felix culpa

Borrowed from Latin fēlīx culpa (“happy fault”), via Roman Catholic theology.

felix culpa (plural felix culpas or felices culpae)

1. (literary) A series of miserable events that will eventually lead to a happier outcome.
2. (religion) The Biblical story of the fall of Adam and Eve and the loss of the Garden of Eden, known theologically as the source of original sin - meaning that this loss of innocence was a fortunate fall because of the good that would come from it, that is, Christian redemption and the eventual hope of Heaven.

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

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈfeː.liːks ˈkul.pa/, [ˈfeːlʲiːks̠ ˈkʊɫ̪pä]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈfe.liks ˈkul.pa/, [ˈfɛːliks ˈkulpä]

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)

Third-declension adjective with a first-declension noun.