A cilice, also known as a sackcloth, was originally a garment or undergarment made of coarse cloth or animal hair worn close to the skin. It is used by members of various Christian traditions as a self-imposed means of repentance and mortification of the flesh; as an instrument of penance, it is often worn during the Christian penitential season of Lent, especially on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, and other Fridays of the Lenten season.
A hairshirt belonging to a Christian, with a set of prayer beads hanging off a belt loop used to hold the girdle that tightens the garment around the waist
Mary Magdalene in cilice. Polychrome wood carving by Pedro de Mena, Church of San Miguel and San Julian, Valladolid
Hairshirt cilice of St. Louis at St. Aspais Church, Melun, France
Ivan the Terrible's hairshirt cilice (16th century). The tsar wanted to die like a monk.
Mortification of the flesh
Mortification of the flesh is an act by which an individual or group seeks to mortify or deaden their sinful nature, as a part of the process of sanctification.
Fresco in the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella showing Saint Dominic with a discipline in his hand, kneeling before a crucifix
A confraternity of penitents in Italy mortifying the flesh with disciplines in a seven-hour procession; penitents wear capirote so that attention is not drawn toward themselves as they repent but rather to God.
Spugna
Cross
