''Mea culpa'' () is a phrase of

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

origin that means ''my fault'' or ''my mistake'', and is an acknowledgment of having done wrong. The expression is also used as an admission of having made a mistake that should have been avoided and, in a religious context, may be accompanied by symbolically beating the breast when uttering the words. The phrase comes from a

Western Christian Western Christianity is one of two subdivisions of Christianity (Eastern Christianity being the other). Western Christianity is composed of the Latin Church and Western Protestantism, together with their offshoots such as the Old Catholic Ch ...

prayer of confession of sinfulness, known as the ''

Confiteor The (; so named from its first word, Latin for 'I confess' or 'I acknowledge') is one of the prayers that can be said during the Penitential Act at the beginning of Mass of the Roman Rite in the Catholic Church. It is also said in the Luther ...

'', used in the

Roman Rite The Roman Rite () is the most common ritual family for performing the ecclesiastical services of the Latin Church, the largest of the ''sui iuris'' particular churches that comprise the Catholic Church. The Roman Rite governs Rite (Christianity) ...

at the beginning of

Mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...

or when receiving the

sacrament of Penance The Sacrament of Penance (also commonly called the Sacrament of Reconciliation or Confession) is one of the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church (known in Eastern Christianity as sacred mysteries), in which the faithful are absolved from si ...

. Grammatically, ' is in the

ablative case In grammar, the ablative case (pronounced ; list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a grammatical case for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives in the grammars of various languages. It is used to indicate motion away from something, make ...

, with an

instrumental An instrumental or instrumental song is music without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through Semantic change, semantic widening, a broader sense of the word s ...

meaning.

Religious use

At the sight of the

crucifixion of Jesus The crucifixion of Jesus was the death of Jesus by being crucifixion, nailed to a cross.The instrument of Jesus' crucifixion, instrument of crucifixion is taken to be an upright wooden beam to which was added a transverse wooden beam, thus f ...

in the

Gospel Gospel originally meant the Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...

s, "the whole crowd who came together to that sight, seeing what had been done, beat their breasts and returned". In the present form of the Confiteor as used in the celebration of Mass, ''mea culpa'' is said three times, the third time with the addition of the adjective ''maxima'' ("very great", usually translated as "most grievous"), and is accompanied by the gesture of beating the breast. The Latin phrase ''mea culpa'' was used, even in an English context, earlier than that.

Geoffrey Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer ( ; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for ''The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He w ...

's 14th-century ''

Troilus and Criseyde ''Troilus and Criseyde'' () is an epic poem by Geoffrey Chaucer which re-tells in Middle English the tragic story of the lovers Troilus and Cressida, Criseyde set against a backdrop of war during the siege of Troy. It was written in ''rhyme ro ...

'' uses it in a way that shows it was already a traditional religious phrase: "Now, ''mea culpa'', lord! I me repente." Although the ''Confiteor'' was not then part of the Mass, it was used in administering the sacrament of Penance. In some forms it already included the phrase ''mea culpa''. Thus the 9th-century ''Paenitentiale Vallicellanum II'' had a thrice-repeated ''mea culpa'' (without ''maxima'') in its elaborate form of the ''Confiteor''. In about 1220, the rite of public penance in

Siena Siena ( , ; traditionally spelled Sienna in English; ) is a city in Tuscany, in central Italy, and the capital of the province of Siena. It is the twelfth most populated city in the region by number of inhabitants, with a population of 52,991 ...

for those who had committed murder required the penitent to throw himself on the ground three times, saying: ''Mea culpa; peccavi; Domine miserere mei'' ("Through my fault. I have sinned. Lord, have mercy on me").

References

External links

Sancta Missa – Prayers at the Foot of the Altar
, Latin and English, sanctamissa.org {{DEFAULTSORT:Mea Culpa Latin religious words and phrases

Religious use

See also

References

External links