"edify" is a correct and usable word in written English.
It is a verb which means to "instruct or improve (someone) morally or intellectually". For example, "The teacher tried to edify her students through her lessons."
Hagiographies have been written from the 2nd century ad to instruct and edify readers and glorify the saints.
His aim was to delight and edify the reader, and he did not conceal his own sympathies, which were especially evident in his warm admiration for the words and deeds of Spartan kings and generals.
Writing in the 1120s, a generation after Gregory's death, Paul set out to edify his audience rather than to report facts, and the vita is riddled with very obvious errors.
He is essentially a moralist whose aim is to edify the reader.
The earliest Christians wrote to convert or to edify, not to please.
Favourite legendary themes are the struggles and miraculous adventures of heroes in the faith, accounts that edify the faith and bolster the courage of the listener.
The abbess Herrad, knowing her audience, described in didactic fashion the history of the world (with emphasis on biblical stories) and its content, with commentaries and beautifully coloured miniatures designed to help and edify the nuns in her charge.
The compiler's style is uneven; he apparently aimed to please and to edify.
She wanted to edify, but she wanted to do so without lecturing or hectoring.
When Ravitch, who is 80, is invited to lecture or debate or op-edify, his hosts expect tales of fiscal imprudence heading toward a grim comeuppance; they are not disappointed.
O'Brien turns repeatedly to these men in his poems, sometimes in admiration at their undertaking ("Re-edify me, drains," implores the speaker of "Drains", "Give me again/ The under-city's grand designs"), sometimes in anxious awareness of the industrial revolution's negative consequences.
