Embodied Voices: Women’s Food Asceticism and the Negotiation of Identity
Rebecca J. Lester
Ethos, Vol. 23, No. 2. (Jun., 1995), pp. 187-222.
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Embodied Voices: Women’s
Food Asceticism and the
Negotiation of Identity
REBECCAJ. LESTER
In the cloistered halls of medieval nunneries, something strange
was happening to women’s bodies. In late 14th-centuxy Europe,
reports abounded of religious women who could sustain themselves for years on nothing but the Eucharist-no other food passed
their lips. Many also supposedly possessed amazing and miraculous
powers of levitation and stigmata; were able to produce oils, wine,
or other substances from their pores; and maintained a special
communion with Jesus Christ, revealed through elaborate, vivid
visions and supernatural signs. They appeared to defy the limits of
human suffering through extreme physical austerities and to transcend the mortal world through miraculous talents. Their asceticism and self-inflicted suffering amazed and bewildered all, with
divine grace as the only plausible explanation. These women r e p
resented holy miracles in the flesh and were heralded as the
epitome of penitential devotion.
News of the amazing mystics spread throughout Europe, and
many female ascetics developed almost cult-like followings. Tales
of miraculous fasting-and the resulting corporeal manipulations-became central to religious writings of the time as “evidence” of the power of Christ, and served as important tools for
the conversion of “heathensn to the faith.
Ethos 23 (2) :187-222. Copyright 8 1995, American Anthropological Association.
187
What is especially interesting about these medieval female ascetics is that they exhibited a number of “symptoms” commonly
associated with eating disorders in contemporary psychiatric understanding. Indeed, one researcher has even diagnosed their
condition as “holy anorexia” (Bell 1985).’ But these women lived
in medieval Europe, a context very different from 20th-century
American society. Their food practices were not undertaken with
thinness as the goal but with the expressed purpose of uniting with
Christ through an emulation of his suffering on the cross. How,
then, are we to understand their behaviors? Were these ascetic
nuns anorexics and bulimics (Bell 1985)?Hysterics (Carroll 1987)?
Were they starving themselves as a way of navigating and positioning their female bodies in a hostile world (Bynum 1987)?As a form
of resistance (Reineke 1992)?
Despite the apparent incongruity of these perspectives, each
articulates a well-drawn and largely unexamined dichotomy between the cultural and the individual, between the social and the
experiential-a dichotomy that is not bridged, making these analyses seem incomplete. This tension between the “individual” and
“cultural” levels of analyses is highlighted in the works of Bynum
and Bell-arguably the most influential and exciting works on
medieval female ascetics in recent years. In Holy Feast, Holy Fast
(1987) Bynum maintains that medieval ascetic women were not
anorexics and bulimics because their behaviors were expressed and
experienced through a religious medium, with union with Christ
as the goal of the food practices-not thinness. Bynum supports
her argument through an elegant presentation and analysis of the
symbols used by female ascetics, maintaining that food was the
principle and most powerful symbol used by these women in their
religious devotions.
Bynum is primarily concerned with food’s relevance within the
cultural framework and how food as a cultural symbol was manipulated by some women with a specific goal in mind (i.e., union with
Christ). What Bynum does not explore in detail are the psychological concerns, which are implied in her analysis, at an individual
level. Her interest is the system of available symbols and how the
framework of values constructed around food and eating was
adopted and used by a particular group of women. She does not,
however, give much attention to the possible psychological significance of food symbolism or ascetic practices for those women who
WOMEN’S FOOD ASCETICISM AND IDENTITY
189
chose to become ascetics, nor does she analyze the “goal” of the
behaviors in terms of what, psychologically, this goal might have
meant for those who were striving so passionately for it.
Bell, on the other hand, examines these concerns in more detail
than does Bynum. His Hob Anorexia (1985) details the unusual
behaviors of medieval ascetic women, paralleling them with contemporary anorexics and bulimics. Psychological similarities between the two groups are postulated and supported, based on
careful analyses of ascetic food practices and behaviors, autobie
graphical accounts, and historical records. Bell concludes that
although medieval female ascetics were not identical to contempe
rary anorexics and bulimics, they were, indeed, expressing essentially the same psychodynamic concerns through a different
metaphorical system, what he terms “holy anorexia.”
However, while Bell addresses an important side of medieval
female asceticism not emphasized by Bynum-the individual’s use
of food as a symbol-and his work adds a valuable and insightful
perspective on the possible psychological components of medieval
female asceticism, his analysis lacks firm grounding within the
cultural context of medieval Europe. Unlike Bynum, Bell does not
emphasize the location and meaning offood and eating as symbols
within a particular cultural framework, nor does he explore the
goals of the ascetic practices in terms of cultural context. In turn,
he does not evaluate the food behaviors of the female ascetics
within the context in which they emerged and were performed.
Bynum’s work emphasizes the cultural but discounts the psyche
logical, while Bell’s work emphasizes the psychological but discounts the cultural, leaving both analyses incomplete. I have
encountered similar theoretical difficulties in my research on eating disorders? as the analyses tend to focus primarily on the
“insiden (i.e., the realm of individual psychology) (cf. Bruch 1973,
1988; Chernin 1985; Lask and Bryant-Waugh 1993; Maine 1991;
Minuchin 1978; Stierlin and Weber 1989; Woodside and ShekterWolfson 1991) or primarily on the “outside” (i.e., the cultural
system) (cf. Bordo 1993; Brumberg 1988; Gordon 1990; Orbach
1978,1982,1986; Robertson 1992;Wolf 1991),and do not account
for the ways in which the “outside” gets “inside,” or the ways in
which the “inside” may inform, challenge, or otherwise inflect the
experience of the “outside.” In response, I have developed a
framework for examining women’s self-starvation that integrates
individual psychology and cultural context through an examination of metaphor and symbolic elaboration.
I propose that the body, as the material vehicle of the psychological self, becomes a metaphor for the self, and the two are often
conflated.’ Specifically, the boundaries of the body may symbolize
the boundaries of the psychological “self’-who “I” am in relation
to “you.” Food, as a substance that traverses the boundary between
“me” and “not men-and that is often invested with cultural and
social significance surrounding concerns about dependency, nurturing, and growth-may be symbolically elaborated and used to
negotiate and reestablish the boundaries of the self in response to
culturally constructed concerns about gender, sexuality, autonomy, and identity.
Specifically, I argue that concerns about body boundaries may
become heightened for some women who are struggling to resist
the ascribed identities associated with the category Woman (whatever those identities may be within a given context). Women’s
biosexual processes (menstruation, sexual intercourse, pregnancy,
childbirth, and lactation) both challenge the boundaries of the
body and often become the foci of complex ideological and value
systems that encompass, produce, and replicate concerns about a
woman’s autonomy versus her dependence in a social framework.
The use of food to renegotiate the boundaries of the body may then
become a means for the woman who is experiencing conflict in
these areas to reclaim her own agency. Through a solidification of
the body boundary through fasting (and the accompanying physiological conditions such as amenorrhea), the anorexic, bulimic, or
ascetic woman may literally redejne the boundaries of her self. The
body boundary may then be crossed only on her authority (seen in
the bulimic woman in the binge/purge cycle and in the religious
ascetic woman in the miraculous corporeal transformations
achieved only after all nourishment except the Eucharist is denied). Like other transitional substances, food (which moves between “men and “not men) is accorded enormous power and
becomes the focus of elaborate ritual (Douglas 1966)-often the
most salient feature of women’s food asceticism regardless of
cultural context.
The particular elaboration of this process, I suggest, and the
subjective experience of the women engaged in voluntary self-starvation, is wholly dependent upon cultural context. For the anorexic
WOMEN’S FOOD ASCETICISM AND l D E N T l n
191
or bulimic woman, I suggest that control over the boundaries of
one’s body and the “identifiers of womanhoodn (breasts, hips, and
menstrual periods, all of which are eradicated through the process
of self-starvation) are bound up with issues of industrial capitalism
and its valorization of individualism and achievement; the incongruity of this ethos with the fostering of dependency within the
family (especially for women) (Chodorow 1989);the present backlash movement (Faludi 1991); and the particular psychological
dilemmas encountered by girls as they become women and encounter the restrictions placed upon them by virtue of their femaleness.
This leads, I have suggested, to a concern about thinness that, at
an individual level, reflects concerns about the definition of self
boundaries through the medium of the body. As the boundaries
of the body are “solidified and the identifiers of womanhood
eradicated, a woman may feel that she is claiming some agency in
her own selfdefinition. But these individual goals are countered at
the social level, producing what I have called “the paradox of
thinnessn (Lester 1993). In other words, thinness, the very path of
a woman’s liberation (at an individual level), is that which further
enslaves her (at the societal level), as the arena of struggle for the
eating disordered woman is located within the framework from
which she is attempting to escape.
