Mystagogue

Definitions

  • Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
    • Mystagogue One who interprets mysteries, especially of a religious kind.
    • Mystagogue One who keeps and shows church relics.
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Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
    • n mystagogue One who instructs in or interprets mysteries; one who initiates.
    • n mystagogue Specifically, in the early church, the priest who prepared candidates for initiation into the sacred mysteries.
    • n mystagogue One who keeps church relics and shows them to strangers.
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Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
    • n Mystagogue mis′ta-gōg an initiator into religious mysteries, a teacher or catechist—also Mystagō′gus
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Etymology

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
L. mystagogus, Gr. ; one initiated in mysteries + leading, n., a leader, fr. to lead: cf. F. mystagogue,. See 1st Mystery
Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
Gr. mystēs, one initiated, agōgos, a leader.

Usage

In literature:

Gladstone was a demagogue: Disraeli a mystagogue.
"All Things Considered" by G. K. Chesterton
Thus, with Piero for mystagogue, we enter an inner shrine of deep religious revelation.
"Renaissance in Italy Vol. 3" by John Addington Symonds
Perhaps they would have but for the definite pronouncement of the mystagogue G.B.
"Plum Pudding" by Christopher Morley
To Clement and Origen, however, teacher and mystagogue are as closely connected as they are to most Gnostics.
"History of Dogma, Volume 2 (of 7)" by Adolph Harnack
The mystagogue is but too closely allied to the charlatan.
"Hours in a Library" by Leslie Stephen
Socrates, the mystagogue of amorous philosophy, is absent, as I have observed, from this discussion of the laws.
"A Problem in Greek Ethics" by John Addington Symonds
Watson (Thomas), author of The Mystagogue, Leeds, 1847.
"A Biographical Dictionary of Freethinkers of All Ages and Nations" by Joseph Mazzini Wheeler
Mystagogue, 78, 99, 253, 269 Mysteries, 6, 76, 92, 145, 158, 230, 269, 284, 287.
"The Conflict of Religions in the Early Roman Empire" by T. R. Glover
Henri Bergson is a mystagogue, and all mystagogues are mythomaniacs.
"Unicorns" by James Huneker
Logically, he is a detective, but I almost think that in his case the detective is a symbol of the mystagogue.
"Hieroglyphics" by Arthur Machen
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Related words