ἐξομολογούμενος.  “The verb in St. Matt. xi. 25 expresses thanksgiving and praise, and in this sense was used by many Christian writers (Suicer, s.v.).  But more generally in the early Fathers it signifies the whole course of penitential discipline, the outward act and performance of penance.  From this it came to mean that public acknowledgment of sin which formed so important a part of penitence.  Irenæus (c. Hær. i. 13, § 5) speaks of an adulterer who, having been converted, passed her whole life in a state of penitence (ἐξομολογουμένη, in exomologesi); and (ib. iii. 4) of Cerdon often coming into the church and confessing his errors (ἐξομολογούμενος).”  D.C.A. i. 644.