Cătălina Covaciu

THE BREAD OF LIFE

STUDIES CONCERNING THE SIGNIFICANCE OF
FOOD, FOOD DEPRIVATION AND MIRACULOUS
SUBSISTENCE IN MEDIEVAL TIMES
 Contents

Introduction ......................................................................................................... 3
1. The Bread of Life. A Comparative Perspective on Fasting: Saint Clare and
Saint Francis of Assisi .................................................................................... 6
2. What Else Do We Have But a Body? Reflections on an Apparent
Paradox ........................................................................................................ 32
3. Beyond a Hagiographic Cliché. On the Supernatural Sustenance of Saint
Catherine of Siena ........................................................................................ 57
4. A Glimpse into Iconography ........................................................................ 86
References ......................................................................................................... 98

1
2
 Introduction

Is there something more natural, routine, desired and controversial than food?
Food can be easily linked to survival, safety, pleasure, courtliness. But food – in
wider quantities or particular selections – can also be considered a vicious temptation
and enjoying food (too much) thus becomes a guilty, wicked choice. An analogous
ambiguity characterized the attitude towards food in the Middle Ages, although it
was due to a very different background, namely the Christian doctrine on the flesh,
which sets its possibilities as well as its frailty in the quest for the divine. This having
been stated, the purpose of my contribution is to offer a fresh insight into the vast
theme of practices and conceptions regarding food in late medieval Western society.
The current book is a compilation of three of the author’s studies in the field
of medieval religious experience and the role of food – denied or spiritually whished-
for – in the economy of salvation. The first one is inedited and serves as a forward
for the next; it is also the one that gives the title of the book, for it epitomizes the
ultimate concern about food and food-related issues in a devotional environment.
The other two were already published 1 in international journals and they both treat
the topic of Saint Catherine of Siena as an ascetical personality, whose fasting
practices were prodigious and ultimately achieved a renewed, completely
spiritualized bodily state. As they share the same subject, some information or
interpretation may be reasserted, but I maintain them in the form they were
published, in order to insure the internal logic of the demonstration.

1
I have retained the original texts, with minimal interventions.
3
 The first chapter is entitled “The Bread of Life. A Comparative Perspective on
Fasting: Saint Clare and Saint Francis of Assisi”. According to the hagiographic
tradition, Saint Clare of Assisi (1194-1253) observed an uttermost fasting, eating
nothing at all three days a week, whereas in the rest of the days she only took bread
and water. Moreover, she submitted herself to mortification of the flesh, disclaiming
even the most basic natural demands, her mentor – Saint Francis (1181/2-1226) –
proceeding similarly. On the other hand, the two of them appear to rather disagree
with respect to fasting, since for Francis its requirement was overshadowed by
priorities like mendicancy and itinerant predication. Under these circumstances, the
initial analysis aims to explain Clare’s more rigorous performance of this penitential
practice. Therefore, we will examine the interference between historical facts and
encomiastic rhetoric in hagiographic sources, as well as the significance of the
relation between body and soul, respectively male and female, to the assigned – but
also assumed – predilection for radical asceticism among women.
The following chapter consists of the paper “What Else Do We Have but a
Body? Reflections on an Apparent Paradox”, which is the first case study dedicated
to Saint Catherine of Siena (1347-1380) and the farthest from the proper subject, for
it explores the broader context of the saint’s attitudes to the physical. I began this
study emphasizing several aspects of bodily manipulation in a spiritual context – as
traced by scholars over the last decades – and claiming that the particular case of
Saint Catherine provides us with an enormous potential to analyse the body-focused
spirituality. Thus, I have followed the various bibliographical clues, which –
assembled – retrace a conflicting representation of the flesh, both doomed and source
of redemption. Integrating this topic within the broader context of the Saint’s
theological vision and of her devotional practices, and linking it to the religious
milieu she belonged to, I attempted to shed light on what appears to be a paradox,
4
according to contemporary standards. Yet during the Late Middle Ages, the flesh
was conceived in terms of an inherent ambivalence, and body and spirit were thought
to be an inseparable unit. As for Saint Catherine, the flesh has no meaning in itself,
but only insofar as it is a means which serves the mystical yarning to achieve oneness
with God and an expression to describe this state of grace.
Eventually, “Beyond a Hagiographic Cliché. On the Supernatural Sustenance
of Saint Catherine of Siena” is the last case study about the Sienese saint. From an
early age, Catherine is told to have drastically reduced her food intake – among other
ascetic practices – to the point where she only took bitter herbs, cold water and the
host. Eventually, in the wake of the mystic merger with Christ, Catherine became
able to live in a completely spiritual manner, without any corporeal nourishment. In
fact, scholars emphasize that food deprivation constitutes a recurrent topic in
medieval hagiographic accounts, meeting the expectancies of the day concerning
(especially female) criteria of sainthood. And yet, the saint herself recalls her inedia,
so that a more nuanced interpretation of the data is required. In these conditions, the
third chapter proposes a particular focus on sanctity in a theological – namely
Christological – perspective, as the saints, who successfully emulate the virtues of
the Saviour, are accordingly elevated above earthbound limitations; thus Catherine’s
marvellous condition shall be regarded in the light of the genuine belief in the body’s
transformative potential. Moreover, her painful endeavour to eat according to nature
provides the saint with an opportunity to partake of Christ’s redemptive suffering.
Since the chapters were initially conceived as autonomous papers, they have
their own conclusions. Consequently, instead of a conclusive chapter, I have
integrated an iconographic selection, as a graphic account for my previous
statements.

