Felix culpa
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Felix culpa is a Latin phrase that literally translated means a "blessed fault" or "fortunate fall". As a religious term it refers to Adam and Eve's fall and the loss of the Garden of Eden, known theologically as the source of original sin. "O felix culpa!" wrote medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas [1], meaning that this loss of innocence was a fortunate fall because of the good that would come from it: Christ's Second Coming, Judgement Day and the eventual hope of Heaven. In the traditional Latin Mass and during the Exsultet of the Easter Vigil the priest says at one point: "O felix culpa quae talem et tantum meruit habere redemptorem," "O blessed fault that earned us so good and great a Redeemer."
In a literary context, the term "felix culpa" can be used to describe how a series of miserable events will eventually lead to a happier outcome.
The theological concept is one of the underlying themes of Raphael Carter's science fiction novel The Fortunate Fall; the novel's title is explicitly derived from the Latin phrase.