This was not the case for medieval ascetic nuns. From the
historical materials it seems that these women did indeed struggle
with concerns about the female body and the ascribed identity
attached to them because of their femaleness. Their fasting, however-the denial of all sustenance except the Eucharist-was not
undertaken to become thin but to become one with God. I would like
to suggest that the particular visions and mystical experiences of
these women allowed them to access a symbolic system through
which they could play out conflicts and concerns surrounding
womanhood, sexuality, and identity.
THE IDEAL OF WOMANHOOD IN MEDIEVAL EUROPE
In the European Middle Ages, body boundaries-and the transgression of those boundaries-appear to have played a central role
in the definition of a woman’s identity, her value as a person, and
her location within the social framework. The evidence available
to an anthropologist is limited to historical documents and suspect
interpretations, but nevertheless one can argue that the very aspects of a woman that were deemed important by her society (i.e.,
her biosexual processes) were those that entailed transgressions of
her physical boundaries: fertility (signaled by menstruation), sexual intercourse (as awife) ,pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood
(typified by nursing). I argue that female asceticism provided a
means to address conflicts surrounding bodies, boundaries, womanhood, and identity.
The ideal cultural expectations associated with each gender in
the 13th and 14th centuries are argued to be derived from and
supported by religious teachings outlining the proper and natural
places for males and females within society and how they should
interact with each other. The Church’s attitude toward women
reflected the views of Saint Paul, who believed that the role of
women is to marry and place themselves under the total and
complete dominance of a man:
Wives, be subject to your husbands–that is your proper duty in the Lord. Wives,
submit yourselves to your own husbands, as you would do for the Lord. For the
husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the Church-and
he is the saviour of the body. Therefore, as the Church is subject unto Christ, so
let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. [Ephesians 5:22-331
This attitude was based on the construction ofwomen as “naturally”
inferior to men, to whom women owed their very existence:
Man was not made from woman, woman was made from man; and man was not
created for woman, but woman for man. Therefore, in view of the angels, woman
must wear a symbol of subjection on her head. . . . Is it proper for an unveiled
woman to pray to God? [I Corinthians 11:&15]
The “natural” inferiority ofwomen was traced to the “inherent” evil
of the female gender. In his On the Apparel of W o r n , Tertullian
lashed out in a now-famous attack:
You [Woman] are the devil’s gateway. . . . You are the first deserter of the Divine
Law; you are she who persuaded him whom the Devil was not valiant enough to
attack. Youdestroyedso easily God’s image-man. On account of your h e t h a t
is, death-even the Son of God has to die. [1951:1.1]
In contrast to the concepts of woman as man’s servant and
destroyer, the notion of woman as mother and pure virgin is also
prominent in the scriptures, is an integral part of the Catholic faith,
and appears to have been central to medieval construction of
WOMEN’S FOOD ASCETICISM AND IDENTITY
193
gender. The Virgin Mary embodied this representation and served
as an important ideal of femininity during the medieval period
(Bloch 1991; Bynum 1987; Gold 1985; Goodich 1985; Labarge
1986; Power 1975; Schulenberg 1986;Wessley 1985).
In the medieval period, the ideal model of womanhood seems
to have been a duality (cf. Bloch 1991; Gies and Gies 1978; Levin
and Watson 1987; Williams and Echols 1994). On the one hand,
women were held to be things of beauty and divine grace, objects
of reverence and desire, unsullied by the coarser elements of
human existence (i.e., passion, malice, vice) that belonged to the
realm of men. On the other hand, women were primarily valued
for their biological functions (i.e., sexuality and childbirth) and
were expected to be naturally and willingly subsenient to males,
most notably their husbands and fathers. Independence and desire
for autonomywere not considered to be female characteristics, and
women were expected to be passive, compliant helpmates to men
(cf. Gies and Gies 1978; Labarge 1986; Lucas 1983). This dual
image of women is reflected in the manner in which women were
positioned in social relationships, and in the larger social framework of medieval society, throughout their lives.
Historians of the medieval period indicate that, as young girls,
females were often sheltered and protected (some would say imprisoned)–guarded against any threat to their innocence, especially their chastity. Historical analysis suggests that this concern
about maintaining a woman’s “purity” by maintaining her virginity
was particularly characteristic of the upper classes-the primary
source of women for the convent (cf. Gross and Bingham 1983;
Power 1975; Schulenberg 1989)-but also held true as an ideal for
women of all classes (cf. Bloch 1991; Labarge 1986; Lucas 1983;
Power 1975; Roberts 1985; Schulenberg 1986). Childhood was
spent learning women’s tasks such as cooking, cleaning, weaving,
and sewing so that a girl would be well prepared for her “natural
roles” of wife and mother. Again, the materials available to us
reflect an upper-class bias, as lower-class women were undoubtedly
actively involved in work outside the home.4However, it seems that
the image of the chaste, obedient daughter, trained in the “arts of
womanhood,” was an ideal held up to all women of the time.
Education was not encouraged, except in the interest of making
one a more attractive marriage prospect. Marriages were arranged
and constituted political and economic decisions, with little con-
sideration given to love, or even compatibility, between partners.
Most girls had little or no say in the assignment of their future
husbands, and their preference or disdain for a particular marriage
partner was often incidental (cf. Ide 1983; Lucas 1983; Power
1975).
Premarital sex was apparently vehemently discouraged (cf. Gold
1985; Labarge 1986; Lamay 1985; Lucas 1983), and extensive
measures were taken by parents to prevent its occurrence. Young
single women of this period were often chaperoned at all times and
were prohibited from visiting with males alone, and the vast majority of brides during this time were likely to have been virgins.
Marriage, for them, often meant their first sexual experience-an
experience cloaked in great mystery, since talk of sex was taboo.
Sexual intercourse was often viewed as the identifying feature of
becoming a bride, and losing one’s virginity served as the hallmark
of marriage (cf. Bell 1985; Ide 1983).
Once married, the medieval woman was expected to fulfill her
marital obligations to her husband by engaging in sexual intercourse with him at his discretion. In marriage, a wife was considered, quite literally, to be the property of her husband, who was
her “lord and master” (Ide 1983;Labarge 1986; Lucas 1983;Power
1975). She was subject to his authority, and her body belonged to
him to do with as he wished. For women, marriage implied and
required sexual intercourse with one’s husband, regardless of
one’s own wishes. This was a woman’s wifely duty. Sexual intercourse therefore (ideally) occurred only within the confines of a
marriage and served as a fundamental expression of a wife’s deference to her husband (cf. Bell 1985; Ide 1983).
Due to the religious proscription against birth control, marriage
and intercourse invariably meant pregnancy and childbirth for
medieval women. This posed a very real danger-hildbirth
frequently meant death, either of the mother, her baby, or both. If
both mother and child survived the delivery, childhood disease was
a constant danger, claiming the lives of thousands of children
during this period.5
Provided her child survived, a woman’s role as mother quickly
came into play. The obligations of motherhood held that a
woman’s primary responsibility was to her child-her own needs
were a secondary consideration. Her children were to be the focus
of her attention and energy, followed by her husband, with her own
WOMEN’S FOOD ASCETICISM AND IDENTITY
195
needs often neglected. Most mothers were required to nurse their
babies, as the modem conveniences of bottles and baby formulas
were not available. Nursing highlighted both the bond between
mother and infant, and the responsibility of a mother to nourish
and care for her children, even at her own expense. As a result, the
act of nursing was often seen as the prototypical representation of
the role of m ~ t h e r . ~
Women, then, throughout their lives were defined relationallyin and through others (cf. Labarge 1986).While “relationality” is
the new catchphrase for the psychology of contemporary women,
this relationality appears to have been strikingly more pronounced
for women in the medieval period because they were defined
literally as possessions of others. A girl was in a very real sense a
commodity, to be bartered and traded in the execution of a
marriage contract; she belonged to her husband in marriage and
was identified later through her children.
It is significant, I believe, that these relational definitions were
all typified by the biological tasks associated with the category
Woman-fertility (menstruation), sexual intercourse (as a wife),
pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood (often typified by nursing). It is interesting, and perhaps meaningful, that the very aspects
of a woman that were deemed important by her society (her
biosexual processes) were those that a t a i h d transgressions of her
physical boundaries: society was, in effect, telling her, ‘You do not
belong to yourself-I own you. There is no ‘you’ outside of your
service to me.” A woman’s desire for autonomy or independence
(i.e., a desire not to assume the identity required by her ascribed
gender role as “woman”) would conceivably run directly counter
to the societal expectations of her as a woman, indeed to her value
as a person. It seems reasonable, therefore, that these identifying
features of womanhood likely held important significance for
medieval women, and that these processes-which simultaneously
involved boundary transgressions and locked women into ascribed
roles based on gender-might become locations of conflict for
some women strugglingwith issues of womanhood, independence,
and identity. I will return to a discussion of this possibility in more
detail below.
