The edited (unknown scribe, approx 1000) Pseudo-Penitential of Archbishop Theodore (d. 690) speaks of any who, on the kalends of January (January 1), clothe themselves with the skins of cattle and carry heads of animals.
The earliest important penitentials were those by the Irish abbots Cummean (c. 650) and Columbanus and the originally Greek Archbishop of Canterbury, Theodore of Tarsus.
King Henry obtained absolution at Canossa in January 1077; and Burchard, who accompanied him on the penitential pilgrimage, was reinstated in office.
San Esteban is also the canonical seat of the Dominican Fraternity of Stmo Christ of the Good Death which makes its penitential procession in Salamanca at dawn on Good Friday, and the Royal and Pontifical Sacrament Confraternity of Mary, Mother of God of the Rosary and St. Pius V fraternity of glory, restarted recently after years of inactivity.
The Legion of Mary see to the upkeep of the Holywell, a place of pilgrimage for many local people who perform penitential stations during the old period of Lughnasa from the last weekend in July until August 15.
According to some chroniclers, certain noblemen of Lombardy, taken prisoner by the Emperor Henry V (1081–1125) following a rebellion in the area, were taken as captives to Germany and after suffering the miseries of exile for some time, "humiliated" themselves before the emperor, assuming a penitential garb and mode of life which gained them their release.
The Illustrious Penitential Brotherhood of Our Lady of Anguish is a Catholic fraternity established in Valladolid, Castile and León, Spain in 1536.
"According to an old Spanish document discovered among some penitential liturgies by Eliezer ben Solomon Ashkenazi, the editor of "Ṭa'am Zeḳenim" (Frankfurt am Main, 1854), Andreas was a Jew who, upon becoming a Christian, distinguished himself so markedly as to become successively cardinal and then pope.
Before it was ever transmitted in Bede's Historia, however, the Libellus circulated as part of several different early medieval canon law collections, often in the company of texts of a penitential nature.
Fasting, which had always been part of the penitential discipline, became more regularized, and three major times of fasting were observed, Advent, Lent (prior to Easter), and a period after Pentecost.
The relative penitential canons are contained in the canonical letter of St. Gregory Thaumaturgus (about 263; P. G., X, 1019), the Councils of Ancyra (314), Neocaesarea (314-20), Nicaea (325), and the three canonical letters of St. Basil to Amphilochus (Ep. 188, 199, 217 in P. G., XXXII, 663, 719, 794).
The Penitential Psalms or Psalms of Confession, so named in Cassiodorus's commentary of the 6th century AD, are the Psalms 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, and 143 (6, 31, 37, 50, 101, 129, and 142 in the Septuagint numbering).
Handlyng Synne (1303) is a twelve thousand line devotional or penitential piece, written in Middle English rhymed couplets, deriving many of its exempla from the Anglo-Norman Manuel des Peches of William of Waddington.
On the day before Easter, following the death of her second consort, she appeared before the gates of the Lateran basilica, dressed in penitential garb, and did public penance for her sin, which made a great impression upon the Christian population of Rome.
In commentary in the National Catholic Reporter Michael Sean Winters reported he had heard only fifty people showed up at the penitential service.
The second printed edition, the Seven Penitential Psalms, was dedicated to the Provost of the Chotěšov monastery, Albert Jordán of Mohelnice.