English Dictionary

Agapetae

noun

Women of the early Christian church who cohabited in a state of "spiritual love" with clergy or laymen who had vowed chastity.

The Agapetae were a group of women in ancient Greece who were companions to men but not their wives.

意味（1）

Women of the early Christian church who cohabited in a state of "spiritual love" with clergy or laymen who had vowed chastity.

He was instructed and assisted by Agape, an honourable woman, in carrying on the secret mysteries ; and she was the mother of the Agapetae, or love-feasters ; whose rites became by degrees so very scandalous, that St. Jerome tells Oceanus you are exposed to the teeth of detractors, unless you dismiss the assemblies of the Agapetae.