Anorexia mirabilis

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• See: Starvation

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Anorexia mirabilis literally means "miraculous lack of appetite". It refers almost exclusively to women and girls of the Middle Ages who would starve themselves, sometimes to the point of death, in the name of God. The phenomenon is also known by the name inedia prodigiosa ("prodigious fasting")

Anorexia mirabilis is an extreme religious and spiritual practice associated with young women and girls of the Middle Ages who held aspirations toward martyrdom. Literally it means a ‘great’ starvation and a ‘miraculous’ lack of appetite. The practice, predominantly engaged by young Catholic women ~ Miraculous Maids ~ supposedly employed it as a vehicle to attain higher relations with God, hoping to receive His divine voice. The absence of sustenance in the gut in exchange for divine vocalic sonority, anorexia mirabilis was frequently accompanied by self-mutilation, self-flagellation, and a variety of self induced inflictions. Life long chastity was a prerequisite for the young women, who performed their holy starvations in an attempt to cultivate an inner purity and piety, many survived on the Holy Eucharist to signify their total devotion to Jesus, and the fasting could extend to months, years, or to a final tragic conclusion culminating in their premature deaths. The allure of the ‘special achievement’ of prolonged fasting was confirmation to these female practitioners that the body was a separate entity from the spirit. It has been suggested that some felt inebriated by the hunger for God, and claimed that from this edible absence they experienced possessions of religious enlightenment, which then made them spiritually replete.

In the Middle Ages across Catholic Europe, young women “suffering” from anorexia mirabilis – miraculous lack of appetite – were seen as ascetics and saints. They were upheld by their communities as pillars of the religious community, women who took their holy fasting to a new level of discipline and devotion to God. This carried forward to the Victorian era, where “fasting girls” captured the admiration and attention of the public because of their miraculous ability to live without food.

Fasting in the 13th to 16th centuries was seen as a way to purge oneself of sin and to bring the human body closer to God. Denying food to their bodies made them more pure in the eyes of God and their peers, leaving no doubt about their intact virginity and pious mind. By refusing to eat anything but the holy Eucharist for extended periods of time – weeks, and often months – women would gain an unsurpassed level of spiritual awakening and purity, as well as the respect and admiration of their community. These women were purported to gain special powers akin to that of Jesus;  healing the sick with their touch and saliva, the ability to miraculously multiply food and drink, as well as other, stranger, benefits like virginal lactation and producing oil from their fingertips.

The practice of anorexia mirabilis faded out during the Renaissance, when it began to be seen by the Church as heretical, socially dangerous, or possibly even Satanically inspired. It managed to survive in practice until nearly the 20th century, when it was overtaken by its more popularly known counterpart, anorexia nervosa.

In the Victorian period there was a resurgence in the belief in miraculous fasting, with the public sensations of the Fasting Girls. There were several instances of young women refusing to eat for weeks and allegedly even years at a time, and they became media sensations in the US and Europe. They survived on nothing at all, or tiny amounts of specific foods like fruits or beef tea. The term “fasting girl” was applied by the medical community, and used interchangeably with anorexia mirabilis, denoting a miraculous quality to their emaciation.

Contemporary accounts of anorexia mirabilis do exist, most notably that of a fundamentalist Christian girl in Colombia, as reported by medical anthropologist Carlos Alberto Uribe.

Notables

• Angela of Foligno (1248-1309) - died in her sleep at the healthy age of 61; (Wikipedia - Angela of Foligno; Franciscan media - Saint Angela of Foligno)
• Saint Catherine of Siena (1347-1380 - died of starvation at age 33, after suffering a stroke the week before and having lost the use of her legs months earlier.
• Sarah Jacob (1857-1869) known as the “Welsh fasting girl,” claimed not to have eaten any food at all after the age of ten & was only 12 years old when she died of starvation. (Wikipedia - Fasting girl)
• Mollie Fancher, (aka: Mary J Fancher) the “Brooklyn Enigma,” (1848-1916) - a Victorian celebrity—known for her supposed mystic powers and ability to survive without food for 14 years. (Wikipedia - Fasting girl)
• Margaret of Cortona (1247–1297) believed she had extended communications with God himself.(Wikipedia - Margaret of Cortona)
• Marie of Oignies (1177-1213) - vowed to eat only consecrated wafers; the unconsecrated bread made her ill. At the time of death, her body was found to be terribly emaciated. (Wikipedia - Marie of Oignies)
• Columba of Rieti (aka: Angelella Guardagnoli) (1467–1501) - did eventually starve herself to death. (Wikipedia - Columba of Rieti)
• Beatrice of Nazareth (aka: in Dutch Beatrijs van Nazareth) (c. 1200 in Tienen – 1268) - a Flemish Cistercian nun (Wikipedia - Beatrice of Nazareth)
• Saint Veronica (1st C A.D.) - would fast for five days and then would chew five orange pips representing the wounds of Christ. (- Saint Veronica)
• Santa Rosa Of Lima (1586–1617) (aka: Isabel Flores de Oliva) was the first Catholic Saint born in the Americas in Lima Peru, and in emulation of St Catherine of Sienna she would only digest bitter herbs in the pursuit of spiritual fortitude.
• Therese Neumann (1898- 1962) - From 1923 until her death she professed that nothing but the Eucharist had passed her lips and that she was also stigmatic. (Wikipedia - Therese Neumann
• Prahlad Jani, (13 Aug 1929) an Indian breatharian monk who claims to have lived without food and water since 1940.; (Wikiversitty - Prahlad Jani; The Telegraph - Man claims to have had no food or drink for 70 years. by: Dean Nelson in New Delhi, 28 Apr 2010)

Resources & Additional reading:

• Cvltnation.com - Anorexia Mirabilis and the Fasting Girls. by: Meghan, 28 Oct 2016
• Wikipedia - Anorexia mirabilis
• The American Journal of Psychiatry - Anorexia Mirabilis: The Practice of Fasting by Saint Catherine of Siena in the Late Middle Ages. by: Fernando Espi Forcen, MD, 1 Apr 2013
• EBalance - Anorexia Through the Ages: From Sainthood to Psychiatry. by Sofia Tancredi, 3 Mar 2013
• Death Becomes Her When The Lady Vanishes. by: Andrea Byrne
• Sociological Images -Anorexia Mirabilis: Fasting in Victorian England to modern India. by: Lisa Wade, PhD, 13 Nov 2015
• Independent - Five hundred years of eating disorders ‘reflect women’s lack of power’: Liz Hunt reports that anorexia and bulimia are not just creations of the 20th century, but have roots in history. Liz Hunt, 2 May 1993
• A Medieval Woman’s Companion - Holy Anorexia: How Medieval Women Coped With What Was Eating At Them. by: Student Whitney May