FOOD AND RELIGION
host. Some turned to even more extreme forms of torture, such as
rolling in broken glass, jumping in ovens, hanging from a gibbet, or
praying upside down.74 Mastery of the body was achieved by obliter-
ating all feelings of physical pain, fatigue, hunger, and sexual desire.75
Catherine of Siena, a saint who lived in the fourteenth century, is one
of the most famous holy women who practiced extreme fasting. At the
age of 16 she restricted her diet to bread, raw vegetables, and water, at
21 she stopped eating bread, and from 25 on she ate nothing, accord-
ing to her biographer Raymond.76 Even a mouthful of food in her
stomach supposedly made her vomit. At the end of her life, she drank
no water for a month, and subsequently lay on her deathbed for an-
other three months before she died at the age of 33. Not all of those
holy women starved themselves to death, some were cured. This was
the case with Clare of Assisi, companion to Saint Francis and founder
of the Order of the Poor Clares, and with Benvenuta Bojani. After
Saint Dominic appeared to the gravely ill Benvenuta, she recovered
from her eating disorder and happily indulged in a big bowl of rice
cooked in almond milk that her relatives prepared for her.77 Rice and
almond milk were not only expensive foodstuffs for the upper classes,
but also standard ingredients in dishes for the sick. Virgins were not the
only ones to engage in extreme fasting. Married women and mothers
are also known to have practiced it. How closely linked the carnal de-
sires food and sex were in the medieval mind can be seen from the fact
that one anorexic, Francesca, poured hot wax or pork fat on her vulva,
which caused her excruciating pain during intercourse, and afterward
she would vomit and cough blood in her room. Eventually her hus-
band gave up any claims to her body.78 The negative effects of sexual
intercourse supposedly even manifested themselves in lactating
women, as the story of Catherine of Sweden illustrates. As a baby she
refused the breast of her sinful wet nurse, and even that of her saintly
mother, Bridget, if her mother had had conjugal relations the night be-
fore.79 Among the physical symptoms of anorexia are fatigue, anemia,
and amenorrhea. When carried to the extreme, fasting can lead to a
closing-down of a woman’s normal bodily functions, and medieval ac-
counts of holy anorexics are full of stories of women no longer men-
struating, or excreting feces, urine, sweat, spittle, or tears, or shedding
dandruff. Fasting was, no doubt, used by some of these women as a
way to escape the medieval marriage market, since it not only made
them physically unattractive, but also unfit for procreation. By taking
only the host as nourishment, many hoped to achieve a much grander
goal, the complete union with Christ, their heavenly bridegroom.
197
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146  |  Page 147  |  Page 148  |  Page 149  |  Page 150  |  Page 151  |  Page 152  |  Page 153  |  Page 154  |  Page 155  |  Page 156  |  Page 157  |  Page 158  |  Page 159  |  Page 160  |  Page 161  |  Page 162  |  Page 163  |  Page 164  |  Page 165  |  Page 166  |  Page 167  |  Page 168  |  Page 169  |  Page 170  |  Page 171  |  Page 172  |  Page 173  |  Page 174  |  Page 175  |  Page 176  |  Page 177  |  Page 178  |  Page 179  |  Page 180  |  Page 181  |  Page 182  |  Page 183  |  Page 184  |  Page 185  |  Page 186  |  Page 187  |  Page 188  |  Page 189  |  Page 190  |  Page 191  |  Page 192  |  Page 193  |  Page 194  |  Page 195  |  Page 196  |  Page 197  |  Page 198  |  Page 199  |  Page 200  |  Page 201  |  Page 202  |  Page 203  |  Page 204  |  Page 205  |  Page 206  |  Page 207  |  Page 208  |  Page 209  |  Page 210  |  Page 211  |  Page 212  |  Page 213  |  Page 214  |  Page 215  |  Page 216  |  Page 217  |  Page 218  |  Page 219  |  Page 220  |  Page 221  |  Page 222  |  Page 223  |  Page 224  |  Page 225  |  Page 226  |  Page 227  |  Page 228  |  Page 229  |  Page 230  |  Page 231  |  Page 232  |  Page 233  |  Page 234  |  Page 235  |  Page 236  |  Page 237  |  Page 238  |  Page 239  |  Page 240  |  Page 241  |  Page 242  |  Page 243  |  Page 244  |  Page 245  |  Page 246  |  Page 247  |  Page 248  |  Page 249  |  Page 250  |  Page 251  |  Page 252  |  Page 253  |  Page 254  |  Page 255  |  Page 256  |  Page 257  |  Page 258  |  Page 259  |  Page 260  |  Page 261  |  Page 262  |  Page 263  |  Page 264  |  Page 265  |  Page 266  |  Page 267  |  Page 268  |  Page 269  |  Page 270  |  Page 271  |  Page 272  |  Page 273  |  Page 274  |  Page 275  |  Page 276  |  Page 277  |  Page 278  |  Page 279  |  Page 280  |  Page 281  |  Page 282  |  Page 283  |  Page 284