PASTORAL • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Pastoral

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/pˈæstərəl/ Listen

adjective

Pastoral adj.

1.

Of or pertaining to shepherds; hence, relating to rural life and scenes; as, a pastoral life.

2.

Relating to the care of souls, or to the pastor of a church; as, pastoral duties; a pastoral letter.

Pastoral staff (Eccl.), a staff, usually of the form of a shepherd's crook, borne as an official emblem by a bishop, abbot, abbess, or other prelate privileged to carry it. See Crook, and Crosier.

Pastoral Theology, that part of theology which treats of the duties of pastors.

noun

Pastoral n.

1.

A poem describing the life and manners of shepherds; a poem in which the speakers assume the character of shepherds; an idyl; a bucolic. "A pastoral is a poem in which any action or passion is represented by its effects on a country life."

2.

(Mus.) A cantata relating to rural life; a composition for instruments characterized by simplicity and sweetness; a lyrical composition the subject of which is taken from rural life.

3.

(Eccl.) A letter of a pastor to his charge; specifically, a letter addressed by a bishop to his diocese; also (Prot. Epis. Ch.), a letter of the House of Bishops, to be read in each parish.

See images of 'Pastoral'

Etymology of 'Pastoral'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Pastoral" Quotes from Famous Books

... he goes northwards, instead of to the south. He reaches Glasgow, where "he thinks of organizing a church;" although Dr. Darling "decidedly says that he cannot humanly live over the winter." Yet he still goes on with his holy task; he writes "pastoral letters," and preaches, and prays, and offers kind advice. His friends, from Kirkcaldy and elsewhere, come to see him, where, "for a few weeks still, he is visible, about Glasgow. In the sunshine—in a lonely street, his gaunt, gigantic figure rises feebly against the light." ...

— Charles Lamb • Barry Cornwall

... literature accessible to Filipinos who could not read Spanish in the eighteenth century would serve not unfairly for much of the nineteenth. The first example of secular prose fiction I have noted in his lists is Friar Bustamente's pastoral novel depicting the quiet charms of country life as compared with the anxieties and tribulations of life in Manila. [140] His collection did not contain so far as I noticed a single secular historical narrative in Tagal or anything in ...

— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 • Emma Helen Blair

... upon both those plays the honour of her presence; and when she died, soon after, Congreve testified his gratitude by a despicable effusion of elegiack pastoral; a composition in which all is unnatural, and ...

— The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. in Nine Volumes - Volume the Eighth: The Lives of the Poets, Volume II • Samuel Johnson

... to be seen in Russia. Contrasted with the country around St. Petersburg, and the desert of scrubby pines and marshes lying for a distance of nearly five hundred miles along the line of the railway between the two great cities, the neighborhood of Moscow is wonderfully rich in rural and pastoral beauties. Viewing it in connection with the city from the tower of Ivan Veliki, I certainly derived the most exquisite sensations of pleasure from the novelty, extent, and variety of the whole scene. Yet, calmly and peacefully ...

— The Land of Thor • J. Ross Browne

... These pastoral hills, with their sweeps of heathy moorlands, appear from first to last in his works. Two of his initial Memories and Portraits depict his hill-folk neighbors, the Shepherd and the Gardener. It was at a church "atween the muckle Pentland's ...

— Robert Louis Stevenson • E. Blantyre Simpson

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