5
 Chapter 1
The Bread of Life.
A Comparative Perspective on Fasting: Saint Clare and
Saint Francis of Assisi

Before launching into his public mission, Jesus has fasted for forty days in the
desert. Nevertheless, while preaching the new faith, He refers to himself as “the
Bread of life” and reassures communion with the faithful through the Sacrament of
the Eucharist, which is literally eating His body in order to be infused with His grace
and achieve eternal life. Thenceforward, since Christ is the example every believer
aspires to and should relate to, Christians were concerned with eating conduct, withal
trying to fulfill their hunger for godlikeness.
As I was working for my bachelor thesis,2 I have found that radical fasting
was a predominantly female practice during the late Middle Ages,3 and one of its

2
Hrănirea mistică între patologic și devoțional. Studiu de caz: Sfânta Ecaterina de Siena. Post și
subzistență spirituală [Mystical Feeding between Pathologic and Devotional. Case Study: Saint
Catherine of Siena. Fasting and Spiritual Subsistence], Bachelor Thesis, Manuscript, Department
of Medieval History, Early Modern History and Art History, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-
Napoca, 2015.
3
The most noticeable upholder and interpreter of this standpoint is the American historian Caroline
Walker Bynum. In Holy Feast and Holy Fast. The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval
Women (Berkeley, Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1987), she pleads for considering
fasting within the complex background of female devotion, emphasizing its positive significance
of asceticism as imitatio crucis and arguing for its inextricable link to Eucharistic devotion.
Moreover, the feminist historian stresses that food and hunger are the main metaphors in medieval
women’s writings. Bynum also argues that, comparing to men, women are more predisposed to
somatize emotions and express themselves through the body. See also her Fragmentation and
Redemption: Essays on Gender and the Human Body in Medieval Religion (New York: Zone
Books, 1991), or “Women mystics and Eucharistic devotion in the thirteenth century”, Women’s
6
pioneers was Clare of Assisi (1194-1253).4 In order to better understand the
dynamics of this case, we are going to proceed with an inquiry of Clare’s fasting in
relation to her male friend and mentor, Francis of Assisi (1181/2-1226), the founder
of the Franciscan movement, availing ourselves of the ideational proximity between
them. Always keeping in view that the sources provide us two hypostases of each
saint, the historical and the hagiographical one, we intend to distinguish the various
meanings fasting connotes, trying to surpass and at once interlink one-sided
explanations. Starting with a comparison based on the writings by and about the
saints, we will see that prodigious fasting is a major feature of Saint Clare, better
said of her hagiographic image, thus attempting to clarify the more rigorouse
intendement of this practice in a female context.
Through the topic we are going to address, the current research implies the
idea of gender as a sociocultural category, inevitably coming across with feminist

Studies, vol. 11 (1984): 179-214. See besides Alessandra Bartolomei Romagnoli’s studies cited
below, and especially “Vita religiosa femminile nel secolo XIII. Umiltà, Gherardesca e le altre fra
realtà e rapresentazione”, in San Nevolone e Santa Umiltà a Faenza nel sec. XIII. Atti del
Convegno di Faenza 26-27 maggio 1995, ed. Domenico Sgubbi (Faenza: Seminario Diocesano
Pio XII, 1996), 91-123; Rudolph M. Bell, Holy Anorexia (Chicago: The University of Chicago
Press, 1985); Joan Jacobs Brumberg, Fasting Girls: The History of Anorexia Nervosa as a Modern
Disease (Cambridge – London: Harvard University Press, 1988); Jean-Noël Vuarnet, Dumnezeul
femeilor [The God of Women], (București: Anastasia, 1996). Interestingly enough, in the case of
Irish monasticism – otherwise, a notably severe form of religious commitment – the biographies
of women bear witness to a more relaxed and less spectacular asceticism compared to male
practice, the first indication of female virtue being, nevertheless, chastity. Nulla regula sine
exceptione! See Marilyn Dunn, The Emergence of Monasticism. From the Desert Fathers to the
Early Middle Ages (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2003), 157.
4
Bell, Holy Anorexia, 127. Bynum shows instead that there were much earlier cases of prodigious
fasting, dating back to the sixth century and mentioned in ninth century chronicles. Nevertheless,
Clare is reported to be the first attainable model for female piety outside the monastic enclosure.
Bynum, Holy Feast, 89 sqq.
7
studies. 5 However, we aim to offset the ideologized and claiming aftermaths of this
approach by inferring about the particularities of Clare’s case within a context that
organically, reflexively assigned distinctive gender roles – which women ended up
assuming, one way or another – but not to the point where to find an implicit,
exclusively female experience which develops against the odds in a patriarchal
society. Thereby, we consider necessary to refer to the devotional and not less the
theological background, as they retrace fasting as a practice underlain by a vertical
relation between God and the fallen creature longing for retrieval, whereas the
horizontal, gender-focused dialectics is less decisive, as a consequence of the
positions Adam and Eve obtained through the fall.
First and foremost, fasting – part of an ascetic program, as we will further
regard it –, is related to practices such as imitatio Christi and imitatio sanctorum.
During his earthly life, Jesus dominated his human urges and desires in order to
submit to his heavenly Father’s will, so much so he died to redeem mankind. Starting
from the end of the eleventh century, imitatio Christi, as well as the ideal to retrace
the pristine Christian living, known as vita apostolica – expressions of the devotion

