Catholic Dictionary

Find accurate definitions of over 5,000 Catholic terms and phrases (including abbreviations). Based on Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

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PENITENTS

The members of a confraternity whose statutes prescribed penance and mercy. They flourished in Italy, France, and Spain from about the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries. Their contributions, mostly social, were visiting the sick, dowering poor girls, assisting prisoners, and burying the dead.