After completing their penance, they were reconciled by the Bishop with a prayer of absolution offered in the midst of the community.
Penance assumed many forms, such as pilgrimages to holy sites; constructing, repairing and rebuilding churches; and caring for the poor and sick.
Like the catechumens who were preparing for baptism, they were often dismissed from the Sunday assembly after the Liturgy of the Word.
Penance in the Judeo-Christian sense can be traced to the time just after the Jewish exile in Babylon (Sirach 5:1–8; 34: 21–31).
Public penance consisted of acts of mortification such as wearing a "hair shirt," covering the head with ashes, fasting and prayers.
The Edict of Milan in A.D. 313 declared that the bishop could relegate the sinner into an Order of Penitents called Conversi.
[citation needed] This was done in a liturgical ceremony with the laying on of hands and the application of ashes.
They accepted the interdicts of the Order which by that time included: Monastic asceticism, which was popularized by the Desert Fathers of the East, such as St. Anthony the Great and St.
The penitential movement became popular among the laity after the Gregorian Reform at the end of the 11th century.