THE CHURCH AS REFUGE
For women in the late Middle Ages, the Church may have
provided a safe refuge from the expectations of womanhood. By
joining an order of nuns, a woman could avoid marriage, sexual
intercourse, childbirth, and motherhood by remaining a virginal
Bride of Christ. In addition, the Church may have provided women
with new avenues for exploring their individuality. With the rejection of the traditional signifiers of womanhood (marriage, sex, and
children), these women may have been, in a sense, “liberated” from
their ascribed social identities and may have been able to explore
for themselves new identities within the Church.
But women were doing much more within the convent walls than
merely hiding from marriage and motherhood. Against this backdrop, a unique brand of female piety emerged in which extreme
asceticism and penitential self-sacrifice became the hallmarks of
female religiosity (Bynum 1987:13). Religious women not only
endured hours of penitential prayer and bound their flesh with
vines of thorns; they attempted to live on nothing but the communion wafer and wine, consumed the pus of their patients to quell
their distaste for wounds, and seemingly competed with each other
to live lives of total, bleak austerity. These extreme ascetic practices
were often debilitating, leaving their bodies scourged and withered, and occasionally lifeless, as their spirits soared. Mysticism and
paranormal phenomena (e.g., levitation, body elongation, and
stigmata) were more common in women’s religiosity than in men’s,
and the reputations of holy women were often based upon supernatural authority, expressed through visions and signs. Food and
eating became core (and in some cases obsessional) symbols of
devotion for religious women, and, as Bynum maintains, food
symbolism in religious devotion became a uniquely female concern
(1987:Ch.3). As noted above, the food behaviors of female ascetics
were often extreme, including excessive fasts,vomiting after eating,
increased restriction of food intake to nothing but the Eucharist,
and ritualization of the eating process. These intense penitential
practices were not often associated with male devotees,’ but indeed
characterized female piety.
Accompanying the food-specific ascetic practices were a number
of related behaviors affecting the body. Self-flagellation,with ropes
and/or chains, was practiced in some form by all female ascetics
WOMEN’S FOOD ASCETICISM AND IDENTITY
197
with the expressed purpose of moving closer to God (Bynum
1987:24&250), and deprivation of sleep, warmth, and other bodily
comforts as expression of religious devotion was a common theme.
Furthermore, the notion of “sacrifice of the self to benefit another”
was predominant in the lives of these women, most of whom were
passionately dedicated to charitable works. These ascetic practices
were consciously understood and undertaken as punishment: for
one’s own sinfulness, for the sinfulness of humanity, or in order to
spare others from punishment. In addition, these behaviors were
performed with the explicit, conscious purpose of emulating
Christ’s suffering on the cross and, through this emulation, achieving divine union with him (Bynum 1987).
Many female ascetics also experienced stigmata, body elongation, and levitation, and were reported to issue forth miraculous
fluids from the pores in their bodies. These experiences allegedly
coincided with abstinence from food and uniquely characterized
female piety in the later Middle Ages (Bynum 1987:273).Many also
tightly bound their hips and breasts with iron chains in early
adolescence, which would become embedded in their flesh as their
bodies developed (Bell 1985; Bynum 1987), perhaps indicating
that their asceticism was bound up with concerns about womanhood and/or the mature female body.’
The devotional fervor of female ascetics and their extreme
penitential and austere practices would seem to suggest that life in
the Church provided these women with much more than just a safe
refuge, and that the motivations for becoming an ascetic may have
originated at a deeper, perhaps psychological level. It appears that,
for some women, the cultural symbols of food, piety, and devotion
took on special and individualized significance, perhaps serving as
a liaison between individual and cultural concerns regarding independence, womanhood, and identity.
To explore these complex cultural issues and how they may have
figured into the lives of individual women, let us first identify the
common features of women who chose to become religious ascetics. While each woman has a unique story, it is possible to delineate
certain common characteristics that appear to contribute to their
ascetic devotions.
COMMON CHARACTERISTICS OF FEMALE RELIGIOUS
ASCETICS
Most of what we know about these women is gained from religious biographical accounts known as hagiographies. These works
are often almost mythical in nature (e.g., Catherine of Siena is said
to have been ascetic as an infant) and clearly cannot be treated as
simply historical accounts. Nevertheless, these women were revered during their lifetimes for their unique qualities, and so great
care was taken to record specific biographical information from
them as they lived. We can be reasonably sure, then, that the
mundane features of the accounts-number of siblings, place of
birth, and so on-are not unlikely to be accurate. In addition, most
hagiographic accounts provide careful and detailed descriptions
of acetic behaviors, religious visions, and devotional practices.
Some of what we know of them was written by the women themselves in the form of letters, poetry, and theological works, recounting their religious experiences in their own words.
To begin to explore the characteristics of the “typical” female
ascetic, let us now step back into 14th-century Italy and meet one
of the most famous of these holy women-Catherine of Siena.
Catherine of Siena represented the epitome of female piety and
religious asceticism during the medieval period.g In all areas of
ascetic devotion-self-flagellation, charitable works, and most ncl
tably fasting–Catherine’s austerities were severe and extreme.
Although many of her behaviors would perhaps be viewed as
“pathological” according to contemporary standards, Catherine
was presented and revered as the model offemale piety throughout
the medieval period, and her ascetic practices were consciously
emulated by others. Although Catherine is in many ways unusual
in the severity of her practices, her position as the icon of female
ascetic devotion makes her experiences useful for exploring the
phenomena of female religious asceticism during this period, and
her story highlights some of the common characteristics ofwomen
who chose this life path.
Catherine Benincasa was born into a family of means around the
year 1347. She grew up as the favored child, enjoying special
privileges and lavish attention from everyone, most notably her
mother, Lapa. This may have been a common characteristic of
female ascetics; it is also seen in the cases of Veronica of Giuliani,
WOMEN’S FOOD ASCETICISMAND IDENTIlY
199
Teresa ofhila, Columba of Rieti, and Therkse of ~isieux.’O~ccording to reports, Catherine was a healthy and happy child who smiled
often and enjoyed playing outside with other children. Nevertheless, Catherine’s own writings, as well as those of her biographers,
highlight her early and tenacious sense of religiosity and pious
devotion. For example, Catherine experienced her first vision at
age six or seven, and it is reported that at age five she was found
“genuflecting and saying Hail Mary at each step as she climbed to
her bedroomn (Bell 1985:34). In addition, Catherine secretly
vowed her virginity to Mary at around age eight, and she is said to
have formed a group of playmates who secretly flagellated themselves in the tradition of Christian ascetics (Bell 1985:3&37).
Catherine’s religiosity continued and deepened throughout her
childhood and into her adolescent years.
The most striking feature of Catherine’s early life was the deaths
of three sisters at crucial points in her development. The first,
Giovanna, was Catherine’s twin. Since Catherine’s mother could
not nurse the two on her own, she was forced to choose which child
she would nurse herself and which would be sent to a wet nurse.”
Catherine was the baby chosen to remain with her mother, and
Giovannawas sent away. Giovanna died in infancy,while Catherine,
the favored infant, survived. During the period when Catherine was
weaned, her mother bore another child, who was given the same
name as the dead twin.
Many scholars stress this factor as critical in setting the stage for
Catherine’s later behaviors and psychological orientation. As
Bynum notes:
No particularly subtle psychological analysis is necessary to suggest that such a
configuration of events (i.e.,the death of one’s sister because one was chosen for
nursing and the constant reminder then of the dead twin in the name of the very
child who supplanted one as the youngest) might precondition a favored girlchild to guilt-and guilt associated with food and nursing. [1987:167]
The second such loss Catherine experienced was the death of
her older sister Bonaventura, who died while giving birth. At the
time of Bonaventura’s death, Catherine was around 15 years old,
the age at which young women were courted in marriage. Bonaventura and Catherine enjoyed doing “girl things” together, and
Bonaventura was able to lure Catherine away from her religious
devotions and entice her into wearing elegant dresses and beautifying herself. Shortly after Catherine had begun to enjoy these
200
ETHOS
activities with her sister, Bonaventuradied. Only a few short months
later, Giovanna (the child named for Catherine’s dead twin) died
as well.
