canossa

/K AH0 N OW1 S AH0/
noun
  1. 1

    A comune and castle town in the Province of Reggio Emilia, Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, famed as the site where the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV did penance in 1077, standing three days bare-headed in the snow, in order to reverse his excommunication by Pope Gregory VII.

  2. 2

    (figuratively) An act of humiliating repentance.