Flagellant
[1] Many Christian confraternities of penitents have flagellants, who beat themselves, both in the privacy of their dwellings and in public processions, to repent of sins and share in the Passion of Jesus.
[1] In the 14th century, a movement within Western Christianity known as Flagellantism became popular and adherents "began beating their flesh in a public penitential ritual in response to war, famine, plague and fear engendered by millenarianism.
"[1] Though this movement withered away, the practices of public repentance and promoting peace were adopted by the flagellants in Christian, especially Roman Catholic, confraternities of penitents that exist to the present-day.
The practice became popular in 1260 thanks to the example of Blessed Raniero Fasani of Perugia,[2][3] a saintly hermit who began scourging himself publicly after receiving an apparition of the Virgin Mary and St. Bevignate who told him to start preaching penance for sins and to establish peace.
Christianity has formed a permanent tradition surrounding the doctrine of mortification of the flesh, ranging from self-denial, wearing hairshirts and chains, to fasting and self-flagellation using the discipline.
[5] Those who practice self-flagellation claim that St. Paul's statement in the Bible ‘I chastise my body’ refers to self-inflicted bodily scourging (1 Corinthians 9:27).
[7] Likewise, the Congregationalist writer Sarah Osborn also practiced self-flagellation in order "to remind her of her continued sin, depravity, and vileness in the eyes of God".
[9] Historically speaking, in the 11th century, Peter Damian, a Benedictine monk in the Roman Catholic tradition, taught that spirituality should manifest itself in physical discipline; he admonished those who sought to follow Christ to practice self-flagellation for the duration of the time it takes one to recite forty Psalms, increasing the number of flagellations on holy days of the liturgical calendar.
[15] They were accused of heresies including doubting the need for the sacraments, denying ordinary ecclesiastical jurisdiction and claiming to work miracles.
At its peak, a group of over 15,000 adherents gathered in Modena and marched to Rome, but the movement rapidly faded when one of its leaders was burned at the stake by order of Boniface IX.
Next, the followers would fall to their knees and scourge themselves, gesturing with their free hands to indicate their sin and striking themselves rhythmically to songs, known as Geisslerlieder, until blood flowed.
[citation needed] Modern processions of hooded Flagellants are still a feature of various Mediterranean Christian countries, mainly in Italy, Spain and some of its former colonies such as the Philippines, usually every year during Lent and intensify during Holy Week.
[21][22] Both customs are deemed as heterodox acts of penance by the Church in the Philippines, whose episcopate have condemned repeatedly.Los hermanos penitentes (English: “The penitent brothers”) is a semi-secret society of flagellants among Hispanic Roman Catholics in the American states of Colorado and New Mexico.
Unrelated practices exist in non-Christian traditions, including actual flagellation amongst some Shiites who were converted by the Qizilbash (commemorating the martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali).
