Nothing but peace and gentle visitation. --Shak.
2. Specifically: The act of a superior or superintending
officer who, in the discharge of his office, visits a
corporation, college, etc., to examine into the manner in
which it is conducted, and see that its laws and
regulations are duly observed and executed; as, the
visitation of a diocese by a bishop.
3. The object of a visit. [Obs.] ``O flowers, . . . my early
visitation and my last.'' --Milton.
4. (Internat. Law) The act of a naval commander who visits,
or enters on board, a vessel belonging to another nation,
for the purpose of ascertaining her character and object,
but without claiming or exercising a right of searching
the vessel. It is, however, usually coupled with the right
of search (see under {Search}), visitation being used for
the purpose of search.
5. Special dispensation; communication of divine favor and
goodness, or, more usually, of divine wrath and vengeance;
retributive calamity; retribution; judgment.
What will ye do in the day of visitation? --Isa. x.
3.
6. (Eccl.) A festival in honor of the visit of the Virgin
Mary to Elisabeth, mother of John the Baptist, celebrated
on the second of July.
{The Order of the Visitation of Our Lady} (R. C. Ch.), a
religious community of nuns, founded at Annecy, in Savoy,
in 1610, and in 1808 established in the United States. In
America these nuns are devoted to the education of girls.