Definition of Penance

Pen´ance
n.1.Repentance.
2.Pain; sorrow; suffering.
3.(Eccl.) A means of repairing a sin committed, and obtaining pardon for it, consisting partly in the performance of expiatory rites, partly in voluntary submission to a punishment corresponding to the transgression, imposed by a confessor or other ecclesiastical authority. Penance is the fourth of seven sacraments in the Roman Catholic Church.
And bitter penance, with an iron whip.
- Spenser.
Quoth he, "The man hath penance done,
And penance more will do."
- Coleridge.
4.Any act performed by a person to atone for an offense to another; an act of atonement.
v. t.1.To impose penance; to punish.
[imp. & p. p. Penanced .]


Related Words

Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, abject apology, amends, apology, asceticism, atone, atonement, attrition, baptism, change of heart, cold purgatorial fires, compensation, compunction, confirmation, contrition, deathbed repentance, do penance, extreme unction, fasting, flagellation, hair shirt, heartfelt apology, holy orders, lustration, maceration, make amends, matrimony, mea culpa, mortification, pay, penal retribution, penalization, penalty, penitence, penitential act, penitential exercise, penitently, price, punishment, purgation, purgatory, reformation, regret, remorse, remorsefulness, reparation, repentance, rue, ruth, sackcloth and ashes, saeta, self-mortification, self-punishment, seven sacraments, suffer, suffering, the Eucharist, wearing a hairshirt

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