CILICE. — A rough cloth woven from goat or camel hair. The Latins called it cilicinum because it came especially from Cilicia, in whose mountains numerous flocks of long-haired goats grazed; it was used to make coarse garments, blankets, and tents.
In Holy Scripture the cilice or sackcloth (Heb. sag, Gr. σάκκος) generally denotes a garment of this fabric worn as a sign of mourning or penance (cf. Gen. 37:34; 1 Kgs. 21:27; 2 Kgs. 2:30; Jer. 4:8; 6:26, etc.). It was the ordinary attire of the prophets, preachers of repentance (Isa. 20:2; 2 Kgs. 1:8; Matt. 3:4). Along with the cilice, ashes were also used to sprinkle upon the head; hence the biblical expression “to do penance in sackcloth and ashes” (Matt. 11:21). As an instrument of penance, the cilice worn next to the skin has always been used in Christian asceticism. St. Augustine (Symbol. ad catechum., 1: PL 40, 660 sg.) attests that even catechumens prepared for Baptism by wearing the cilice. Notable in hagiography is the Constantinopolitan anchorite St. Theodore, called Trichinas (q.v.) or “the Hairy” for the rough cilice garment he wore, and the Camaldolese hermit St. Dominic Loricato (q.v.), so named for the iron chain mail he wore against his flesh.
In its simplest form the cilice is reduced to a band of rough cloth woven from hair or bristles, or to a belt composed of rings or links of iron with projecting points (q.V. Catenelle) to gird the waist, arms, and legs.