If you do penance for something wrong that you have done, you do something that you find unpleasant to show that you are sorry. a time of fasting, penance and pilgrimage
A means of repairing a sin committed, and obtaining pardon for it, consisting partly in the performance of expiatory rites, partly in voluntary submission to a punishment corresponding to the transgression
Any voluntary act that results from repentance Penance is a concrete expression of gratitude for the forgiveness of a debt that can never in fact be repaid