the.com/penance
guilt with a to-do list, where suffering becomes a receipt for the soul.
means A voluntary act of self-punishment, devotion, or amends performed to show sorrow for a wrong and seek forgiveness.
from From Latin paenitentia, 'repentance,' which is rooted in paenitere, 'to cause regret, to make sorry.' It traveled through Old French penance into English in the medieval period, when the Church had formalized it into a sacrament — confess, then perform the prescribed prayers, fasting, or acts. The same Latin source gives us 'penitent' and 'repent,' and is a cousin of 'penitentiary,' a place built on the idea that punishment might also be repentance.
- medieval price
- sins had set rates, like a sin menu
- flagellants
- crowds whipped themselves publicly during plague years
- indulgences
- buying out of penance funded St. Peter's Basilica
- word root
- from Latin poena, meaning punishment or pain
- sacrament status
- Catholicism ranks it among seven holy rites