Catherine, now the only surviving daughter after these deaths,
returned with a vengeance to her ascetic practices of childhood,
and her religiosity took a new turn, incorporating nightly vigils,
self-flagellation, deep meditation, strict fasts, and a voluntary s u b
jection of herself as servant to her family. As Bell notes:
From the age of sixteen or so she subsisted on bread, water, and raw vegetables.
She wore only rough wool and exchanged her hair shirt, the dirtiness of which
offended her, for an iron chain bound so tightly against her hips that it inflamed
her skin. For three years she observed a self-imposed vow of total silence except
for confession, and this she maintained even though she lived at home. With
difficulty she conquered fatigue and reduced her sleep to as little as thirty minutes
every two days on a wooden board. . . . Three times a day she flagellated herself
with an iron chain, once for her sins, again for the living, and then for the dead.
Until she ultimately became too weak to continue this punishing routine, each
beating lasted for one-and-a-half hours and blood ran from her shoulders to her
feet. [1985:43]
Here, we begin to get a picture of Catherine’s ascetic devotions and
the passion with which she dedicated herself to these practices.
Here, also, is an interesting parallel between Catherine’s life and
that of the “typical” female ascetic. As Bell notes (1985:115), a
common feature of all female ascetics is that they lost someone
close to them prior to entering the convent, and this seems to have
had a causal effect of some sort on the choice to become an
ascetic.” While this loss sometimes occurred before an individual
took up ascetic practices and sometimes after, this loss, in most
cases, appears to be the impetus for entering into a convent and
an increase of austerity. Although the exact significance of these
losses is difficult to ascertain, it does appear that, in addition to
suffering a personal loss, these women may also have felt renewed
pressure from their families to fulfill their familial obligations as
daughters. Catherine’s story illuminates this possibility.
As a result of losing two of their three daughters (for which the
surviving Catherine blamed her negligence in her austerities and
her temptations into worldly pleasures), Catherine’s parents apparently increased their efforts to find her a husband. But Catherine
had sworn her virginity to Mary at a young age and had intended
never to marry. Following her sisters’ deaths and her rededication
WOMEN’S FOOD ASCETICISM AND IDENTITY
201
to holiness, this conviction was stronger than ever. A battle of wills
ensued between Catherine and her parents over whether or not
she would marry-at the heart of which, it appears,was control over
Catherine’s body.
The importance of body boundaries and the intertwined concerns of boundaries, womanhood, independence, and identity are
revealed in both the object and strategies of this struggle, and how
they appear to have been endemic to the expectations associated
with being a woman (particularlyan upper-classwoman) in medieval society. Catherine’s parents insisted that she marry. As noted
previously, marriage for most medieval women meant three things:
sexual intercourse with one’s husband, procreation, and motherhood. These were a woman’s matrimonial duties according to the
Bible, according to tradition, and according to the law. Significantly, all of these elements entail an infringement of the boundaries of the woman’s body: her role becomes that of receptacle,
vessel, and food resource. She no longer owns her body-it belongs
to her husband for sexual pleasure and to her children as nourishment. Thus, Catherine’s battle with her parents over marriage
concerned not only who maintained control over Catherine’s
physical body, but whether or not Catherine would, through her
body, accede to the ascribed female functions of marriage (sexual
intercourse), pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood (represented in the act of nursing), which both challenged a woman’s
physical boundaries and locked her in to ascribed roles within the
social framework. I believe it is significant, therefore, that it is
during this period that Catherine’s fasting came under strict and
rigid control, and her self-flagellation and sleep deprivation escalated.
Bynum (1987:25-30) maintains that Catherine of Siena and
other female ascetics of this period used their bodies and food as
symbols of their struggles because these were the only things they
could control, things that had significance to them as women. I
suggest, however, that this is an insufficient explanation. Although
certainly restricted in their mobility and influence in political,
social, or academic circles, it seems doubtful that women were
reduced to complete powerlessness outside of their own corporeality. I would suggest, rather, that the focus on food was a strategic
one-not borne out of necessity, but out of the utility of food as a
symbol for expressing a particular set of conflicts about gender,
202
ETHOS
identity, and the body. In Catherine’s battle with her parents over
marriage, the issue at hand was not who would be the best match
for Catherine or whether she would come to love him-rather, I
propose, the issue was Catherine’s autonomy and the validity of her
establishment of a sense of self apart from the role her family-and
society-had chosen for her. Thus, the battleground became Catherine’s body and her physical boundaries, as represented in the
issues of marriage and food refusal.
In every case-examined by Bynum and Bell in their detailed
investigations, we find a conflict between female ascetics and their
families over this issue (see also works on the lives of Veronica
Giuliani, Eustochia, and Columba of Rieti). I 3 Even in the case of
married ascetics (such as Umiliana de’ Cerchi, Margaret of Cortona, and Angela of ~ o l i ~ n owe
) ‘find
~ a dissatisfaction, and even
a disgust, with the situation of marriage, which was often forced on
them against their wishes.
This brings us to another prevalent feature of female ascetics of
this period: a fear, and often a loathing, of sex. As Bynum notes,
these women typically felt an “abhorrence of the male body,” and
several had “an obsessive fear of bodily contact” (1987:213).This
aversion to sex was, for some women at least, reflected in food-related behaviors. For example, Francesca Romana de’ponziani, who
was married prior to her life in the convent, vomited whenever she
was forced to have sexual relations with her husband (Bynum
1987:215).I5
Returning to Catherine’s story, we can see how the Church may
have offered a welcome solution for these women and their struggles. The members of Catherine’s family, especially her mother,
were horrified at her ascetic behaviors and begged her to desist.
Catherine appeared to comply at first, but her mother discovered
that Catherine would simply wait until the family was asleep to
begin her flagellations and prayer vigils. By this time, Catherine
had lost approximatelyhalf her body weight due to her rigid fasting
(Bell 1985:43).
Catherine begged her parents to allow her tojoin the Dominican
Order of the Sisters of Penance as a nun, as this was her sole wish
and desire. Her mother staunchly refused, as she intended for
Catherine to marry, and tried to lure Catherine back into the world
of bodily comfort with a holiday at a nearby hot springs. Catherine
responded by discovering the canals by which the hot sulfuric water
WOMEN’S FOOD ASCETICISM AND IDENTITY
203
flowed into the bathing pools and scalding herself repeatedly,
against the pleas of others that she refrain from injuring herself.
Her mother, fearful for Catherine’s life if she continued her
ascetic practices at home, finally relented and allowed Catherine
to don the habit of the Sisters of Penance. Catherine’s austerities
continued at the convent, and she quickly gained notoriety for her
behavior, most notably for her rejection of food. Catherine’s diet,
beginning at the time of her rededication to holiness (around age
16) was restricted to bread, uncooked vegetables, and water. Over
the next five years she reportedly lost her appetite and could not
eat bread. By the age of around 25, according to biographical
accounts, she ate “nothing” (Raymond of Capua 1863:939).
Although it is doubtful that she actually ate nothing at all, it is
obvious that Catherine’s relationship to food was indeed unusual
in the extreme. According to Raymond, Catherine’s confessor and
biographer, “Not only did she not need food, but she could not
even eat without pain. If she forced herself to eat, her body suffered
greatly, she could not digest and she had to vomit” (Raymond of
Capua 1863:904). Catherine claimed to feel better when she did
not eat, and her diet eventually came to be restricted to a bare
minimum: “She drank only a little cold water and chewed in bitter
herbs while spitting out the substance” (Bell 1985:26).'”
Catherine’s nourishment was (reportedly) gained solely from
the communion wafer accepted at Mass, and it was upon the Host
that all of her needs and desires for sustenance, pleasure, and
satisfaction were focused. This was a central theme for almost all
female ascetics of this period–once the diet had been restricted
to a minimum (often to liquid alone), the Host became the focus
of the obsession: whether or not one would be permitted to receive
communion; how frequently one would be given the Host; and the
symbolic significance of the Host, as a physical representation of
Christ’s body and blood, as the only substance to enter one’s body.
This is, I believe, an essential component to understanding the
importance of the symbolic nature of food for these women, and I
will return to this possibility in more detail below.
As word of Catherine’s ability to survive without food spread,
many began to suspect her ofwitchcraft and of gaining sustenance
from the devil. To quell this increasing concern about her loyalty
to Christ, Catherine began eating one meal a day in front of others.
204
ETHOS
However, once the meal was over, Catherine would retire to privacy
and force herself to vomit:
To do this she regularly and with great pain inserted stalks of fennel and other
plants into her stomach, otherwise being unable to vomit. Because of her
disparagers and particularly those who were scandalized by her fasting, she
maintained this lifestyle until her death [about six years later]. [Raymond of
Capua 1863:176-1771
When Catherine’s confessor learned of this behavior, he implored
her to desist in the interest of her health. Catherine refused,
“telling her confessor that the painful vomiting was penance for
her sins” (Raymond of Capua 1863:177). On January 1, 1380,
Catherine decided to restrict her intake even further and stopped
drinking water. Within a month, she was dead.
