“He put on sackcloth and covered himself with ashes, and with great haste and tears he fell down before Zephyrinus, the bishop, rolling at the feet not only of the clergy, but also of the laity and he moved with his tears the compassionate Church of the merciful Christ.” – Church History V, 28 § 12 9Ĭhurch historian Eusebius attests to the practice, recounting how a repentant apostate begged Pope Zephyrinus to be readmitted into communion. “It commands the penitent to lie in sackcloth and ashes, to cover his body in mourning, to lay his spirit low in sorrows, to exchange for severe treatment the sins which he has committed.” – On Repentance, Ch. In the Church Doctor Tertullian’s treatise On Repentance, he writes that confession should be accompanied by lying in sackcloth and ashes: The tradition of ashes being used to symbolize penance was continued and emboldened as seen in very earliest days of the Church. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes.” – Matthew 11:21 This penitential practice of covering oneself with ashes was even recognized by Jesus in his reproaches to the unrepentant towns. “I turned to the Lord God, to seek help, in prayer and petition, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.” – Daniel 9:3 “Therefore I disown what I have said, and repent in dust and ashes.” – Job 42:6 Daniel and Job both repented by covering themselves in ashes and wearing sackcloth. The earliest liturgical usage of ashes is seen in the Old Testament representing mortality, mourning, and penance.

On the first day of the Lenten season we are marked with ashes as the priest utters words in shades of what God said after the Fall of Man: “For you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” The imposition of ashes in unlike any other liturgical ritual – what is the origin of this distinctive solemn ceremony?

Benevento imposition of ashes