Novus Spiritus

[TheAnachronism]

I was just wondering if Sylvia Browne has ever stated where she got the "Novus Spiritus" for the name of her church. Has she ever claimed that it came from a divine source (ie "My spirit guide, Frances, told me to name it that!") or anything of the like?

In Latin, doesn't the adjective come after the noun in modifies? If anyone happens to know Latin, is the declension on "novus" even correct?

 

[ExMinister]

The tenets of the church were supposedly provided by Francine, but I've never heard the name attributed to her. I did some research and checked through the catechism and several of her books and came up empty as far as how the name was chosen, except that I get the impression she thought if it herself. If I find anything more, I'll post it here.

ETA: Here is a quote from her book Father God: "My group is a Gnostic Christian one, but in order to have it sanctioned by the federal and state governments as a religion and a nonprofit organization, I had to come up with a name to operate...thus, Novus Spiritus, or 'New Spirit."

 

[TheAnachronism]

Thanks, ExMinister.

I was under the impression that in Latin it would actually be "Spiritus Novus." However, since Sylvia apparently doesn't claim to have any "psychic" influence in choosing the name, proving it incorrect doesn't do much to counter the claims of her psychic abilities per se.

 

[cos]

Did someone say Latin?

In Latin, doesn't the adjective come after the noun in modifies? If anyone happens to know Latin, is the declension on "novus" even correct?

In Latin, adjectives tend to appear just after the noun they modify, but their position can be shifted for emphasis or stylistic reasons. Because of the declension system, word order is nowhere near as significant as in, say, English.

Here "novus" is nominative singular masculine, as is "spiritus" (it's a 4th declension noun, so it could be one of a number of cases, but we'll give them the benefit of the doubt). So it's grammatically correct, at least.