Sic transit gloria mundi
Sic transit gloria mundi is a Latin phrase that means "Thus passes the glory of the world." It has been interpreted as "Worldly things are fleeting." It is possibly an adaptation of a phrase in Thomas à Kempis's 1418 work The Imitation of Christ: "O quam cito transit gloria mundi" ("How quickly the glory of the world passes away").[1][2]
The phrase was used in the ritual of papal coronation ceremonies between 1409, when it was used at the coronation of Alexander V,[3] and 1963. As the newly chosen pope proceeded from the sacristy of St. Peter's Basilica in his sedia gestatoria, the procession stopped three times. On each occasion a papal master of ceremonies would fall to his knees before the pope, holding a silver or brass reed, bearing a tow of smoldering flax. For three times in succession, as the cloth burned away, he would say in a loud and mournful voice, "Sancte Pater, sic transit gloria mundi!" ("Holy Father, so passes worldly glory!") These words, thus addressed to the pope, served as a reminder of the transitory nature of life and earthly honors. The stafflike instrument used in the aforementioned ceremony is known as a "sic transit gloria mundi", named for the master of ceremonies' words.[4][5][6]
Emily Dickinson used the line in a whimsical valentine written to William Howland in 1852 and subsequently published in the Springfield Daily Republican:[7]
- Sic transit gloria mundi
- How doth the busy bee,
- Dum vivimus vivamus,
- I stay my enemy!
This parodied her education by its use of stock phrases and morals.[8]
See also [edit]
- Memento mori
- This too shall pass
- Vanitas
- In ictu oculi, the companion painting to Finis gloriae mundi
References [edit]
- ^ Oxford English Dictionary
- ^ à Kempis, Thomas. "Chapter 3". Imitation of Christ: translated from Latin into English. Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Retrieved 11 November 2010.
- ^ Elizabeth Knowles, ed. (2005). The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (Second ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-860981-0.
- ^ King, William Henry Francis (1904), 319 Classical and Foreign Quotations, London: J. Whitaker & Sons, retrieved November 10, 2010
- ^ Richardson, Carol M., Reclaiming Rome: cardinals in the fifteenth century, retrieved November 10, 2010
- ^ Bak, János M., Coronations: medieval and early modern monarchic ritual, retrieved November 10, 2010
- ^ The poems of Emily Dickinson 3, Harvard University Press, 1998
- ^ Ablow, Rachel (2010), The Feeling of Reading