Catherine’s unusual food behaviors were extreme but were by
no means unique among female ascetics of this time. For example,
Veronica Giuliani (later to become SaintVeronica), like Catherine,
restricted her diet to bread and water alone, refusing to eat even
when ordered to by her superiors. Unlike Catherine, however,
there were reports that Veronica would sneak into the convent
kitchen and gorge herself on food. She vomited regularly. Catherine of Genoa engaged in strict fasting throughout the year, but
every Advent and Lent she would take only water, vinegar, and salt.
As with other female ascetics, this fasting was accompanied by a
eucharistic craving and obsession.” Clare of Assisi, who strove to
emulate the ascetic Francis of Assisi, far surpassed his austerities
and took her fasting practices to the extreme by eventually refusing
to take no food but the ~ucharist.”Similar food practices may be
found among Angela of Foligno, Colette of Corbie, Columba of
Rieti, Ida of Louvain, and Mary of Oignies, among others.IgAccompanying these food austerities in all of these women, as in the case
of Catherine of Siena, were a number of “typical” ascetic practices:
cutting off one’s hair, self-flagellation, sleep deprivation, giving
away food or possessions to the poor, sleeping on the floor (using
a rock for a pillow), constant ideation about punishment and
sinfulness, and an obsessional, insatiable craving for the Eucharist.
From these stories and others,” and the abundant material
collected in the historical studies, we can identifythe most common
features found in those who chose to become ascetics:
WOMEN’S FOOD ASCETICISM AND IDENTITY
205
Early and resolute commitment to piety, often beginning in
childhood, and usually involving the pledge of one’s virginity to
Mary or Christ.
Having one’s “femaleness” and role as “daughter” become highlighted in some way, either by being the only female child or, as
was most common, as a result of the deaths of other siblings.
An increase in piety and religious devotion following the death
of a loved one (usually in adolescence, as siblings were often
claimed by childhood diseases). This renewed piety usually involved extreme fasting and self-inflicted suffering and was accompanied by a resolution to dedicate one’s life to religious
devotion as a nun.
A battle with parents over the issue of marriage. Parents often
increased their effortsfor manying their daughters while, simultaneously, these women became more resolute in their decisions
to become nuns.
Sexualitywas often a point of anxiety for female ascetics and was
the object of fear loathing, and disgust.
After joining an order of nuns, the ascetic practices often continued and were coupled with an intense Eucharisticcraving and
devotion. In many cases, the asceticism steadily increased, and,
finally, no food was taken except the Eucharist.
We now come to the essential question: Why these particular
women, and why theseparticular behaviors?Although these women
engaged in a number of ascetic practices that cannot be wholly
separated from their food behaviors, it is clear that food was their
central concern and that food was the vehicle through which their
religiosity was most passionately expressed. To understand this,
and to understand its significance,we must now look in more detail
at the following three things: (1) cultural attitudes and beliefs
connecting women’s bodies with food, (2) the ultimate “goal” of
the food behavior, and how this was to be achieved, and (3) the
possible “meaning” of this goal for the individual who was striving
to achieve it.
FOOD METAPHORS AND THE FEMALE ASCETIC
Bynum locates the distinctive flavor of female devotional practices in the fact that women brought to their worship experiences
of beingwomenin society, using their encounters with powerlessness,
service, nurturing, and disease “as symbols into which they poured
ever deeper and more paradoxical meanings” (1987:25).Food
became, she suggests, an unusually powerful metaphor for the
expression of female concerns. Food was particularly symbolically
“chargedn for medieval women, according to Bynum, because
Medieval people did not simply associate body with woman. They also associated
woman’s body with food. Woman was food because breast milk was the human
being’s first nourishment-the one food essential for survival. [1987:269-2701
Women were notjust associatedwith food because they cooked and
served it; to medievals, women and their bodies were food.
Returning to the issue of body boundaries, cultural values surrounding women and food suggest that a woman’s body was a
conduit of sorts; she was constantly giving (or capable of giving) of
herself-her very substance-to another as nourishment. It was a
woman’s duty to give this food (i.e., her body) to others as they
needed it-and it was the right of others to take her substance from
her.
We can see here how the boundaries of a woman’s body again
figure significantly.If Woman is food, she must allow others to “eatn
her, to deplete her substance. It is relevant also, as Bynum notes,
that a medieval woman’s “identifying characteristic” as food was
breast-feeding. Again, not only is a woman’s physical boundary
crossed with the act of nursing, but breast-feeding implies such
other boundary infringements as sexual intercourse and pregnancy, which-in
the medieval period in particular-further
served to locate women within the social framework. Thus, in all
areas of a woman’s life, infringement of her body’s boundaries were
deemed not only appropriate but essentialfor the fulfillment of her
obligations as a woman. From historical analyses, and the words of
medieval women themselves, it seems that this notion of Woman
= food, and the issues of boundaries and female identity, figure
prominently in female ascetic devotion.”
The pattern and configuration of symbols found in the religious
visions and experiences or the female ascetics strongly support the
possibility that these women had heightened concerns about
boundaries, bodies, and food. Not only did the majority of their
visions involve nursing (nursing the Christ child at her own breast,
WOMEN’S FOOD ASCETICISM AND IDENTITY
207
herself nursing at Christ’s breast, or nursing from Christ’s wounds),
but their bodies often miraculously emitted a number of fluids:
The female body was seen as powerful in its holy or miraculous exuding, whether
of breast milk or of blood or of oil. Such extraordinatyflowingout was predicated on
extraordinaly closure. Holy w o r n were often said neither to eat nor to excrete. Stigmatics
or myroblytes [those who exuded fluids from their pores] were often miraculous
fasten. . . and theologians underlined the fact that those who bled ur exuded unusual
fluids did not excrete in ordinaly ways. [Bynum 1987:274;emphasis added]
Furthermore,
the stories of pious women suggest a deeper symbolic balance: a balance of eating
with not eating, exuding with not exuding. Closing herself off to ordinary food
yet consuming God in the Eucharist, the holy woman became God’s body. And
that body flowed out, not in the involuntary effluvia of urine or menstrual blood
or dandruff, but in chosen suffering,a chosen excreting, that washed, fed, and saved
the world. [1987:274]
Like the anorexic and bulimic woman, I would argue, the holy
ascetic solidified her boundaries: she did not eat, therefore, she did
not excrete. After a period of time, she stopped menstruating. Her
boundaries were solid and intact. Then, on her terms alone, she
permitted the boundaries of her body to be crossed. For the
bulimic woman, I have proposed, this is achieved through binging
and purging. In the female ascetic, we find an exuding of fluids
from the skin: milk, blood, or oil. It is significant, I believe, given
the cultural association of women’s bodies with food and nourishment, that these fluids were often imbued with miraculous healing
powers, and that all three substances provide nourishment.
Bynum notes that “psychosomatic manipulation [of the body] is
almost exclusively female” (1987:210), further supporting the notion of fluid physical boundaries, and that these boundaries held
heightened significance for the ascetics. In addition to miraculous
exuding of fluids, we also find among these women stigmata,
levitation, body elongation, passing through walls, and absorption
of the Host through the chest (Bynum 1987:210-212), all ofwhich
involve a manipulation or alteration of the body’s boundaries.
Although we d o not have access to the specific thoughts of
medieval female ascetics on this point, there seems to be ample
evidence that the boundaries of the physical self were of heightened concern for these women (i.e., fear of sex, miraculous exuding of fluids, stigmata, body elongation, strict fasting, cessation of
excretion and menstruation). We also have evidence that these
boundary concerns, at a physical level, became the battleground
for struggles over the woman’s autonomy and independence (e.g.,
rebellion against marriage). Thus, based on the available evidence,
it appears that food, as a substance, may have been used by medieval
ascetics in a similar-though not identical-way to that seen in
anorexics and bulimics today: as a symbolic representation of what
is either “me” or “not me,” and as a vehicle for enacting conflicts
over the self s boundaries (i.e., autonomy/dependence) and selfdefinition at the physical (and perhaps psychological) level.
THE”GOAL”AND HOW IT IS ACHIEVED
The manifest “goal” for the medieval female ascetic was not to
be thin, as it is for the contemporary anorexic and bulimic. Rather,
for the holy woman, manipulation of food was seen as a means of
fusing with Christ through an emulation of his suffering on the
cross. Female ascetics progressively restricted their intake of food
until they ultimately subsisted on the Eucharist alone. Eventually,
the only substance to enter their bodies, to move from “not me” to
“me,” was the Eucharist-Christ’s sacrificed flesh.
