(noun) the practice of severe self-discipline, typically for religious reasons
(noun) a convert to Christianity receiving training in doctrine and discipline before baptism / (noun) one receiving instruction in the basic doctrines of Christianity before admission to communicant membership in a church
the part of theology concerned with death, judgment, and the final destiny of the soul and of humankind
relating to the writing of the lives of saints; (derogatory) adulatory writing about another person