Confessor and died in peace. A notable example of this usage is the English king St. Edward the Confessor. During the Diocletianic Persecution, a number of Christians had, under torture or threat of torture, weakened in their profession of the faith. When the persecutions ceased under Constantine the Great, they wanted to be reunited with the Church. It became the practice of the penitents to go to the Confessors, those who had willingly suffered for the faith and survived, to plead their case and effect their restoration to communion. Thus, the word has come to denote any priest who has been
Iste confessor St Martin which was an extremely popular pilgrimage site for the sick. Although St Martin was a bishop and confessor, the hymn was gradually extended and came to be used for all confessors, including non-bishops in the Roman Breviary and other Latin liturgical rites. In the reforms following the Second Vatican Council, the 1974 Liturgy of the Hours has attempted to restore the hymn for primary use with bishop confessors, however it retains its more general usage where the pre-1974 Liturgies (such as the Roman Breviary) are used. Iste confessor Domini colentes <poem> 1 Iste confessor Domini colentes 2 Qui