CONFESSOR, a word used in the Christian Church to de note (I) a male saint who is not included in any of the categories martyr, apostle, evangelist, (2) a priest empowered to hear con fessions.
In the early Church the title was restricted to those who had suffered persecution and torture, though not actual death, for the faith, but after the ages of persecution it came to be applied to those who had lived a holy life and died in peace. From about the 4th century persons so honoured became objects of cultus. As in the case of "saint," the right of declaring the holy dead to be "confessors" was ultimately reserved to the Holy See; King Edward of England thus was made a "Confessor" on his canoniza tion by Alexander III. in 1161. (2) For the functions of the confessor in the second sense, see the article CONFESSION.