5
Bynum is the well-known and successful example. See also Women, Gender and Radical
Religion in Early Modern Europe. Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions, ed. Sylvia
Brown (Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2007); Mary C. Erler, Maryanne Kowaleski (eds.), Gendering the
Master Narrative: Gender and Power in the Middle Ages, (Ithaca – New York: Cornell University
Press, 2003); Emily A. Holmes, Flesh Made Word: Medieval Women Mystics, Writing and the
Incarnation, (Wako: Baylor University Press, 2013); Elizabeth Alvilda Petroff, Body and Soul:
Esseys on Medieval Women and Mysticism, (Oxford – New York: Oxford University Press, 1994);
Samantha J. E. Riches, Sarah Salih (eds.), Gender and Holiness. Man, Women and Saints in
Medieval Europe (London, New York: Routledge, 2002). As respects Clare, Catherine Mooney
emphasizes that scholars have very much insisted upon gender examination. See “Imitatio Christi
or imitatio Mariae? Clare of Assisi and Her Interpreters”, in Gendered Voices. Medieval Saints
and their Interpreters, ed. Catherine M. Mooney (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press,
1999), 53. Although we do not necesarilly subscribe to the feminist approach, we are going to use
– though with prudence or amended – some of their suggestions.
8
towards the humanity of Christ – become key phenomena of Western Christianity,
which are to be found in Franciscan spirituality as well. 6 Nevertheless, within a
climate of seeking to properly accomplish God’s commandments and taking into
account the unsatisfying ministry of the Church, the adherents of the new religious
movements consider heuristic proceedings. At the same time, precedents available
in the epoque – and the most conclusive are the Desert Fathers, champions of
asceticism – confer a sense of assurance, thus the penitential profile of the emerging
devotional trends.7 On this basis, hagiographies like Athanasius’ Vita of Anthony the
Great remain a reference point, in which food renounciation and rejection of any
comfort are primary features. Moreover, not only in literature, but in real life, the
paradigm of successfully confronting fleshly drives remains immortally appealing.8
As the body is an incontournable part of the human being – the first frontier
of our identity, through which we are connected to the world and reflects us into the
world –, it obviously gets involved in the religious life. According to orthodox

6
See C.H. Lawrence, Medieval monasticism. Forms of Religious Life in Western Europe in the
Middle Ages (New York: Longman, 1984), 247 sqq.
7
The centrality of Christ’s humanity within the spirituality of Saint Francis brings penance and
asceticism inspired by his example into the core of devotional practice. Romagnoli, “La mistica,
il dolore, la croce”, in Culture e fede, vol. 22, nr. 2 (2014): 100-114, especially 105. On the Desert
Fathers, see William Harmless, Desert Christians. An Introduction to the Literature of Early
Monasticism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004). Regarding the dissemination of the
literature that exhorted the imitatio sanctorum, within which the example of the hermits is a
privileged one, see Peter Dinzelbacher, “Rifiuto dei ruoli, risveglio religioso ed esperienza mistica
delle donne nel Medioevo”, in Movimento religioso e mistica femminile nel Medioevo, eds. Peter
Dinzelbacher, Dieter R. Bauer (Roma: Edizioni Paoline, 1993), 47.
8
Harmless, Desert Christians, 97-98; Dunn, The Emergence of Monasticism, 60 sqq, on the
dissemination of this examples in the Western Culture. Especially the Franciscans were
enthusiastic about this model, drawing a parallel between Saint Francis and the early hermit.
Alessandra Foscati, “Anthonius Maximus Monachorum. Testi e immagini di Antonio eremita nel
Basso Medioevo” in Studi di storia del cristianesimo. Per Alba Maria Orselli, ed. Luiggi Canetti
et al. (Ravenna: Longo, 2008), 283-284.
9
theology, the body is a creation of God, just as the soul; by itself, it is neutral and
can serve to mediate either grace or sin, so that its ideal finality consists in
accomplishing godly ends.9 Towards the end of the High Middle Ages, Scholastic
theology determined that sin occurs when the reason and will cannot compel
concupiscence;10 consequently – even more within the penitential spirit of the
thirtheenth century –, it was compulsory to strictly control the body and submit it to
the spiritual, so that the latter might be freed from passions and not minded to
disregard the divine will anymore. 11
From its outset as a Christian practice, fasting has been integrated in a wide
devotional context – accompanied by prayer, willful poverty and charity ever since
– denoting either a preparatory undertaking, or an opportunity for God to prove His
providential intervention; in both cases, it is a declaration of the dependence on the
Creator, the One that supports life and made man as a more-than-material being.
Besides, gender seems not to be a decisive variable as respects fasting. Furthermore,

9
For the theological background, see Kallistos Ware, “Ajutorul și dușmanul meu: trupul în
creștinismul grec” [“My helper and my enemy: the body in Greek Christianity”], in Religia și trupul
[Religion and the Body], ed. Sarah Coakley (București: Univers, 2003), 108 sqq; see also Patricia
Dailey, Promised Bodies. Time, Language and Corporeality in Medieval Women’s Mystical Texts,
(New York: Columbia University Press, 2013), 2, 8 sqq.
10
Carla Casagrande, Silvana Vecchio, “Păcatul” [The Sin], in Dicționar tematic al Evului Mediu
occidental [Thematic Dictionary of the Western Middle Ages] eds. Jacques Le Goff, Jean-Claude
Schmitt (Iași: Polirom, 2002), 586-587.
11
See Andrew Louth, “Trupul în creștinismul catolic din Occident” [The body in Western Catholic
Christianity”], in Religia și trupul, ed. Coakley, 130; Dunn, The Emergence of Monasticism, 16.
Early Christian ascetic literature – as the founding source of medieval asceticism – provides
numerous acconunts of the radical attitude towards the flesh, which is treated with outermost
strictness, and even violence; despite this, the danger “comes through the body”, it does not lie in
the body, but in an undisciplined use of the body. Robert H. von Thaden, “Glorify God in Your
Body: The Redemptive Role of the Body in Early Christian Ascetic Literature”, Cistercian Studies
Quarterly 38.2 (2003), 197-198.
10
during hard times of eschatological expectations or yearning for the resurgence of
an authentic Christian life, radical solutions were implemented. 12
But what can we say about fasting in the light of the Franciscan sources? For
Francis, fasting is compulsory, but only in certain periods of the year,13 and it must
be accomplished without hypocrisy. On the other hand, it is not an imperative
practice, having to be subordinated to the requirements of poverty, humility and
itinerant predication. 14 Actually, fasting – as seen by Il Poverello – does not confine
to a bodily practice, but it has to represent primarily an abstinence from vices and
sin.15
Francis’ biographies report instead a greater closness to fasting. Vita prima
pictures him so solicitous in his love for Jesus that he surpasses corporeal needs,
including food.16 From the Legenda major we learn that the Saint used to fight
concupiscence through abstinence and, whenever possible, he altered the taste of his

