The Gospel of John, chapter 20:23

Teilhard de Chardin, the Jesuit scientist, once remarked that it is extremely difficult to locate the original of a great many ordinary things: the first flatiron, toaster, teapot, etc. Much the same could be said of “Confession,” with its image of an anonymous penitent in a small dark box. We search in vain for the original of this in the early centuries of Christianity.

What we do find is something called public penance. Once in their lifetime, sinners who had shocked the community by their behavior could be re-admitted to the church, but only by the bishop and only after a lengthy period of public penance. Where then, did private “confession,” as we know it, come from?

Apparently, it owes its origins to Irish Monks. When Christianity came to that little island, it quickly took on a monastic tone: and monks adapted an old pagan custom, that of the counselor friend. (The Irish name for this “soul friend” is Anmchara.) The two would search out the scars that sin had left in the other’s life. If they found a sinful pattern of behavior, they would praise God for his forgiving love and resolve to improve their lives. This was the monk’s “confession,” and it was a valuable vehicle for spiritual development.

The practice proved popular with the lay people who lived in the monastery surroundings and they too began making their “confession” to the monks. Of course, there were “shocking” sins in Ireland as well as in ancient Corinth; and it became the function of the priest to reconcile the sinner to the community by imparting absolution.

When the Irish monks poured across Europe on their missionary journeys during the Dark Ages, they took the practice of Confession with them. For some time, various synods and bishops were uneasy with the idea of Confession, repeatable and easily accessible as it was. They attempted unsuccessfully, to cling to the ancient practice of public penance. Confession was, however, an idea whose time had come.

It soon became the accepted pattern for reconciling the sinner and it received the church’s full endorsement.

Thus the practice of slipping quietly into a confessional, whispering one’s sins anonymously to an unknown priest and then receiving absolution, appealed more strongly to people than the severe penitential discipline of the early church.

Fr. Hugh Duffy