Female ascetics “merged with Christ through food,” with the
ultimate goal of “fusion with the crucified body of Christ” (Bynum
1987:208-209). As with contemporary anorexics and bulimics, the
medieval ascetic “tended both to reject food and to see it as a
powerful symbol of union” (Bynum 1987:227), highlighting the
importance of this concept and its possible psychological significance for these women. The connection between food, Christ, and
the self is dramatically illustrated in the following excerpt from a
letter written by Catherine of Siena to one of her confessors:
The immaculate lamb [Christ] is food, table, and servant. And this table offers
the fruits of true and perfect virtues. . . . And the table is pierced with veins which
run with blood. . . . Oh my son, run to this table [and drink]. . . . And when [the
soul] has drunk, it spits up the blood on the heads of its brothers and is thus like
Christ who continually pours out his blood not for his utility but for ours. And we
who eat at that tabb become like thefood [i.e., Christ], acting notfor our own utility but
for the honor of God and the salvation of neighbor. [1988:Letter208; emphasis added]
It is evident, therefore, that “to eat Christ is to become Christ” and
that “the Christ one becomes, in the reception of communion and
the Imitatio [Christi] of asceticism, is the bleeding and suffering
Christ of the cross” (Bynum 1987:245). The significance of this
particular vision of Christ (i.e., the Christ that is bleeding and
WOMEN’S FOOD ASCETICISM AND IDENTITY
209
suffering on the cross) as the goal of divine union (as opposed, for
example, to Christ as peacemaker or Christ as educator) will be
explored in detail later.
Often, these women wrote about their love for Christ and their
relationships with him in explicitly food-associated metaphors. For
example, Hadewijch expressed her communion with Christ with
the following vivid imagery:
They penetrate each other in such a way that neither ofthe two distinguishes himself
from the other. But they abide in one another in fruition, mouth in mouth, body in
body, soul in soul. [1980:Letter 9; emphasis added]
In her poem “Love’s Seven Namesn she portrays union with Christ
as eating him:
. . . love’s most intimate union
Is through eating, tasting, and seeing interiorly.
He eats us; we think we eat him,
And we do eat him, of this we can be certain.
[1980:Poem 161
Bynum stresses the importance of the Eucharist itself, as a symbol, for understanding the Eucharistic devotion of the ascetics:
This sense of imitatzo as becoming or being (not merely feeling or understanding)
lay in the background of Eucharistic devotion. The Eucharist was an especially
appropriate vehicle for the effort to become Christ because the Eucharist isChrist.
[1987:256]
The goal of merging with Christ became focused on the act of
eating him: “[Olne became Christ’s crucified body in eating
Christ’s crucified body. . . . Imitatio was incorporation of flesh into
flesh. Both priest and recipient were literally pregnant with Christ”
(Bynum 1987:257).
For these women, therefore, it appears that eating was often
synonymous with incorporating or becoming. This becomes not
only understandable but significant when we recall that, in cultural
terms, a woman’s body could be metaphorically and literally conflated with food. What entered the body as food became part of the
woman, changing her actual constitution. A desire to become
Christ was thus expressed in a metaphor of eating and incorporation.
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ETHOS
Here, the obsessional and insatiable craving for the Eucharist
found in almost all female ascetics begins to reveal its symbolic
significance. The more one eats God, the more one’s constitution
changes and one becomes God. By extension, the less one incorporates that which is “not God” (i.e., food other than the Eucharist), the more quickly this transformation will occur. Thus, it
makes sense that we find in female ascetics a progressively limiting
rejection of food coupled with an intense Eucharistic craving.
THE POSSIBLE PSYCHOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF
DMNE UNION
We have thus far established that food was a powerful symbolic
medium for these ascetic holy women, and that through food (or,
more specifically, through the control of food), they attempted to
achieve divine union with Christ through Imitatio Christi. What
might the attainment of divine union have meant to these women?
And why was food such a central concern? In most cases, the
decision to follow the ascetic path to Christ was made very early in
life, and, in all cases, years of physical and mental suffering, familial
opposition and conflict, and sometimes even accusations of witchcraft were endured for the sake of achieving this goal. Moving
toward union with Christ became the central concern of these
women’s lives, and they were willing to sacrifice anything and
everything to attain it.
As noted previously, the theme of “nursing” was prominent in
the visions and religious experiences of these women: nursing
Christ at her own breast, nursing at Mary’s breast, nursing from
Christ’s breast or from Christ’s wounds (Bynum 1987). I would
speculate that the importance of the metaphor of nursing for
expressing union with Christ is twofold and provides, I believe,
essential insight into the possible meaning of the Divine Union for
these women, and the role of food as the vehicle of this union.
First, it will be remembered that nursing is one of the female
biosexual processes involving boundary transversment, and that it
implies further biosexual processes that represent challenges to the
body’s boundaries (i.e., menstruation, sexual intercourse, and
pregnancy), while highlighting women’s ascribed gender roles. I
would argue, therefore, that the selection of nursing as a central
metaphor for expression union with Christ suggests that the notion
WOMEN’S FOOD ASCETICISM AND IDENTITY
21 1
of the Divine Union may represent an attempt to address concerns
about bodies, boundaries, and womanhood. I will return to this
possibility in more detail below.
Second, the action of nursing involves two essential components:
body as food and a relationship of dependence involving a provider
and a receiver. Thus, the theme of nursing in religious visions
corresponds with the woman’s ascribed roles within the framework-as food and as provider-variously related to the image of
Christ (i.e., sometimes nursing him, sometimes being nursed by
him) .”
The words of Catherine of Siena in a letter to a pious friend give
us a valuable glimpse into the importance and power of the image
of the nursing Christ as a symbol of Divine Union:
I long to see you always feeding and nursing at the breast of the gentle mother,
charity, for I am convinced no one can have life without the milk this glorious
mother gives us. She is so sweet and mild to souls who taste her that in her
everything bitter becomes sweet, and every heavy burden light. . . . [God’s servants] are happy, jubilant about everything because . . . they have tasted the milk
of divine charity. And just as a baby draws milk through its mother’s breast, so
sods in love with God draw him to themselves through Christ crucified. . . . Let
your heart and soul burst with the heat of love [as you drink] at this breast of
charity through the flesh of Christ crucified. [1988:Letter 591
To the Abbot of LCzat she wrote:
Oh dearest venerable father in Christ Jesus, how blessed will be your soul and
mine when I see us in the embrace of the fire of divine charity, that charity who
you know gives her children milk, feeds them. It seem to me we get this milk in
the same way a baby sucks milk from its mother’s breast, getting its nourishment
by sucking milk through the nipple.Just so, you know, our sod can have life only
through Christ crucified. [1988:Letter 511
Teresa of ~ v i l ausing
,
similar imagery, wrote the following:
The soul is like an infant that still nurses when at its mother’s breast, and the
mother without her babe’s effort to suckle puts the milk in its mouth in order to
give it delight. So it is here; for without effort of the intellect the will is loving,
and the Lord desires that the will, without thinking . . . understands that it is with
Him. [1902:31.9]
We can see here how the equation of eatingand fusion (particularly
fusion of the soul with Christ) represents an integral part of the use
of nursing metaphors to express spiritual union. But the importance of nursing as a symbol also rests on its implication of a
relationship of dependency, with one person as the provider and one
212
ETHOS
as the receiver. What is especially significant here, I believe, is that
we find in the visions of these female ascetics a representation of their
ascribed societal roles as women coupled with an ability to occupy positions
on both sides of th rob’s definition. The holy woman is both the nurser
of Christ (mother) and nursed by him (child); she is both provider
and receiver, dependent and depended upon, food as eaten by
Christ and eater of food porn him.
Here, we begin to get an idea of the possible utility of this union
with Christ for the medieval female ascetic. Through Divine Union
she could simultaneously experience both sides of the dependency
relationship that characterized her ascribed role as “woman.” We
will also remember that conflicts surrounding issues of dependency
are, in my model, heightened for those who choose food as a
substance of symbolic expression.
