Medieval holy asceticism: For whom did the women of the past drive themselves into the grave

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Refusal of normal nutrition, an obsessive, painful desire to starve is not a new phenomenon, although it is recognized as a scourge of modern society. Anorexia flourished in European countries during the late Middle Ages - now this condition is called holy anorexia - because it was inherent in women who completely devoted their lives to faith and service to the church.

What was medieval saint anorexia?

If we mentally go back seven or eight centuries ago, we will meet quite a few women suffering from medieval holy anorexia. This desire to completely or almost completely give up food was not even considered then a deviation or mental illness - as now, however, a number of historians reject the idea that medieval anorexia is a type of nervous, which became the official medical diagnosis in the 20th century. In those days, the ideas of asceticism, refusal of any benefits, and a manic desire to avoid mortal sins, including gluttony, were very popular.

Victims of holy anorexia - and she dealt cruelly with women, bringing them to the grave at a young age - often became nuns or novices involved in the monastic life. Anorexia, with rare exceptions, developed in young girls, against the background of their desire, firstly, to control everything bodily, which burdened their lives, and secondly, to approach Christ through physical suffering and hardship. Women of the Middle Ages were limited in the choice of means for self-torture - in contrast to men, who deliberately condemn themselves to physical pain or celibacy.

However, women also took such a vow - the vow of chastity, and it often became a stumbling block, since it violated plans for matchmaking and the conclusion of marriage unions and sometimes even led to tragic consequences. The reasons for this popularity of starvation can be considered the great influence of monastic orders, preaching extreme asceticism - primarily the Order of the Franciscans.

Who suffered from this disease?

The situation was aggravated also because many of the women who suffered from anorexia became the authority, role model for others - of course, not because of malnutrition, but because of their merits in strengthening the role of the church, or thanks to theological writings, or even because became the patroness of girls in their sorrows.

So, for example, Saint Vilgefortis was a protector for those seeking to get rid of annoying admirers - they prayed to her, they asked for protection from her. During her lifetime, this girl, the daughter of the King of Portugal, took a vow of celibacy and refused to fulfill the will of her father, who found a suitable groom and insisted on an imminent wedding. To avoid marriage, the girl starved and asked God to make her ugly - and, allegedly, in answer to her prayers, hair, or even a beard, grew on Vilgefortis's face. By the way, modern scientists admit this effect as one of the consequences of fasting. The groom refused to marry, and the king, enraged, ordered his daughter to be crucified.

Beatrice of Nazareth, a city located in Flanders, became famous for her writings. Born in 1200 into a wealthy family, she nevertheless came to the Cistercians at the age of fifteen to ask her to be accepted as a novice in a monastery. This time the girl was refused due to her poor health, but a year later the request was fulfilled. Beatrice lived a fairly long life, practicing and preaching severe austerity. She was the first abbey of the Abbey of Our Lady of Nazareth and wrote the book Seven Ways of Holy Love.

Another girl, Italian Margarita, was born in 1247 into a family of farmers and led a completely worldly life. She lost her mother early, did not find a common language with her stepmother and, at the age of seventeen, ran away with a man, after which she remained with him in the status of a mistress and gave birth to a son. Everything changed when one day she found her companion killed in the forest. Either out of repentance, or in order to drown out the feeling of loss, she and her son went to Cortona, to the Franciscan monks. Margarita is famous for organizing nursing care at the Cortona hospital, and besides, of course, for her asceticism. She lived for 50 years and was canonized in the 18th century.

Angela from Foligno, another victim of saint anorexia, who lived in the second half of the 13th - early 14th century, until the age of forty, was very supportive of pleasure and wealth. She got married and had children. But, according to legend, once she had a vision of St. Francis, and Angela realized the emptiness of her life. Soon her husband and children died, and the woman dedicated herself to God. She founded a religious community, studied theology, and wrote a book on visions.

One of the most famous Catholic saints who became role models was Catherine of Siena, who, despite the protests of her family, took a vow of celibacy, devoted her days to working in hospitals and striving to completely get rid of carnal addiction. She did a lot for the church and for culture - she contributed to the return of the papal residence to Rome, created works that made Italian the language of literature, and carried out missionary activities. But in everyday life, Catherine was distinguished by great oddities - she never ate meat and generally ate extremely poorly, at the end of her life, the Holy Gifts became her only food. She died of complete exhaustion at the age of 33.

From the Middle Ages to the present

It is no wonder that the famous saint became a role model for new generations of girls who are keen on religion. Columba from the Italian city of Rieti, or Angela Guardagnoli, as she was called in worldly life, was born into a poor family. They said that on her birthday the angels sang, and during the baptism a dove flew in - from that time they called the girl Columba, that is how "dove" sounds in Italian. When her parents were about to marry her off, Columba cut off her hair and sent it to the groom. The girl was considered by her contemporaries to work miracles, she slept on thorns, wore a hair shirt and also refused to eat. Columba died in 1501 at the age of 34 from exhaustion.

Among historians, there is an opinion that the Queen of England Catherine of Aragon, the first of the many wives of King Henry VIII - the very one who, for the sake of love for Anne Boleyn, created a new church, also suffered from saint anorexia. Catherine, among many other women of that era, belonged to the Third Order of the Franciscans, that is, without leaving the world, she took vows and followed a special charter. It was this monastic order that preached complete poverty, it was its followers who became the most famous of the women who became victims of religious starvation.

Until a certain period, such behavior was not considered out of bounds, the weakened nuns and novices were looked after in monasteries, paying tribute to their religious deeds. However, with the beginning of the Renaissance, with a change in attitude towards ideas of holiness, towards anorexia, the attitude changed, such starvation by the church itself was recognized as a heretical and dangerous phenomenon.

Nevertheless, echoes of this medieval phenomenon persisted until the 20th century, when the time came for the rapid spread of anorexia nervosa. On rare occasions, doctors diagnosed women who refused food for the same reasons as Catholic saints - in the hope of gaining control over their desires and through bodily suffering to draw closer to Christ.

And a little - oh mystical betrothal of Catherine of Siena.