Catholic Dictionary

Find accurate definitions of over 5,000 Catholic terms and phrases (including abbreviations). Based on Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

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SUBLIME

That which is beautiful in the highest degree. The sublimity may be the greatest within a certain class or category, as among flowers or scenes; it may be the greatest in the physical order; or in the moral order. Among creatures the greatest beauty is spiritual. And sublime above all creatures is the Creator. His sublimity is taught by revelation, in condemning those who practice idolatry. Some have been so charmed by the beauty of creatures, "they have taken things for gods. Let them know how much the Lord of these excels them, since the very Author of beauty has created them" (Wisdom 13:3). (Etym. Latin sublimare, to refine, purify; from sublimis, uplifted, high.)