In addition to the theme of nursing, the metaphor of marriage
(including romantic love and physical intimacy) was central to
expressions of union with Christ. For example, Margery Kempe, an
ascetic from the 14th century, heard these words from Christ:
Daughter, thou desirest greatly to see Me, and thou mayest boldly, when thou art
in thy bed, take Me as thy wedded husband, as thy dearworthy darling, and as thy
dear son, for I will be loved as a son should be loved by the mother, and I will that
thou lovest Me, daughter, as a good wife ought to love her husband. Therefore
thou mayest boldly take Me in the arms of thy soul~andkiss My mouth, My head,
and My feet, as sweetly as thou will. And as often as thou thinkest of Me, or wouldst
do any good deed to Me, thou shalt have the same reward in Heaven, as if thou
didst it to Mine own Preciqus Body which is in Heaven. [Meech a n d m e n 1940:90]
Itwill be remembered that many of the women whojoined religious
orders and practiced asceticism in the medieval period viewed this
as an escape from marriage and physical intimacy (cf. Bynum
1987:20),making passages such as this particularly intriguing. In
addition to experiencing physical intimacy with Christ, several
female ascetics developed red marks around the third finger of the
left hand, known as “espousal rings,” symbolizing spiritual marriage to him (Bynum 1987:201). Again, therefore, union with
Christ allowed a woman to occupy positions on both sides of her
defined social role: she was both virgin and bride, simultaneously
a maiden and a lover.
So what might these symbolic representations of Divine Union
reveal about the use of food as a metaphor for the self? The
relationship with Christ, I propose, provided a medium through
which to enact conflicts about the self through the metaphors of
women’s social roles in the medieval cultural system (i.e., as wife,
mother, lover, dependent, etc.). It is not a coincidence, I believe,
that the metaphors for expressing union with Christ as experienced
by female ascetics revolved around the very biosexual processes
that both challenged a woman’s physical boundaries and defined
her identity within the social framework. In addition, as we have
seen, the relationship with Christ was such that a woman could
reenact her social roles while experiencing different aspects of that
role simultaneously. This suggests that those particular roles portrayed in religious visions may have represented conflicting issues
for women who chose to become ascetics, with the simultaneous
occupation of both sides of the role as an attempt to resolve these
concerns.
However, the symbol of the Divine Union, and of the Christ
figure in particular, appears to have represented more than merely
an anchor for the expression of dual identities associated with the
defining characteristics of womanhood. The image of Christ may
also have served as a symbolic mechanism for addressing concerns
about self, including issues of fusion and individuation. On the one
hand, fusion with Christ offered a means of voiding oneself of an
independent identity through merging with the Lord. Catherine
of Genoa even developed a theory that one should destroy the ego
so completely (through fasting and other ascetic practices associated with Imitatio Christz] that the first-person singular pronoun
would disappear altogether from one’s speech.” Through Divine
Union, one’s “old” self was lost, and one’s “new” self existed as a
part of God, in harmony and union with Christ.
On the other hand, the potential of Divine Union seems to have
offered ascetics a means of exploring and elaborating their existing
“selves” as women in society. Through union with Christ, women,
in some ways, were able to more fully experience themselves as
individuals. As Bynum notes, “union yith God did not involve
‘stages’ the soul ‘passed beyond’ but, rather, a continuity of the seZf,
a becoming fully human with Jesus” (1987:290; emphasis added).
Furthermore:
In their symbols women expanded the suffering, giving self they were ascribed by
their culture, becoming ever more wonderfully and horribly the body on the
cross. Thq became that body not asflightfiom but as continuation ofsel$ And because
that body was also God, they could sum up their love of God in paradox.
[1987:296;emphasis added]
We are now in a position to better understand why food was the
substance used by these women as the focus of their symbolic
expression. I propose that through the control of food, and thus
the control of boundaries, women achieved spiritual union with
Christ, through which they attempted to resolve the central issues
of autonomy/dependency conflicts implicit in their being female
within the medieval cultural context: they could paradoxically hold
positions on both sides of the dependency relationship at once, be
paradoxically virgin as well as lover, and paradoxically achieved
fusion with Christ while maintaining, and even strengthening, an
autonomous sense of self. This situation presents a mechanism for
addressing these issues that, borrowing from Bynum, I will term
“paradoxical symbiosis.”” Through food, I propose, holy ascetics
were able to enact, express, and to some degree resolve the central
issues of the autonomy/dependence struggle, and the antecedent
concerns of self and identity, through a specific cultural and
ideological system.
CONCLUSION
According to my model the female religious ascetics of the
medieval period were not anorexics and bulimics. Anorexia and
bulimia are two possibb forms of the symbolic use of food for
expressing concerns about the self, reflecting particular cultural
values about thinness, autonomy, and identity. While many female
ascetics do, indeed, appear to have exhibited “anorexic” and/or
“bulimic” behavior patterns, and may have used food to address
conflicts about the self that were similar in some ways to those of
anorexic and bulimic women, they were not, I maintain, anorexics
and bulimics, or even anorexics and bulimics “in disguise,” as Bell
suggests. It is here that the ideological systems of each behavior
pattern become crucial. Anorexia and bulimia, it will be remembered, are expressed through a drive for thinness, which, in cultural terms, serves as a statement of success, autonomy, and
independence, while paradoxically stripping the individual of
these very qualities. As a result, the eating disordered woman
becomes focused on such things as “calories,” “weight,” and “size,”
as these are all functions of the pursuit of the final goal: to be thin.
WOMEN’S FOOD ASCETICISM AND IDENTIn
21 5
This is not what we find among female ascetics in the medieval
period. While their behaviors may be similar to those of anorexic
and bulimic women, the ideational system accompanying these behaviors, and the significance of these behaviors for the individual,
appears to be quite different.25We find in the two groups, therefore, similar psychological concerns about autonomy versus dependence (impacted-and, indeed, constructed-in
different
ways by different cultural forces); a similar projection of this concern about the self onto the body, which serves as vehicle through
which the conflict is enacted; and use of a common substancefood-to manage these conflicts. But, again, the way in which food
behaviors are understood by the individual and the ultimate “goal”
of these practices (and the significance of that goal) are unique
products of the particular cultural context in which they are found.
Thus, anorexia and bulimia, by their very natures, must not be used
to describe all unusual food behaviors involving self-starvation or
purging. The definitions of these illnesses, including “persistent
overconcern with body size and shape” and “believing that one area
of the body is ‘too fat,’ even when emaciated” (American Psychological Association 1987:63-64), reflect the particular metaphor of
experience and expression in anorexia and bulimia, preventing
the applications of these terms outside of this framework.
Bell’s designation of the term “holy anorexia,” while provocative,
is therefore misleading, as it projects our understanding (such as
it is) of an illness that is highly culturally determined into another
arena. This perspective implicitly inscribes our values and evaluations of women’s behavior in the face of particular cultural, social,
and psychological circumstances onto women whose arenas of
experience were quite different.
At the same time, however, it seems that viewing cultural variation as an indication of characteristicallydifferent phenomena (as
Bynum does) reflects a similarly restricted perspective. Rather than
viewing medieval ascetics as expressing “anorexic concerns”
through a religious metaphorical system, I would suggest instead
that both groups may using food and their bodies in similar ways,
but ways that cannot be defined as anorexic or bulimic in and of
themselves. Such behaviors have acquired these definitions because of the system of symbols which is accessed by women in
20thcentury Western industrialized society, where thinness becomes a meaningful arena of struggle. But if we dislodge ourselves
from the pathological model of eating disorders set forth by the
western psychiatric community, the behaviors and experiences of
medieval female ascetics and anorexic and bulimic women can,
perhaps, become more illuminating. Taking the level of examination one step deeper-to the issues of self boundaries and identity,
“me”/”not me” concerns, and the nature of food as a transitional
substance-provides us with an entrance for understanding the
relationships between the cultural system, unusual food practices,
and the metaphor through which these practices are understood
and experienced by the individual.
REBECCA J. LESTER is a doctoral student in the Deparunent of Anthropology at the
University of California, San Diego.
NOTES
1. These ‘symptoms” include rigid control of food intake, with increasing restriction of
the amount and types of food ‘allowed”; extreme ritualization of the eating process;
hyperactivity; denial of hunger; aversion to certain categories of food; refusing to eat, even
when urged to d o so due to medical necessity; binge eating (in some cases); vomiting, both
voluntarily and involuntarily; and hyperconcern about food and eating, with constant
ideation that one should eat less than one is presently eating.
2. I worked as an intake/assessment counselor at the Rader Institute in San Diego, CA,
from September 1992 to March 1993.
3. See Lester 1993 for a full discussion of this framework.
4. For recent works on women and indusuy in the Middle Ages, see Bennett 1988, Dale
1989, Kowaleski and Bennett 1989, Labarge 1986 (particularly chapter 7), and Uitz 1988,
5. In addition to such often fatal diseases as measles, smallpox, and scarlet fever, the
bubonic plague swept through Europe in the 14th century, claiming nearly twc-thirds of the
population.
6. Some wealthy women were able to send their children to wet nurses and did not nurse
the babies themselves (cf. Gross and Bingham 1983). However, it remains the case that,
regardless of the particular experiences of i n d i ~ d u a women,
l
nursing was socially held to
be representative of motherhood and of the motherchild bond (cf. Bynum 1987, particularly chapter 9).
