flagellant
Penitent with lash
A flagellant is someone who whips themselves or others, usually as religious penance or spiritual discipline.
Medieval flagellants formed processions during plagues and crises, scourging themselves publicly to atone for sins.
The term extends to anyone who engages in self-punishment, whether physical or psychological: He's a flagellant about his failures, beating himself up over every mistake.
Cause of mass suffering
- whipStrikes or aerates
- cat-o'-nine-tailsBraided whip with nine strands
- lashStrike or bind
- flailSwing limbs erratically
knout · rod · birch · switch · cane · discipline · cord · chain
One who renounces indulgence
- zealotObsessive cause supporter
- pilgrimReligious journey-taker
- monkCloistered religious devotee
- friarMendicant order member
nun · hermit · anchorite · mystic · votary · supplicant · devotee · penitent
Voluntary bodily punishment for penance
- scourgingWhipping as punishment
- atonementCompensation for wrongdoing
- contritionRemorseful state over misdeeds
- repentanceRemorseful rejection of past wrongs
absolution · confession · redemption · remorse · guilt · sackcloth · ashes · fasting
Repeated striking blows
- scourgingWhipping as punishment
- beatingRepeated striking or pulsing
- bloodlettingTherapeutic withdrawal of fluid
- lacerationTorn, ragged wound
maceration · asceticism · austerity · abstinence · discipline · regimen · rigor · endurance
scourge
Cause of mass suffering
- whipStrikes or aerates
- cat-o'-nine-tailsBraided whip with nine strands
- lashStrike or bind
flail · knout · rod · birch · switch · cane · discipline · cord · chain · thong
ascetic
One who renounces indulgence
friar · nun · hermit · anchorite · mystic · votary · supplicant · devotee · penitent · cleric
self-mortification
Voluntary bodily punishment for penance
- scourgingWhipping as punishment
- atonementCompensation for wrongdoing
- contritionRemorseful state over misdeeds
repentance · absolution · confession · redemption · remorse · guilt · sackcloth · ashes · fasting · mortification
whipping
Repeated striking blows
- scourgingWhipping as punishment
- beatingRepeated striking or pulsing
- bloodlettingTherapeutic withdrawal of fluid
laceration · maceration · asceticism · austerity · abstinence · discipline · regimen · rigor · endurance · suffering
- asceticsascetic, ascetics, hermit, hermits, recluse
- Christian Asceticshermit, anchorite, anchoress, eremite, cenobite
- religious sufferingmortification, hair shirt, crown of thorns, crucifixion, stigmata
- clergypriest, bishop, pope, nun, monk
- holy warriorscrusader, paladin, holy knight, jihadi, mujahideen
- medieval churchabbeys, abbey, abbot, abbots, abbess
flagellanthedonist
Seeker of sensual satisfaction
sybarite · voluptuary · pleasure-seeker · sensualist · epicurean
flagellantsadist
Person who enjoys cruelty
torturer · persecutor · tormentor · flogger · abuser
flagellantworldling
One absorbed in earthly matters
materialist · secularist · epicure · glutton · profligate
flagellate, flagellation, flagellates, flagellated, flagellants, flagellating, flagellations