Saintly Sickness: Catherine of Siena as a Prototype of Holy Anorexia

• The Care and Feeding of Late Medieval Sa...
• Dead Bodies of Catholic Saints that Will...
• Catholics Celebrate Feast Days of Saints...
• Margery Kempe: Medieval Woman and Unconv...
• Explore Food and Body Metaphors in Medie...
• Sunday in Siena, Italy
• Anorexia Nervosa
• Women in the Bible and Church History
• Adrian, Michigan - Little Town, Big Coll...
• Anorexia: Survival of the Thinnest

Other topics: 

• The religious emphases of self-denial, morality, and dualism may contribute to guilt and anorexia.
• Catherine of Siena exhibited the guilt, perfectionism, and need for control associated with anorexia
• In patriarchal Medieval society, asceticism offered women the opportunity to control some choices.

Church historians oftentimes disagree with the application of modern terminology to historical cases or events, which is why the label "holy anorexia" as a description of the ascetic phenomenon of many Medieval women who starved themselves is controversial.

• Works Cited Baxter, H. “Nibbles: Religion and Eating Disorder.” European Eating      Disorders Review, 9, 2001. 137-139. Bell, Rudolph M. Holy Anorexia. Chicago: University of Chicago Press,      1987. Bynum, Caroline Walker. Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious      Significance of Food to Medieval Women. Los Angeles: University of      California Press, 1987. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-IV-TR. 4th      ed. American Psychiatric Association, 1994. 583-595. Malone, Mary T. Women and Christianity, Vol. II: From 1000 to the      Reformation. New York: Orbis Books, 2001. Morrison, James. DSM-IV Made Easy: The Clinician’s Guide to       Diagnosis. New York: The Guilford Press, 1995. 387-395. Steinbach, Morgana. “Overview of Anorexia Nervosa with Special      Attention to the Religious Dimension.” Baylor University Graduate     Studies in Social Work, 2003. Vandereycken, Walter and Ron Van Deth. From Fasting Saints to          Anorexic Girls: The History of Self-Starvation. New York: New York      University Press, 1996.