donatist means one of a group of Christians in fourth-century North Africa who broke away as a group after opposing the appointment of Caecilianus as Bishop of Carthage, and who disputed the validity of baptisms performed by others. It carries an Arena rating of 1299, earned across 14 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, donatist ranks #1,245 of 17,104 for Most Storied Words, #2,508 of 17,149 for Most Exacting Words, #8,037 of 17,131 for Scariest Words, #9,597 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words.
donatist is pronounced /ˈdəʊnətɪst/.
Why “donatist” is a great word
A member of a rigorous fourth-century North African Christian sect that demanded absolute moral purity from its clergy and invalidated sacraments administered by those it deemed tainted. The name derives from Medieval Latin *Dōnātista*, after Donatus, one of the sect's early leaders. Unlike "Catholic," which denotes the universal church they broke from over the validity of impure priests, or "Novatianist," an earlier Roman schism with similar austerity but a different geography, the Donatist was a creature of the African sun—local, uncompromising, and defined by a fierce belief that the vessel must be as spotless as the wine. One sees them in the whitewashed walls of a rural basilica, in the careful, repeated immersion of a convert, and in the tense, sun-baked villages where the line between sacred purity and human fracture ran as deep as a desert canyon—a testament to the anguish of seeking a perfect church in an imperfect world.
Etymology
From Medieval Latin Dōnātista, from Dōnātus, one of their leaders.
noun
- One of a group of Christians in fourth-century North Africa who broke away as a group after opposing the appointment of Caecilianus as Bishop of Carthage, and who disputed the validity of baptisms performed by others.e.g.“Faced with petitions from the Donatists, in 311 Constantine made a decision of great significance for the future.” — 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 211:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- donatistical 67% match — Relating to the Donatists. vs donatist →
- donatistic 66% match — Relating to Donatism. vs donatist →
- donatism 61% match — An early Christian belief which maintained that apostate priests were incapable of administering the sacraments, as opposed to the orthodox view that any sacrament administered by a properly ordained priest or bishop is valid, regardless of how sinful he is or if he has converted to another religion. vs donatist →
- novatianist 58% match — A Novatian. vs donatist →
- cathar 56% match — A member of certain so self-styled Novatian and other medieval Christian sects embracing a form of dualism and extraordinary practices purportedly adhering to Mary Magdalene's teachings, persecuted by Roman Catholics as heretics. vs donatist →
- dissenter 53% match — Someone who dissents (disagrees), especially from an established church. vs donatist →
- apostolici 51% match — Any of various Christian heretics whose common doctrinal feature was an ascetic rigidity of morals, which made them reject property and marriage. vs donatist →
- nonconformist 51% match — A member of a church separated from the Church of England; a Protestant dissenter. vs donatist →