Confessor (2)
CONFESSOR
A Christian who has made a solemn and resolute profession of the faith, and has endured torments in its defence. A mere saint is called a confessor, to distinguish him from the roll of dignified saints, such as apostles, martyrs, &c. In ecclesiastical history, the word confessor is sometimes used for martyr; in after times it was confined to those who, after having been tormented by the tyrants, were permitted to live and die in peace; and at last it was also used for those who, after having lived a good life, died under an opinion of sanctity. According to St. Cyprian, he who presented himself to torture, or even to martyrdom, without being called to it, was not called a confessor but a professor; and if any out of want of courage abandoned his country, and became a voluntary exile for the sake of the faith, he was called exterris. Confessor is also a priest in the Romish church, who has a power to hear sinners in the sacrament of penance, and to give them absolution. The confessors of the kings of France, from the time of Henry IV. have been constantly Jesuits; before him, the Dominicans and Cordeliers shared the office between them. The confessors of the house of Austria, have also ordinarily been Dominicans and Cordeliers, but the latter emperors have all taken Jesuits.
Fuente: Theological Dictionary
confessor
(1) One who has given heroic testimony to the Christian faith. In the early Church, this term frequently designated a martyr . In modern ecclesiastical language, however, a confessor is a male saint who did not shed his blood for the faith. The Church divides such saints into two classes: those who were bishops (confessores pontifices); and those who were not bishops (confessores non pontifices).
(2) A priest empowered with the necessary jurisdiction to hear confessions and to impart sacramental absolution.
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Confessor
(1) Etymology and primitive meaning
The word confessor is derived from the Latin confiteri, to confess, to profess, but it is not found in writers of the classical period, having been first used by the Christians. With them it was a title of honour to designate those brave champions of the Faith who had confessed Christ publicly in time of persecution and had been punished with imprisonment, torture, exile, or labour in the mines, remaining faithful in their confession until the end of their lives. The title thus distinguished them from the martyrs, who were so called because they underwent death for the Faith. The first clear evidence of the distinction just spoken of is found in an epitaph which is recorded by De Rossi (Bullettino di archeologia cristiana, 1864, p. 30): “A Domino coronati sunt beati confessores comites martyrum Aurelius Diogenes confessor et Valeria Felicissima vivi in Deo fecerunt” [The blessed confessors, companions of the martyrs, have been crowned by the Lord. Aurelius Diogenes, confessor, and Valeria Felicissima, put up (this monument) during their lifetime]. Among writers St. Cyprian is the first in whose works it occurs (Ep. xxxvii): “Is demum confessor illustris et verus est de quo post-modum non erubescit Ecclesia sed gloriatur” (That confessor, indeed, is illustrious and true for whom the Church does not afterwards blush, but of whom she boasts); he shows in the passage that suffering alone for the Faith did not merit the title of confessor unless perseverance to the end had followed. In this meaning the title is of more frequent occurrence in the Christian writers of the fourth century. Sidonius Apollinaris (Carmen, xvii), to quote one instance, writes, “Sed confessorem virtutum signa sequuntur” (But signs of power follow the confessor). A similar use may be verified in Lactantius, “De morte persecut.”, xxxv; St. Jerome, Ep. Ixxxii, 7; Prudentius, Peri steph., 55, etc.
(2) Later meaning
After the middle of the fourth century we find confessor used to designate those men of remarkable virtue and knowledge who confessed the Faith of Christ before the world by the practice of the most heroic virtue, by their writings and preachings, and in consequence began to be objects of veneration, had chapels (martyria) erected in their honour, which in the previous centuries had been the especial privilege of the martyrs. In the Eastern Church the first confessors who received a public cultus were the abbots St. Anthony and St. Hilarion, also St. Philogonus and St. Athanasius. In the West Pope St. Silvester was so venerated even before St. Martin of Tours, as can be shown from the “Kalendarium” published by Fouteau–a document which is certainly of the time of Pope Liberius (cf. “Praenotata” in the aforesaid “Kalendarium”, iv).
(3) Modern meaning
Since the time when the Roman pontiffs reserved to themselves definite decision in causes of canonization and beatification, the title of confessor (pontiff, non-pontiff, doctor) belongs only to those men who have distinguished themselves by heroic virtue which God has approved by miracles, and who have been solemnly adjudged this title by the Church and proposed by her to the faithful as objects of their veneration. (See MARTYRS; PERSECUTIONS; BEATIFICATION AND CANONIZATION. For the office of confessor in the Sacrament of Penance see PENANCE, SACRAMENT OF.)
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CAMILLUS BECCARI Transcribed by Donald J. Boon
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume IVCopyright © 1908 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat. Remy Lafort, CensorImprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Confessor
(1.) In early ecclesiastical history the Word is frequently used for martyr (q.v.), but its proper application was to those who, after having been tormented, were permitted to live and die in peace. At length it indicated those who, after having lived a good life, died under the reputation of sanctity. According to Cyprian, he who presented himself to torture, or even to martyrdom, without being called to it, was not designated a confessor, but a professor; and if any through want of courage abandoned his country, and became’ a voluntary exile for the sake of the faith, he was called ex terris. Later the title Confessor was applied to persons of eminently pious life as witnessing a good confession. Edward of England was made Confessor by a bull of Alexander III.
(2.) In the Romish Church, a confessor is an ordained priest who has power to hear sinners in the so-called sacrament of penance, and to give them absolution. He is generally designated confessarius, to distinguish him from confessor. The confessors of the kings of France, from the time of Henry IV, were constantly Jesuits; before them, the Dominicans and Cordeliers shared the office between them. The confessors of the house of Austria have also ordinarily been Dominicans and Cordeliers, but the later emperors have taken Jesuits. Mosheim, Church History, 1:54. SEE AURICOULAR.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Confessor (2)
(1) The name of a singer in the councils of Carthage and Toledo in 400, when anthems were forbidden to be sung by nuns and widows, except in the presence of a bishop. Confession of God’s name (Psa 106:1) is synonymous with its praise.
(2) Saints not actually martyred, who by a good life have witnessed for Christ. Their names were first inserted in the diptychs in the 4th century.