12
See Kent D. Berghius, Christian Fasting: a Theological Approach (Dallas: Biblical Studies
Press, 2010). The tendency towards asceticism, fasting included, has always been a part of the
Christian culture; and so it was the exhortation to temperance. Through the Middle Ages,
institutionalized fasting in Western Europe gains minimalistic features – even within Benedictine
monasticism. Yet the new orders founded in the eleventh and twelfth centuries proved to be
particulary rigorous. Subsequently, by the side of lay piety emerges the tendency to take drastic
action against the deep-rooted evil which resides in the world, by observing severe fasting and
mortification of the flesh. See also Bynum, Holy Feast, 41 sqq.
13
According to the Regola non bollata III [further cited as RNB] – in Les opuscules de Saint
François d’Assise, ed. P. Gratien (Paris, Gembloux: Librairie S. François, 1935), 9 –, fasting is
mandatory during Advent and Lent and on Fridays over the year. Regola bollata III [RB] (ibid.,
45) is even less strict, as fasting is incumbent for all friars only during Advent.
14
RNB III, 8, respectively XIV, 22; RB III, 45. Furthermore, food, along with clothes, are the only
possessions allowed to those who want to follow the steps of Christ. RNB IX, 16.
15
First Letter to the faithful (in Les opuscules, ed. Gratien, 87). Francis also warns that external,
manifest practices are insufficient. Admonitions XIV, ibid., 76.
16
Vita prima II, IX 115, in Thomas de Celano, Vie de Saint François d’Assise, ed. Damien Vorreux
(Paris: Éditions Franciscaines, 1952), 164.
11
food.17 Fasting was also a means of preparation, anticipating the reception of divine
inspiration, as appears to be the case with the formulation of his rule. 18 Nevertheless,
hagiographies also emphasize that the duties of predication or charity were more
important than practicing abstinence,19 and that fasting per se is of no use.20 Yet he
had a truly austere lifestyle, constantly refining his mortification techniques, so
much so he hardly grants himself the minimal requirements to subsist.21 As an
example, we are introduced to the detail according to which Francis sustained a
fourty-days fast in honor of the archangel Michael.22 A slightly different and more
detailed story emerges from a fourtheenth century source which collects popular
tales about the Saint and his disciples – comparing them to Christ and the apostles –
, published as Actus beati Francisci et sociorum eius. In the seventh chapter, that
advocates for Francis’ likeness to Christ, it is said he fasted for fourty days and nights
in an island, eating nothing but half a bread, so as not to equal Christ and fall into

17
Legenda major V, in Bonaventura, Viața Sfântului Francisc [The Life of Saint Francis], ed.
Lucia Mamulea, (București: Serpol, 1992), 43; see also Vita prima I, XIX 51, 89.
18
Legenda major IV, 42. As appears in the Legenda minor I 6 – in S. Bonaventura, Legenda maior
S. Francisci Assisiensis et eiusdem Legenda minor, (Firenze, Quaracchi: Typographia Colegii S.
Bonaventurae, 1941), 176 – Francis also fasted after he underwent his convertion and before
establishing the new religious community.
19
Vita secunda II, CXXXIII 175, in Vie de Saint François ed. Vorreux, 389. Particularly
illustrative is Legenda major V, 43, which establishes the difference between his alimentary habits
while engaged in predication in contrast to his customary rigorous abstinence.
20
According to Legenda major VI, 51, Francis used to apprise the brothers that even a sinner can
fast, but he can not obey the Lord. See also Vita secunda II, XCVII 134, 346.
21
For example, Bonaventura mentiones the saint slept on the bare ground or sitting with a piece
of wood or a stone under the head and he was wearing but a humble tunic. Legenda major V, 43.
See also Vita prima I, XIX 52, 89; Vita secunda I, XIV 21, 223-224. The Saint had such a conduct
in order not to concede to easiness, since it is one step away from necessity. Vita prima XIX I, 51,
88.
22
Legenda minor VI 1, 202; see also Vita secunda II, CXLIX 197, 411-412.
12
vainglory.23 But he was so rigid only to himself, being truly comprehensive and
humane to his fellows, and asking them to act with moderation in terms of
asceticism. However, Vita prima claims that the entire community around the Saint
tried hard to restrict to the absolutely necessary and, when failing to do so, the
brothers submitted themselves to several days of abstinence as a correction. 24 In
another train of thoughts, among Francis’ experiences recounted in hagiographies, a
particulary significant one refers to episodes of miraculous, providential feeding. 25
Moreover, as a recent study reveals, Franciscan sources do not portray a perfect
ascet, but rather a Francis that employes and use to appreciate food as a gift from
God the merciful. 26
Let us now turn our attention towards Saint Clare. As far as the sources reveal
us, she was a tenacious fasting woman. In the canonization process, Clare’s strict
fasting appears to be a daily practice. The saint was so severe regarding food, that
her merely survival seems astounding to the fellow nuns who gave depositions on
Clare’s holiness.27 There is a recurent detail the witnesses refer to, namely the fact
that three days a week – on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays – the saint ate

