felix culpa

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin fēlīx culpa (“blessed fault”), via Roman Catholic theology, first used in Latin in the 4th century CE.

Noun

felix culpa (plural felix culpas or felices culpae)

1. (literary) A series of miserable events that will eventually lead to a happier outcome.

   Synonym: blessing in disguise

   • 2025 June 14, Nigel Andrews, “They don't come any bigger”, in FT Weekend, Life & Arts, page 13:

     What happens, though, if you, the filmmaker, can't get the malevolence to work? That's where Jaws had its happy misfortune, its felix culpa. When the mechanical sharks failed to work […] [Steven] Spielberg and his cast had nothing to do but hole up evening after evening in a Martha's Vineyard house and spitball about the script, story and characters.

2. (theology) The Biblical story of the fall of Adam and Eve, the original sin, seen as fortunate (fēlīx), because it led to Christian redemption and the eventual hope of Heaven.
   • 1951, E. M. Huggard, transl., Theodicy‎^[1], translation of original by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Appendices:

     I have shown that among older writers the fall of Adam was termed felix culpa, a fortunate sin, because it had been expiated with immense benefit by the incarnation of the Son of God: for he gave to the universe something more noble than anything there would otherwise have been amongst created beings.

Latin

Etymology

From fēlīx (“happy”) + culpa (“fault, blame”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈfeː.liːks ˈkʊɫ.pa]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈfɛː.liks ˈkul.pa]

Noun

fēlīx culpa f (genitive fēlīcis culpae); first declension

1. (religion) blessed fault, fortunate fall, used in reference to the Fall of Man.
   • 1265-1274. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, III, 1, 3, ad 3,

     O felix culpa!

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • (Can we date this quote?), Traditional Latin Mass, and Exsultet of the Easter Vigil masses:

     O felix culpa quae talem et tantum meruit habere redemptorem. ("O happy fault that earned us so good and great a Redeemer.")

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Declension

Third-declension adjective with a first-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	fēlīx culpa	fēlīcēs culpae
genitive	fēlīcis culpae	fēlīcium culpārum
dative	fēlīcī culpae	fēlīcibus culpīs
accusative	fēlīcem culpam	fēlīcīs culpās fēlīcēs culpās
ablative	fēlīcī culpā fēlīce culpā	fēlīcibus culpīs
vocative	fēlīx culpa	fēlīcēs culpae