Cilice
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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 sel
A hairshirt belonging to a Christian, with rosary 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.
Thomas More
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Sir Thomas More, venerated in the Catholic Church as a martyr and saint, was an English lawyer, judge, social philosopher, author, statesman, theologian and Renaissance humanist. He also served Henry
Cilice
…Prince Henry the Navigator was found to be wearing a hairshirt at the time of his death in 1460. St. Francis of Assisi, St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Thomas More and St. Therese of Lisieux are known to have used them. Scottish king James IV wore a cilice during Lent to repent of the indirect role he played in…
Sir Thomas More (1527)
Portrait of Saint Thomas More, executed on Tower Hill (London) in 1535, apparently based on the Holbein portrait
Rowland Lockey after Hans Holbein the Younger, The Family of Sir Thomas More, c. 1594, Nostell Priory, West Yorkshire
Study for a portrait of Thomas More's family, c. 1527, by Hans Holbein the Younger