23
I fioretti di san Francesco, ed. Francesco Grisi, (Roma: Newton Compton Editore, 1993),
seventh chapter, retrieved from Wikisource,
https://it.wikisource.org/wiki/Fioretti_di_San_Francesco/Capitolo_settimo (July 26, 2016).
24
Vita prima I, XV 40, 76.
25
Legenda major V, 34; Vita prima I, XIV 34, 68.
26
Giuseppe Cassio, Pietro Messa, Il cibo di Francesco. Anche di pane vive l’uomo (Milano:
Edizioni Terra Santa, 2015).
27
In the testimony of sister Pacifica there appears the following remark: “E disse che nei cibi era
tanto stretta, che le suore si meravigliavano come il suo corpo vivesse.” Il processo di Santa Chiara
d’Assisi, ed. Nelo Vian (Milano: Editrice Vita e Pensiero, 1962), 7. Furthermore, sister Amata
assesses that the Saint appeared to be fed by angels and sister Balvina declares that her abstinence
seemed impossible to be kept by a human being. Ibid., 36, 45.
13
nothing at all, whereas in the rest of the days she only took bread and water. 28
Consequently, she becomes ill, for which reason Saint Francis and the bishop of
Assisi urge her to eat on a daily basis; Clare eventually complies with this
exhortation by virtue of the vow of obedience.
In the bull of canonization issued by Pope Alexander IV, we meet again with
the motifs of the three-day complete abstincence and a general sense of extreme
frugality – so much so it brought astonishment –,29 along with many other
austerities.30 Moreover, her unbelievable rigor – including her “continuous fasting,
at every time of the year” – is extensively addressed in the legend, which follows
and expands the motifs in the canonization process that were broadly recalled in the
bull.31 Relating to her “admirable and inimitable” fasting, it further alleges the
supernatural force that kept her alive,32 as well as her cheerful spirit and serenity that
accompanied all her austerities.33
Respecting the Saint herself, she does not provide in her writings any
explanations for her fasting, although we can make some inferences about it. In her
third letter to Agnes of Prague, answering to her concern with respect to the proper
conduct during holidays, implicitly the proper dietary, Clare states that nuns should

28
Ibid., 24, 36. In a slightly different version, sister Benvenuta claims that, during Lent and Saint
Martin’s Lent, Clare took but bread and water and a little wine on Sundays. Ibid., 15.
29
The Bull of canonization 15, in Fonti Clariane, ed. Chiara Augusta Lainati, 88, retrieved from
the website of Basilica di Santa Chiara in Assisi, http://www.assisisantachiara.it/wp-
content/uploads/downloads/2012/08/Fonti-Clariane.pdf (March 1, 2016).
30
“aveva per letto la terra nuda e qualche volta dei sarmenti, e per guanciale un duro legno sotto
il capo; era contenta di un'unica tonaca con un mantello di vile, rozzo ed ispido panno grossolano:
e mentre con così umili vesti copriva il suo corpo, sulla nuda carne si cingeva talora di un aspro
cilicio intrecciato con cordicelle di crine di cavallo.” Ibid., 88.
31
The Legend I, XI 17, in Sainte Claire d’Assise. Sa Vie par Thomas de Celano. Ses Écrits, ed.
Damien Vorreux (Paris, Éditions Franciscaines, 1953), 34-35.
32
Ibid. XI 18, 35.
33
Ibid. XI 18, 36.
14
fast every single day, except from Sundays, Christmas, the feasts of the Virgin,
respectively of the Apostles – unless they are celebrated on Fridays – and Thursdays
– in those weeks that do not interfere with fasting seasons over the year –; in the
latter, nuns may observe fasting, but only on a voluntary basis. 34 However, this
prescriptions are not categorical: they are intended only for healthy nuns and they
are accompanied by a call for moderation. 35 Clare resumes this regulations in her
rule, suggesting again that a single meal a day is allowed in all the fasting days,
which cover almost the entire year, with the known exceptions, also stressing the
necessary exemptions.36 Another interesting aspect of the rule consists in the use of
fasting as an instrument of sanction and discipline. 37
That having been exhibited, we are going to deepen our analysis from food
abstinence and food practice to the context in which these were carried out, turning
our attention to medieval mindset, culture and society, as well as the conjuncture the
experiences of Francis and Clare unfolded and were validated by the Church. In the
first place, one question emerges. Have all those deeds regarding fasting that the
sources record objectively happened or is rather a rhetoric that has shaped them as
such? Before giving a categorical, sudden answer, we must cast a glance at the nature
of the the sources and eventually at the profile of the writers, as this leads us to a
much more accurate view. The saints are assigned many texts belonging to various
genres – rules, letters, spiritual testaments – but some of them, especially Clare’s,
are problematic as they might not be their authentic writings.38 On the subject of the

34
Medieval Women’s Latin Letters [further cited as MWLL], letter 569 (31-36), retrieved from
https://epistolae.ccnmtl.columbia.edu/letter/569.html (last accessed on October 11, 2017).
35
Ibid., letter 569 (37, 40).
36
The Rule III 8-11, in Sainte Claire, ed. Vorreux, 76.
37
Ibid. IX 1-2, 83.
38
Mooney, “Imitatio Christi or imitatio Mariae?”, 55-56. The author refers to Clare’s testament,
blessing and even to her rule, thought to have been written by the Saint by many scholars. In our
15
texts about the saints, the institutional context that shapes the development of
Franciscanism is particularly revealing for the instrumentation of their personalities.
In the thirteenth century, the papacy is assuming the right to control the process of
yielding new saints, through the monopoly on canonizations, as well as the
management of sainthood criteria, which has a direct effect on hagiography.
Ultimately, a hagiographic text merges various elements: to the historical aspects –
the saint’s life itself – are adjoined ideological features – the era’s conception on
sainthood – and also technical – a framing within the hagiographical and biblical
tradition. 39 The first biographies of the saints, Vita prima, respectively Legenda
Sanctae Clarae – assigned to Thomas of Celano, although his authorship of Clare’s
legend is still disputed – present the two saints qua types of sainthood: Francis is the
reformer, the founding father and an alter Christus, while Clare, contemplative and
chaste, follows the model of the Virgin Mary. The two texts share a similar structure,
which respects the pattern of Clare’s canonization process unfolded immediately
after her death; drafted on the requirements of pope Innocent IV, they paid attention
to the secular life and the way it heralds sanctity, the saints’ virtues and finally the
miracles and the saints’ cult.40 Celano’s second biography, Vita secunda, and all that
more the later hagiographic production of Bonaventura of Bagnoregio, conform to a
traditional paradigm. 41 What we can see comparing the texts written by and about

