For some people, especially girls in high school, Lent and the fasting days are an excuse to diet - give up something fatty, or don't eat as much with the excuse of religion. Women and the connection to food and religion goes back a long time. Eve eats fruit and gets expelled from Paradise (but don't get me started on what Catholic tradition has done to that story), and some pretty famous women saints have fasted themselves to death.
In "Teach Yourself Catholicism" Peter Stanford discusses a few instances where, what he calls "the link between women's sinfulness and food" has led to disastrous consequences (127). Apparently religious starvation reached its peak in medieval times (but really, are we surprised by that?) when religious women refused food except at the Eucharist. Here are a few examples of the extremes:
- Saint Margaret of Cortona (1247-97) wanted to "die of starvation to satiate the poor" while she worked with the destitute of Cortona, Italy
- Saint Catherine of Siena (1347-80) would only drink water and eat bread and raw herbs, which led to her untimely demise (or perhaps she did it on purpose? She died at age 33, the same age Jesus supposedly died)
- Saint Veronica Giuliani (1660-1727) reportedly acquired marks like a crown of thorns on her head (in Catholic terms, stigmata) while she refused to eat
- Mary Magdalen de'Pazzi (1566-1607) denied herself food to be one with the poor.
So the reasons for fasting seem mixed: either as a penance (i.e. Catherine) or to be in solidarity with the poor (Margaret and Mary). I wonder among Catholic lay people if fasting is still prevalent today? In the U.S. you don't hear about a lot of people suddenly flocking to homeless shelters on Good Friday to do service, so do you think people are giving up food or doing something else? Or perhaps "the day my God died" (for dramatic effect) isn't as important as it used to be.
Do you ever fast? If so, what are your reasons?
Until next time,
The Unfasting Theologian (when medicine says take 4 times a day before meals, I'm not going to mess with it)
~
Work Cited:
Stanford, Peter. "Teach Yourself Catholicism." U.S.: The McGraw Hill Companies, Inc., 2008.
OMG. Just spent 10 minutes on a post and it got deleted. Ugh. If this one is not so articulate, forgive me.
ReplyDeleteI think that some of the earliest cases of anorexia were justified by the women as being in the name of worship. When people speculate about the causes of anorexia nowadays, many cite the growing influence of the media - how super-thin models and celebs make girls feel like they need to be thin to be wanted. And yes, this environmental cause does trigger many eating disorders, but anorexia is still relatively rare. This is because, in this disorder, people refuse to eat beyond the point of looking or feeling good, they literally perceive themselves as being bigger than they are, and they suffer from an abnormality in how their brain processes serotonin - a neurotransmitter involved in impulse control. So, I think it's quite possible that this disorder has been around for a long time, and that, back in medieval times, women said that their goal was religious (we are constantly seeking intentions for our actions - back when there was no Vogue, self-sacrifice for God's sake made sense). I think that you would love to read this book: Holy Feast and Holy Fast http://www.amazon.com/Holy-Feast-Fast-Significance-Historicism/dp/0520063295/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1303484329&sr=8-1
for more on the history of this phenomenon.
I should really start watching the Borgias.
It always pisses me off when people give things up for Lent as an excuse to diet. It's one thing to say, "Lord, I'm giving up cookies because of the dependence that I have on them and the solace that I seek from them", totally another to say, "Lord, I want to lose 5 lbs so that I can look good in a bikini on spring break, so I'm giving up cookies...and pasta...and ice cream. We'll see how it goes, maybe I'll drop some of those along the way."
In the past few years, I've fasted (to me, that means - no "real" food, some liquids, maybe a few hundred cals) on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, although I haven't always been successful. When I have been, though, I find the process to be cleansing, both for the body and the spirit. I think it's something that's worth doing every once in a while (read: a few times a year), but only if you are moved to.
Thanks for the great post, and hopefully, the comment goes through this time...
Karolina, how are you not watching The Borgias?
ReplyDeleteI once wrote a paper on Catherine of Siena in grammar school and I found her story to be equal parts fascinating and horrifying. Did you know her mother had children? How her uterus didn't collapse in on itself (it's possible) is a mystery to me. Catherine herself declared chastity to be the new black at 7 and starting fasting at 16 in response to her being pressured to marry her sister's abusive widower. The latter makes me suspect that her fasting had a lot more to do with self-perception and control than religious reasons. Of course, it's difficult to psychonanalyze someone from the 14th century but still fun.
- Melissa
Also THIS:
ReplyDelete"Both Angela of Foligno (1248–1309) and Catherine of Siena (1347–1380) were reportedly anorexia mirabilis sufferers.[4] They both refused food, but drank the pus from the sores of the sick. Angela of Foligno is reported to have said it was as "sweet as the Eucharist", and also to have eaten the scabs and lice from those same patients, though precious little else.[5]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anorexia_mirabilis
MG - I definitely think issues of control were part of their not eating. The whole sacrificing something is about control in general, but we're talking about a time when women had so very few options. I'm probably going to do another bit about women's choice to enter into religious service. Convents were places where women could be more independent, not be forced to marry, and have the opportunity to be educated. That some women would use not eating to have further control over their lives does not surprise me.
ReplyDeleteThe other bit about eating things off patients... ugh I just lost my appetite for breakfast.
Karolina - I feel like I always hear something about serotonin as the cause for psych-related problems. So it has to do with impulse control?
ReplyDeleteMagazines, movies, etc. may cause people to feel bad about themselves and could lead to other eating disorders, but I agree that they shouldn't necessarily be attributed to causing anorexia. Although on a side note, the other day I got an advertisement for a clothes store in the mail and after glancing at it, I immediately threw it into recycling. I am so sick of looking at women who are airbrushed. No one looks like that in real life.
I also wanted to do some sort of fasting or food sacrifice to remember all the people who have to go without food on a daily basis. Two days out of the year should not be that hard, but for some reason for me it is.
Thanks for the book recommendation. I will definitely read it. Also thanks for reposting such a great comment after you lost your original one!
So I just read the rest of these comments now, and I see that you asked about serotonin, Amanda. So of course I can't resist responding, since I've been reading a lot about it lately.
ReplyDeleteSome computational neuroscientists (including one at NYU that I will hopefully spend some time collaborating with) think that serotonin processes aversive stimuli, and helps us to avoid them. That's extemely simplistic, of course (serotonin does interact with other neurotransmitters) and probably not completely true, but it's a good starting point. This is why there is a serotonin problem when people can't avoid negative things, such as unhealthy compulsions (anorexia, OCD) and ruminative, depressive thoughts (depression).
Again, seems too simple, but it's a very simple molecule. And except for the whole reasoning thing, we're simple creatures. :-)