Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A member of a Roman Catholic brotherhood in parts of the Southwest, of Native American and Hispanic origin, that celebrates the Passion with rites involving fasting and self-flagellation.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A penitent, especially in the ecclesiastical sense; specifically, one of a group of flagellants in New Mexico, who are said to submit themselves to crucifixion.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Spanish, from Latin paenitēns, paenitent-, penitent; see penitent.]

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Examples

  • Todd has become a vigilante, fighting the El Penitente Mob by any means necessary, even murder.

    Recap: The State of the Bat-verse « Giant Killer Squid - Film, Comics, News, Reviews and more 2010

  • That and that is Penitente country and they don't like strangers and I also understand it is one of the northern stops on the Mexican Heroin route into the US.

    McCain Slime: The Maps! 2009

  • Staggering slowly up the glacier with my overloaded backpack, bearing the queer tin cross, I felt like some kind of strange Penitente. were I to break through the veneer of snow over a hidden crevasse, though, the curtain rods would -- I hoped mightily -- span the slot and keep me from dropping into the chilly bowels of the Baird.

    The Greatest Survival Stories Ever Told Underwood, Lamar 2001

  • The sounds reminded her of the mournful lowing of cattle in Amarillo years ago, and when, in 1954, she painted a searing orange and yellow picture, possibly an equivalent of the moving Penitente dirge, she named it From the Plains II.

    Portrait of An Artist Laurie Lisle 1986

  • It was as if she felt a kinship with his somber Catholic spiritualism, which had something in common with the mentality that produced the menacing mood in her paintings of New Mexican Penitente crosses.

    Portrait of An Artist Laurie Lisle 1986

  • They were not the kind of people to attract attention, so they had no reason to fear raids by Sheriff Bogardus, nor was Tranquilino disposed toward the Penitente movement, so there was no danger of his being clubbed by the deputies.

    Centennial Michener, James 1974

  • "Paul is going to put in the Penitente display you asked trim to loan the store, Eleanor," Gavin said.

    The Turquoise Mask Whitney, Phyllis A. 1973

  • Among the operas brought out at a later date are "Les Fiancés de Rosa," "La Comtesse Eva," "La Penitente,"

    Woman's Work in Music Arthur Elson

  • Flagellation is also practised at the death of a Penitente or of a relative.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 11: New Mexico-Philip 1840-1916 1913

  • His grandfather had whittled this famous image out of a cottonwood tree, whereon a saintly Penitente had been crucified after the custom of the order of Flagellants.

    Tales of Aztlan; the Romance of a Hero of our Late Spanish-American War, Incidents of Interest from the Life of a western Pioneer and Other Tales 1893

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