizing changes, including Mass in local languages instead of Latin.

— francis x. rocca, WSJ, "Pope Clears Way to Make El Salvador’s Oscar Romero a Saint," 7 Mar. 2018
Romero was beatified in San Salvador on May 24, 2015, before a quarter-million jubilant Salvadorans, and held up as model of peace and forgiveness for Francis’ home continent.

— Washington Post, "Slain Salvador Archbishop Romero to be a saint, pope decrees," 7 Mar. 2018
In 2000, Pope John Paul II beatified Seelos, placing him one step away from sainthood.

— mike scott, NOLA.com, "Francis Xavier Seelos, brother's keeper: 1 of 300," 30 Jan. 2018
The document repeats church teaching that relics from candidates for sainthood can only be venerated publicly once they have been beatified, the first step to possible sainthood, and not before.

— nicole winfield, The Seattle Times, "Vatican issues new rules for relics in saint-making process," 16 Dec. 2017
Neumann’s successor, Father Francis Xavier Seelos, was beatified in 2000, a step toward sainthood.

— jonathan m. pitts, baltimoresun.com, "At St. Alphonsus Ligouri in Baltimore, believers find new inspiration in old Latin Mass," 14 Dec. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'beatify.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Origin and Etymology of beatify

borrowed from Middle French & Late Latin; Middle French beatifier, borrowed from Late Latin beātificāre, verbal derivative of Latin beātificus "making happy" — more at beatific

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First Known Use: 1535

in the meaning defined at sense 1

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