NAmer a prison for the confinement of people convicted of serious crimes
an officer in some Roman Catholic dioceses vested with power from the bishop to absolve in certain special cases
a tribunal of the papal court concerned with granting pardons for sin and excusing penitents wholly or partly from penance in this world or the next
[Middle English penitenciary officer dealing with penitents, from medieval Latin paenitentiarius, from paenitentia: see penance1]