CHRISTIAN

Definitions

1. 1. Pertaining to Christ or his religion; as, Christian people.
2. 2. Pertaining to the church; ecclesiastical; as, a Christian court. Blackstone.
3. 3. Characteristic of Christian people; civilized; kind; kindly; gentle; beneficent. The graceful tact; the Christian art. Tennyson. Christian Commission. See under Commission. -- Christian court. Same as Ecclesiastical court. -- Christian era, the present era, commencing with the birth of Christ. It is supposed that owing to an error of a monk (Dionysius Exiguus, d. about 556) employed to calculate the era, its commencement was fixed three or four years too late, so that 1890 should be 1893 or 1894. -- Christian name, the name given in baptism, as distinct from the family name, or surname.