argument, we are using the respective rule, as the matters that concern our investigation are
confirmed by an undisputed Clarian hand, namely the letter to Agnes of Prague cited above.
39
See Umberto Longo, La santità medievale (Roma: Jouvence Editoriale, 2006), 42.
40
Marco Guida, “La lettera Gloriosus Deus: Innocenzo IV per Chiara d’Assisi”, Frate Francesco,
anno 77/ n. 2 (Novembre 2011), 402.
41
See Mircea Eliade, Istoria credințelor și ideilor religioase [History of Religious Beliefs and
Ideas] (București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, 1991), vol. III, De la Mahomed la epoca
reformelor [From Mohamed to the Age of the Reforms], 200.
16
the two saints is that we have, on both cases, two perspectives, namely their own
teachings and their encomiastic images.
Undoubtedly, as we have seen, Clare prescribed a more austere lifestyle, from
which the permanent fasting was an important part. But she also allows relaxation
from that rigor when necessary and recommends sustaining asceticism with
moderation. On the other hand, hagiographic texts mirror a more radical attitude,
emphasizing the saint’s seemingly providential subsistence. Actually, the two
approaches do not contradict, as they belong to different categories of sources and
take into account different situations. First of all, the saints do not relate to their own
person or experience, while the vitae, legends or testimonies explicitly do; they
seldom refer to themselves, hence their self-image is rooted in the most genuine
humility and self-denial, in contradistinction to the hagiographic statements that
portrays them as consecrated saints and glorify their virtues. Secondly, the saints
give general advice and elaborate widely applicable rules, whereas they, with their
own experiences, are exceptions. Therefore, as respects Clare’s prodigious fasting –
and, in general, fasting in the Franciscan milieu –, it is particularized by the
advocates of her sanctity and, even though subsumed to a topos, it becomes
meaningful for the cultural environment which introduces it. In order to have a broad
understanding of the phenomenon of interest, we must refer to both hagiographical
and historical facets emphasizing that the saints’ natural propension for asceticism
is reclaimed and highlighted in conformity with literary usage.
But how can this predilection be explained in the first place? The immediate
background has a significant role. Francis and Clare lived in a time when the Church
was struggling to combat heresy – especially obstinate dualist Catharism – so that
its teachings, all the more in the light of hagiographic records, became evidence for
their orthodoxy and, simultaneously, an advocacy of orthodox faith and practice.
17
Dualism was a tremendous threat to the doctrine of the traditional Church, as it
reclaimed that there were two demiurges, the good one, that created the spiritual
realm, and the evil one, that created matter, this being onthologically corrupt. In
order to escape the vile world and abject body, Cathars practiced encratism,
vegetarianism – even an extreme form of purification for the dying, called endura,
which was literally starving to death after receiving the last sacrament,
consolamentum – and they also promoted antinomianism. 42 Unlike this approach,
Francis argues that is God who created the body as well as the soul and He is the
king over heaven and earth. 43 A similar suggestion is offered in reference to Clare
too, as we are told she loved and cared for the sisters in her community in both their
souls and bodies.44
We have already seen that bodily austerity is a constant feature in Franciscan
sources, especially in the hagiographic ones. Actually, it seems that Cathar
seemingly spiritual perfection affected expectancies regarding sainthood, increasing
the importance given to the detachment of the body and to fasting. 45 Are we facing
a paradox? Not in the least. In fact, in the High Middle Ages, the response of the
Church to dualism consisted in an attempt to dignify and spiritualize corporeality,
while accentuating Christ’s expiatory and eventually glorified body, as well as
engaging the mundane in godly ends given that creation was understood as a mirror

42
On the topic of Catharism, there is an abundant bibliography. One of the classics – which we
have disposed of – is Herbert Grundmann, Movimenti religiosi nel Medioevo. Ricerche sui nessi
storici tra l’eresia, gli Ordini mendicanti e il movimento religioso femminile nel XII e XIII secolo
e sulle origini storiche della mistica tedesca (Bologna: Società editrice Il Mulino, 1974).
43
RNB XXIII, 36, 39.
44
The Legend I, XXIV 38, 51.
45
Francesco Dante, “L’assenza del cibo. Il significato del digiuno nelle religioni monoteiste”,
Caiete de antropologie istorică. Identități și sensibilități alimentare europene [Fascicles of
Historical Anthropology. European Food Identities and Sensibilities] V, nr. 1-2/ 8-9 (January-
December 2006), 92.
18
of heaven. 46 As to Saint Francisc, he was upholding mortification to restrain the body
in order to make it a reliable servant of the spirit and of God’s will.47 In the first
instance, the material is earth-born, so it should not be privileged over the soul. 48
Moreover, the flesh is inclined toward sin – and man sins through the body –,
therefore it is definied as an enemy, just as the world and the devil, albeit the vices
and sins actually proceed form the heart. 49
Summarized, Saint Francis’ doctrine on the body stands in an open letter he
addressed to tha faithful in which he describes how a true Christian should behave,
namely to hate the vices and sins intermediated and perpetuated by flesh, do penance
and receive the holy Eucharist; the ones that violate this precepts – serving the world
and carnal instincts with their bodies – are to be the devil’s prisoners. 50 Thereby, an
ineluctable dimension of the Saint’s view on the body is the Eucharistic devotion. 51
Within the Christocentric Franciscan spirituality – especially focused on the passions

