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CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hairshirt |
 | | A garment of rough cloth made from goats' hair and worn in the form of a shirt or as a girdle around the loins, by way of mortification and penance. |
| | The sackcloth, for instance, so often mentioned in Holy Scripture as a symbol of mourning and penance, was probably the same thing; and the garment of camels' hair worn by St. John the Baptist was no doubt somewhat similar. |
| | The earliest Scriptural use of the word in its Latin form occurs in the Vulgate version of Psalm 34:13, "Ego autem, cum mihi molesti essent, induebar cilicio." This is translated hair-cloth in the Douay Bible, and sackcloth in the Anglican Authorized Version and the Book of Common Prayer. |
| www.newadvent.org /cathen/07113b.htm (486 words) |
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