CILICIO. - A rough cloth, woven with goat’s or camel’s hair. It was called cilicium by the Latins because it came especially from Cilicia, on whose mountains numerous flocks of long-haired goats grazed; it was used to make coarse garments, coverings, and tents.
In Holy Scripture the c. or sackcloth (Heb. laq, Gr. ἀσπύς) generally denotes a garment made of such cloth, worn as a sign of mourning or penance (cf. Gen. 37, 34; I Reg. 21, 27; II Reg. 2, 30; Ier. 4, 8; 6, 26 etc.). It was the ordinary dress of the prophets, preachers of penance (Is. 20, 2; II Reg. 1, 8; Mt. 3, 4). Ashes were also used together with the c. to sprinkle the head; hence the biblical expression: “to do penance in c. and ashes” (Mt. 11, 21). As an instrument of penance, the c. worn on the bare skin has always been used in Christian asceticism. S. Agostino (Symbol. ad catechum., 1: PL 40, 660 ff.) attests that catechumens too prepared for Baptism by wearing the c. Noteworthy in this regard in hagiography are the Constantinopolitan anchorite s. Teodoro called Trichinas (v.), or “hairy,” because of the harsh garment of c. that he wore, and the Camaldolese hermit s. Domenico Loricato (v.), so called from the iron shirt he wore next to his flesh.
In its simplest form, the c. is reduced to a band of rough cloth woven with hair or bristles, or to a belt made up of rings or links of iron wire with projecting points (v. CATENELLE), for binding tightly the waist, arms, and legs.