46
Toward the acception regarding the dignity of the corporeality point also the belief that ensured
the resurrection of the body after the Last Judgement, as well as the wide-spread cult of the relics.
For an overview on this aspects, see Jérôme Baschet, La civilisation féodale. De l'an mil à la
colonisation de l'Amérique (Paris: Aubier, 2004), chapter “Corps et âmes”; Louth, “Trupul în
creștinismul catolic”, 122-141; Sara S. Poor, ”Christian Spirituality”, in Women and Gender in
Medieval Europe. An Encyclopedia ed. Margaret Schaus (New York: Taylor & Francis Group,
2006): 779-782.
47
“tient le corps mortifié prêt à obéir à l’esprit et le frère à son frère”. Salutation of the Virtues (in
Les opuscules, ed. Gratien, 149). The Saint also states that a friar entirelly gives himself and
abandons his body to the Lord. RNB XVI, 24.
48
Ibid. X, 19.
49
Ibid. XXII, 31; Admonitions X, 74. This attitude of the Saint is also acknowledged in his
biographies. See Vita prima I, XVI 43, 79.
50
First Letter to the Faithful I, 88, 91.
51
In Francis’ teachings, an esential part of the Franciscan life revolves around the Holy
Communion, which is to be recieved with great humility and veneration. See for instance
Admonitions I, 65-68 (as the very first chapter is dedicated to this topic), and also his four
Eucharistic letters (in Les opuscules, 105-115). This aspect is reflected in hagiographies, too, for
example in Vita secunda II, CLII 201, 414-415.
19
of Christ – Eucharistic devotion is intensely promoted, being deemed liable to arouse
religios zeal.52 This feature can be distinguished in Clare’s case, as well. The
witnesses in the canonization process certify that the Saint receives the sacrament in
a deeply emotional state. 53 Apart form the prescriptions regarding fasting, the
historical Clare does not show particular interest to the body, hardly offering some
sugestions on this matter, 54 in contrast to the hagiographic image, which, pays much
attention to her asceticism.
Speaking of the saints’ personal achievements as presented in hagiographies,
Bonaventura reveals that Saint Francis ascended to a state of perfect harmony
between his body, his soul and eventualy God.55 The biographer also interlinks his
efforts to the goal of imitating Christ. 56 Francis ends up resembling to Christ to such
an extant that he receives the stigmata, which is reportedly given precisely after his

52
Gianluigi Pasquale, “Opus historiae, opus Trinitatis. La Trinità come liturgia divina d’amore
nello scorrere del tempo”, Eucaristia e Trinità, Nr. 170 (marzo-aprile 2000), 25-26.
53
Il processo, 7, 25. This facet is reopened in the the Legend XVII 28, 44.
54
Reffering to the challanges of a life dedicated to God, she sugests the frailty of the body: “Voyant
que nous étions faibles et fragiles de corps, et que pourtant ni les privations ni la pauvreté ni l’effort
ni les épreuves ni l’austérité ni le mépris des gens du monde ne nous faisaient reculer...” The
Testament 8 in Sainte Claire ed. Vorreux, 91 (which, by the way, is a rather contested source).
Elsewhere, she is pleading for bodily purity: MWLL 569 (24). Under these circumstances, we
cannot subscribe to Francesco Dante’s interpretation, who reads the controversy on fasting
between Clare and Francis as an exposure of the incompatibility regarding the idea of penance,
since the latter preaches detachment from, but not hostility towards the body, conception that Clare
hardly understands and assumes. Dante, “L’assenza del cibo”, 93. Actually, Clare’s case appears
not to be singular, for Amy Hollywood stresses that the interest in the body seems to be rather a
preocupation of male hagiographers than the esentially physical nature of female spirituality. See
“Inside out: Beatrice of Nazareth and her Hagiographer”, in Mooney (ed.), Gendered Voices, 78-
98.
55
Legenda major V, 48. Thomas of Celano has also emphasized that the saint got to free himself
of any demand of his body. Vita prima XIX 53, 90.
56
See, for instance, Legenda major I, 20.
20
forty-days fasting mentioned above.57 On the other hand, in her biography, Clare is
portrayed as the bride of Christ, worthy of this status since she has endeavored to
overcome her humane, fleshly urges and to transform her body into a temple of
God.58 In order to reach that state of perfection, she submitted herself to a self-
discipline so harsh, that Francis entailed her to daunt it.59 Moreover, she is presented
in the stance of teaching the sisters to overpower the demands of the body through
reason. 60
Whereas Bonaventura ascribes to Saint Francis a sense of disregard to bodily
hardship,61 this feature is even more pronounced in Clare’s hagiographic image. We
are told she was bestowed with grace so abundant that it reverberated on her outer
being, making her impassible to physical sufferings. 62 In other words, the saint is
depicted in an aura of sanctity, as being truly spiritualized and in a permanent
communion with God. 63 As we have anticipated, this observations do not imply a

