(Latin: absolvere, to free from)
The power conferred on the Apostles and their successors to forgive sin: "Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them" (John 20:23); it is exercised by the priest in the Sacrament of Penance. It signifies also the remission by the Church, of certain censures like suspension or excommunication. It is also the ceremony of prayers for the departed immediately after the Mass of Requiem. In the Divine Office, it is a short prayer recited by the officiant before each group of lessons at Matins implying permission or a request that the lessons be recited. The use of such absolutions at Rome in the 9th century is attested by Amalarius and monastic usage in the same century by Smaragdus. A variety of such prayers, including those in the present Roman Breviary, is found in manuscripts of the 12th and 13th centuries.
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