Sic transit gloria mundi

"Sic transit gloria mundi" is a Latin phrase that means "Thus passes the glory of the world". It has been interpreted as "Worldly things are fleeting."

TraditionallyFact|date=July 2008, Papal coronations are thrice interrupted by a monk (some saywho? barefoot) holding a pole to which is affixed a burning piece of flax. After it finishes burning, the monk announces, " _la. Pater sancte, sic transit gloria mundi." This is meant to remind the Pope that, despite the grandeur of the ceremony and the long history of the office, he is a mortal man.

Modern usage

*Arthur Conan Doyle's short story "My Friend the Murderer" ends with this phrase.
*The phrase is spoken by the character Bellerose in the play "Cyrano de Bergerac" by Edmond Rostand to comment on the defeat of Valvert by Cyrano.
*The Tenth Doctor uses the phrase at least once.
*The shortened "Sic transit gloria" (translated as "Glory fades") is spoken multiple times by various characters in Wes Anderson's movie " Rushmore", culminating in Max Fischer's memorable use of the phrase in his audacious super-play on the Vietnam War. Students of Anderson's films often see this as an element present in all of his films, whose characters' peaks of glory were behind them.
*Taken from the line from Rushmore, the band Brand New also has a song on their album "Deja Entendu" named "Sic Transit Gloria... Glory Fades"
*In the movie "Carry on Cleo" uttered by Kenneth Williams to British slave Gloria becoming sea sick
*In the movie "Patton", it is interpreted as "All glory is fleeting"
*It is the name of a song performed by Levi Garrett on his album "Blue & Acqua"
*The Norwegian industrial metal band Red Harvest entitled their fourth album (and the first that was distributed outside of Europe) "Sick Transit Gloria Mundi"
*Goldie Hawn's character in "Foul Play" is named Gloria Mundy. The romantic comedy includes an attempted assassination of the Pope.
*In the Canadian musical "Anne of Green Gables," this phrase is sung in the Act II opening, entitled "Summertime."
*If the player destroys the world and causes a nuclear winter, the classic personal computer game "Command HQ" (released in 1990 by Microplay) for the DOS system will terminate unexpectedly and print "Sic transit gloria mundi" to the screen.
* When human player is defeated in classic computer game "", he will see dialog window: "Sic Transit Gloria Mundi The Roman Empire Has Fallen".
* In Season 2 Episode 2 of the sitcom ALF, Alf utters "sic transit gloria mundi" and makes the sign of the cross after discovering the long-buried body of Brian's pet turtle.
*An episode of "Babylon 5" is called "Sic Transit Vir", Vir Cotto being a character from the show.
*Curiously, for a celebration of their recent marriage, it is held up on a sign in the crowd when Sheridan and Delenn return "home" at the beginning of the last episode of Season Four of "Babylon 5".
*In the "Roman Empire" segment of "History of the World, Part I," one Roman Senator utters the short form, to which another replies, "I didn't know Gloria was sick!"
*An article in the "New York Daily News", about the transport of an ill Gloria Vanderbilt, used the headline "Sick Gloria in Transit: Monday" [http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/socialdiary/2005/12_09_05/socialdiary12_09_05.php]
*In 1980 the "New York Daily News" reported a state bailout of the city's subway system. It used the headline "Sick Transit's Glorious Monday".
*Also quoted in the 1964 Vincent Price film "The Masque of the Red Death" from an original story by Edgar Allan Poe.
*In "A Canticle for Leibowitz", as a spaceship constructed by the Catholic Church to flee an oncoming nuclear apocalypse prepares to depart, the last crewman on board says "Sic transit mundus"
*In the unlikely derivations section of BBC radio's "My Word", the phrase is claimed to be a desperate telegram from a stranded and cash-strapped friend asking the recipient to "SEEK TRAINSEAT GLORIA MONDAY"
*Frank Richards, author of "The Magnet" comic often construed the Latin as "Thus are the mighty fallen"
*Spider Robinson, author of the "Stardance Trilogy" named the ship on which Charlie is departing earth "Gloria Mundi". This was a pun based on the name of the shipping company, S. I. C. Transit.
*The phrase was scribbled on a note by Charles Ponzi and handed to reporters at his sentencing for fraud
*It is the last line in the short story, "The Maiden", written by Jean Stafford
*The popular 1990s MUD Holy Mission had this phrase on its login page

*It is chanted during Pierre Bezukhov's initiation into the Freemasons in Leo Tolstoy's "War and Peace"
*It is quoted in the Madeline L'Engle novel "The Young Unicorns"
*"Fame is fleeting, but obscurity is forever." -- Napoleon
*Quoted by Eric Blore, playing the butler Bates, to Edward Everett Horton in the movie "Top Hat" (1935).
*Quoted by Gemma Jones playing the character Connie James in the UK BBC1 TV series "Spooks" season six episode three.
* Quoted in "Top Hat," starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, in reference to the improper wearing of a square tie with a dinner jacket, by the man servant.
*Indie band Noah and the Whale enter this quote at the end of each of their blogs on myspace.
* Quoted in Curtis Henson' "Wonder Boys" (2000)
* The short science fiction novel "Alas, All Thinking" by Harry Bates (1935) ends with this phrase, as the last of the human race is destroyed.
* 'Gloria Monday', a right-wing British prime minister resembling Margaret Thatcher, is the villain of the graphic novel Dare by Grant Morrison and Rian Hughes.
* Found in Richard A. Clarke's "Scorpion's Gate" (2005) [http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4973952]
* Quoted by Devon Miles in Knight Rider's episode 'Give me Liberty...or give me dead' (1982; season 1, episode 15)
* In an album of the Asterix comic, one of the pirates speak this quote after Asterix and Obelix have sunk their ship.

See also

*Memento mori
*Vanitas

References