7. Some exceptions are Francis of Assisi, Dominic, Richard of Chichester, and Vincent
Ferrer. While known for their asceticism, many of these men were surpassed in austerity by
their female followers (see especially the case of Francis of Assisi and his follower Clare).
8. Remember the striping of the identifiers of womanhood observed in anorexia and
bulimia, and the importance of this in the rejection of the ascribed female identity. I propose
that this binding of hips and breasts by medieval ascetics represents a similar reaction to the
ascribed role of “woman” within medieval society and an attempt to escape from the
constraints of this definition.
9. Some of the c e n t d sources of information about Catherine of Siena’s life, religiosity,
and asceticism are the Legends Maior by her confessor, Raymond of Capua (1863), and
Catherine of Siena 1968,1980a, and 1980b. O n her letters see Catherine of Siena 1913-22
and 1988. For the prayers see Catherine of Siena 1978 and 1983.
WOMEN’S FOOD ASCETICISM AND IDENTITY
217
10. O n Veronica Giuliani see Fiorucci 1969-74, Giuliani 1976, and Minciotti 1980. On
Teresa o f ~ v i l see
a Teresa o f ~ v i l a1674,1893,1902,1961,1979, and 1980. For works about
Teresa by other authorssee Auclair 1988,Bilinkoff 1989,and Clissold 1979. O n SaintThCrhe
of Lisieux see Therese of Lisieux 1949, 1975, 1976, and 1977; see also Beevers 1955 and
Gorres 1959. O n the life of Columba da Rieti see Acta Sanctorum, May, 5:319-398.
11. Here we find the case of a wealthy mother who did indeed nurse her own children
when possible. We are told that Catherine’s mother was reluctant to send Giovanna to a wet
nurse and did so only out of necessity. This would seem to suggest that a mother’s nursing
of her own children was seen as the “proper” or “best” course of action, but that wealthy
women had recourse to other options if the need (or desire) arose.
12. I found this also to be a common feature among many of the anorexic and bulimic
women who presented themselves for treatment at the Rader Institute during my tenure
there.
13. O n Eustochia see Vaccari and Ansalono 1950. O n her mystical passions see Terrizzi
1975.
14. For Umiliana de’ Cerchi the basic text is Vita beatae Humilianae d e Cerchis,” Acta
S a w t m m , May,4:385-418. O n Margaret of Cortonasee Acta Sanctorum, February, 3:304-363.
On Angela of Foligno see Angela of Foligno 1932 and Doncoeur 1925.
15. O n the life of FrancescaRomanade’Ponziani s e e h e l l i n i 1882;Lugano 1908,1945;
and Arta Sawtorum, March, 2:92-175.
16. It is interesting to note the similarity between this behavior and the “chew-spitting”
performed by many modern anorexics and bulimics, in which food is chewed and then spit
out without being swallowed.
17. The fundamental work on Catherine of Genoa’s mystical practices is Htgel1908; see
also Catherine of Genoa 1896 and 1979.
18. O n Clare of Assisi see Armstrong and Brady 1982, Clare of Assisi 1988, De Robeck
1980, Gigliozzi 1984, Pennacchi 1910, and Verino 1921.
19. O n Colette of Corbie see Acta Sanctorum, March, 1:535-588, 600-618. On Ida of
Louvain see Acta Sanctorum, April, 2, particularly pages 160-183. On Mary of Oignies see
Acta Sanctmum, June, 5, particularly pages 551-571.
20. ~ncluding~ ~ n e s – ~o of n t e ~ u l c i a n Beauice
o,
of Nazareth, Hadewijch, Juliana of
Cornillon, Margaret of Cortona, Mechthild of Magdeburg, Julian of Nonvich, Teresa of
~ v i l aand
, ThCrkse of Lisieux.
21. Mechthild of Magdeburg, for example, wrote the following:
I suckled the prophets and sages, before God was born. Later on, during my childhood,
I suckled Jesus, and during my youth I suckled God’s Bride, holy Christianity, at the cross,
and I became emaciated and miserable at the thought that the sword which inflicts
physical pain should cutJesus spiritually in my soul. [1991:1.22]
22. Mary, too, is seen as a nursing figure in some visions, but as a woman, and as the
representation of the prototypical “mother,” this role is not necessarily unusual. Christ’s
masculinity, however, would seem to suggestthatvisions ofnursingfrom his breastor wounds
warrant further investigation. In addition, since the “goal” for these ascetics was union with
Christ, I will concentrate specifically on his role in the visions of the ascetics.
23. See note 17 for works about and by Catherine of Genoa.
24. This is similar in some ways to the paradox found among contemporary anorexics
and bulimics: through food behaviors they are attempting to establish independence.
However, because of these behaviors, they become wholly dependent on others.
25. The work of Caroline Giles Banks (1992) raises some interesting issues here. Her
research investigates contemporary women, diagnosed as having anorexia, but who understand and experience their illnesses through a religious medium–much like what was seen
in medieval female ascetics.Are, then, these contemporary women truly anorexic?Although
I do not have enough information on the women inteniewed by Banks to draw a definite
conclusion, the possibility must be examined that self-stamation behaviors, even wilhin a
rontapornly contexl, might not be anorexia in the traditional sense. This opens up a number
of intriguing possibilities for future research and has, perhaps, implications for more
successful treatment strategies as well.
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Embodied Voices: Women’s Food Asceticism and the Negotiation of Identity
Rebecca J. Lester
Ethos, Vol. 23, No. 2. (Jun., 1995), pp. 187-222.
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Notes
4
Review: “History That Stands Still”: Women’s Work in the European Past
Reviewed Work(s):
Working Women in Renaissance Germany by Merry E. Wiesner
Women, Production, and Patriarchy in Late Medieval Cities by Martha C. Howell
Women and Work in Preindustrial England by Lindsey Charles; Lorna Duffin
Women and Work in Preindustrial Europe by Barbara A. Hanawalt
Daughters of the Reconquest: Women in Castilian Town Society, 1100-1300 by Heath Dillard
The Domestic Life of a Medieval City: Women, Children, and the Family in Fourteenth-Century
Ghent by David Nicholas
Prostitution in Medieval Society: The History of an Urban Institution in Languedoc by Leah
Lydia Otis
Judith M. Bennett
Feminist Studies, Vol. 14, No. 2. (Summer, 1988), pp. 269-283.
Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0046-3663%28198822%2914%3A2%3C269%3A%22TSSWW%3E2.0.CO%3B2-K
4
Crafts, Gilds, and Women in the Middle Ages: Fifty Years after Marian K. Dale
Maryanne Kowaleski; Judith M. Bennett
Signs, Vol. 14, No. 2, Working Together in the Middle Ages: Perspectives on Women’s
Communities. (Winter, 1989), pp. 474-501.
Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0097-9740%28198924%2914%3A2%3C474%3ACGAWIT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-B
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References Cited
Review: “History That Stands Still”: Women’s Work in the European Past
Reviewed Work(s):
Working Women in Renaissance Germany by Merry E. Wiesner
Women, Production, and Patriarchy in Late Medieval Cities by Martha C. Howell
Women and Work in Preindustrial England by Lindsey Charles; Lorna Duffin
Women and Work in Preindustrial Europe by Barbara A. Hanawalt
Daughters of the Reconquest: Women in Castilian Town Society, 1100-1300 by Heath Dillard
The Domestic Life of a Medieval City: Women, Children, and the Family in Fourteenth-Century
Ghent by David Nicholas
Prostitution in Medieval Society: The History of an Urban Institution in Languedoc by Leah
Lydia Otis
Judith M. Bennett
Feminist Studies, Vol. 14, No. 2. (Summer, 1988), pp. 269-283.
Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0046-3663%28198822%2914%3A2%3C269%3A%22TSSWW%3E2.0.CO%3B2-K
Crafts, Gilds, and Women in the Middle Ages: Fifty Years after Marian K. Dale
Maryanne Kowaleski; Judith M. Bennett
Signs, Vol. 14, No. 2, Working Together in the Middle Ages: Perspectives on Women’s
Communities. (Winter, 1989), pp. 474-501.
Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0097-9740%28198924%2914%3A2%3C474%3ACGAWIT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-B
“This Is My Body”: Reflections on Abjection, Anorexia, and Medieval Women Mystics
Martha J. Reineke
Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol. 58, No. 2. (Summer, 1990), pp. 245-265.
Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-7189%28199022%2958%3A2%3C245%3A%22IMBRO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-5
NOTE: The reference numbering from the original has been maintained in this citation list.
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