ETYM Latin visitatio: cf. French visitation.
1. The act of visiting, or the state of being visited; access for inspection or examination.
2. Special dispensation; communication of divine favor and goodness, or, more usually, of divine wrath and vengeance; retributive calamity; retribution; judgment.
3. The act of visiting a corpse before a funeral.
In the Christian church, a formal visit by a bishop or church official to examine the churches or abbeys within his jurisdiction. In medieval visitations, records were kept of the detecta, matters disclosed to the visitor, and comperta, what the visitor found for himself.
In Christian art, a Visitation depicts the meeting of the Virgin Mary with her pregnant older relative Elizabeth (Luke 1:39–56). On this occasion Mary gives voice to the Magnificat. + prikaži više