Mea culpa ( lat. My fault ), mea maxima culpa ( [1] lat. My greatest fault ) - a formula of repentance and confession in the religious rite of Catholics from the XI century .
Etymology
The expression comes from the first phrase of the confessional prayer of Confiteor , which is read in the Roman Catholic Church at the beginning of the Mass :
I confess ... that I have sinned a lot in thought, word and deed: my fault, my fault, my greatest fault.
Original text (lat.)Confiteor [...] quia peccavi nimis cogitatione, verbo et opere: mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
Believers during this prayer, as a rule, strike themselves three times in the chest.
According to Adrian Fortescue , the inclusion of the phrase mea culpa in Confiteor can only be traced back to the 16th century [2] . However, the Latin phrase mea culpa has been used in a religious context before. In Jeffrey Chaucer's poem Troilus and Cressida (XIV century), the author uses the expression as an established formula of repentance and confession of guilt before God.
Around 1220, the ritual of public repentance in Siena for those who committed the murder demanded that the repentant throw himself on the ground three times, repeating: " Mea culpa; peccavi; Domine miserere mei" ("Because of my fault. I have sinned. Lord, have mercy on me").
In a common context, the expression mea culpa is sometimes used in the culture of some Western European countries in an ironic sense.
On March 12, 2000, in a jubilee year hosted by the Catholic Church every 25 years, Pope John Paul II spoke mea culpa for the first time in history on behalf of the Catholic Church . He apologized and admitted the guilt of the church members for eight sins: the persecution of Jews, the split of the church and religious wars, the Crusades and theological dogmas justifying the war, contempt for minorities and the poor, the justification of slavery. [3]
Notes
- ↑ Schmitz, Herm. Jos. (1898). Die Bussbücher und das Kanonische Bussverfahren, vol. 2. Düsseldorf: L. Schwann. pp. 53-54. .
- ↑ Fortescue, Adrian. "Confiteor." The Catholic Encyclopedia .
- ↑ Pope John Paul II Asks For Forgiveness. Archived 2011-04-25.
Literature
- Wolfgang Kosack: Basilios "De archangelo Michael": sahidice Pseudo - Euhodios "De resurrectione": sahidice Pseudo - Euhodios "De dormitione Mariae virginis": sahidice & bohairice: <Papyruskodex Turin, Mus. Egizio Cat. 63000 XI. > nebst Varianten und Fragmente. In Parallelzeilen ediert, kommentiert und übersetzt von Wolfgang Kosack. Christoph Brunner, Berlin 2014. ISBN 978-3-906206-02-8 .