57
Legenda minor VI 1, 202. On the stigmata see also Vita prima II, III 94-95, 139-140; Vita
secunda II, XCVIII 135, 347; Legenda major XIII, 101 sqq.
58
“A tous les attraits de la chair elle avait dit non; elle avait pris la resolution de se refuser à toute
intimité mauvaise: c’est à Dieu seul qu’elle voulait faire un temple de son corps, et elle tâchait de
mériter par ses vertus l’union avec le Grand Roi.” The Legend III 6, 25. Her biographer later reports
the the Saint achieved that goal: “Morte dans sa chair et totalement étrangère au monde, elle
pouvait occupier son âme sans arrêt à la prière et aux divines louanges.” Ibid. XII 19, 36.
59
Ibid. XI 17-18, 34-36; see also Il processo, passim (as it is a feature every sister recalls) and The
Bull of canonization 15, 88, where her humble clothing, the cilice worn on the naked skin, her
sleeping on the bare ground were mentioned together with her strict fasting.
60
The Legend XXII 36, 49.
61
Asked how can he survive winter in such a flimsy clothing, the saint responds that our heart’s
burning desire for the celestial homeland should make us tolerate the exterior cold. Legenda major
V, 43.
62
“On voit clairement par là que la sainte joie qui abondait dans son âme rejaillissait au dehors,
car l’amour dont le Coeur est rempli rend plus légers les tourments infligés au corps.” The Legend
XI 18, 36.
63
The Bull of canonization 14, 88: “Col corpo, infatti, era pellegrina sulla terra, ma con lo spirito
dimorava in cielo.”
21
debasement of the body but rather a celebration of the triumph over its wicked
disposition. If there was certainly promoted a hierarchy in which the spiritual is
potentially superior as the divine essence within man, human being was projected as
a whole, so that body and soul were not antagonistic, but symbiotic and equally
meant to be transformed by divine grace, which is to be reflected through the new
godliness-infused materiality. 64 In this context, we can foresee how the interaction
between body and soul may result in a compensation of bodily scarcity – as though
pain or food paucity –, like in the examples above.
As a matter of fact, Clare was to become a model for women while the Church
was trying to offer an orthodox choice for female devotional needs. 65 Female gender
was described as a weaker one and, once with Clare, women were given a guide to
surmount this disadvantage.66 We assume that the emphasis on Clare’s prevailing
spiritual disposition, as she was an out of the ordinary women, should be related to

64
The foundation of Christian anthropology lies in Saint Paul’s writings, who differentiates
between living according to the flesh, respectively living according to the Spirit, categories that
also correspond to the distinction between the earthly tent, inclined to the law of sin and the inner
being which serves God’s law. (Romans 8: 5-7; 7: 22-23; 2 Corinthians 5:1). There were Origen
and Saint Augustine that afterwards equated the Pauline inner being to the mind (mens), in
anthitesis to the body. Dailey, Promised Bodies, 11, 15. Kallistos Ware explains that Paul professes
a holistic point of view, in which he does not distinguish between body and soul (sōma and psyché),
but between sarx and pneuma, which designate the innate body – videlicet the fallen human
condition –, respectively a spiritualized body that belongs to the creature that has restored
communion with God. See “Ajutorul și dușmanul meu”, 104-105. On the same note, beginning
from the High Middle Ages, the Augustinian vision, that also asserts the unity of the human being,
prevails over the spiritualistic view, which represents the body as a prison for the soul. Baschet, La
civilisation féodale, 591.
65
Preface to The Legend, 19. As to the discussion about female religiosity in the context of the
emergence of the Franciscan model, see Romagnoli, “Il francescanesimo femminile dalle origini
al Concilio di Trento”, in Aleksander Horowski (ed.), All’ombra della chiara luce, (Roma: Istituto
storico dei Cappuccini, 2005): 13-18. The author emphasizes that women largely and actively
partake the new religious movements, including the heretical ones.
66
Preface to The Legend, 19 and also chapter V bis, 10 bis, 29.
22
the medieval broad tendency to associate womanhood with corporeality – the more
so since, as we have seen, the focus on body was not her standpoint, but her
biographers’ –, and allege females are more likely to surrender to the temptations of
the flesh.67 On a Neoplatonic foundation, the cosmic hierarchy was homologized
with a hierarchy of gender, in such manner that maleness was associated to the
spiritual and the reason, principles deemed superior to womanliness, paired with
irrationality.68 Gluttony and lust were thus considered female vices; moreover, food
was linked to sexuality, so that renunciation of food and renunciation of sexual
intercourse – the last being a requirement for entering a religious order – went hand
in hand and were both statements of relinquishing worldly satisfaction. 69 Thus being
women and having to overcome more obstacles, their spiritual achievements are all
the more meritorious and deserving of being disclosed. Under these circumstances,
saintly women, as they were absolutely detached from worldly affairs, were seen as
spiritualized beings, the only ones worthy of receiving messages from God in a realm

67
See Bynum, Holy Feast, passim; Christiane Klapisch-Zuber, “Masculin/feminin”
[Male/Female], in Dicționar tematic, 445.
68
In fact, it was much earlier, within Aristotelian thought, that womanhood was placed on negative
and inferior stages, developing into a long-standing tradition – although not necessarily
hegemonical – of seeing women as faulty men. The image of the divine within the human being
was considered to be reflected into the soul, God himself being conceived as male. Cole Anson
Viscichini, The Theological History of Women. A Study in Catholic Theology of Tradition and
Development of Doctrine, manuscript, retrieved from
https://www.academia.edu/10436985/A_Theological_History_of_Woman (August 11, 2016), 3,
15. Ancient physiology – based on Hippocratic tradition – also provides ground for the claimed
female inferiority, as their body is regarded as an abortive male. Joan Cadden, The Meaning of Sex
Difference in the Middle Ages: Medicine, Science and Culture, (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1995), 24 sqq.
69
Jacques Le Goff discusses an eleventh century text by Burchard of Worms, according to which
sexual riotousness is to be corrected through fasting on bread and water, during various days,
depending on the gravity of the sin. Imaginarul medieval. Eseuri [The Medieval Imaginary.
Essays] (București: Meridiane, 1991), 202-203.
23
of (male) corruption. 70 Seemingly, it was precisely female simplicity – as an
inheritance of their gender and also of their social standing – that made them suitable
for understanding and reviving the teachings of the humble Jesus. 71
However, within the initial Franciscan environment, there was professed a
sense of suspicion towards women, regarded as an image of temptation and sin.
Francis himself proclaims them to be dangerous for men – better said, for the friars.72
As respects the historical figure of Clare, she is assigned but a lamentation over the
vileness of womankind, her teachings offering little ground for the standpoint
according to which womanhood is equated to a handicap.73 Nevertheless, she may

70
André Vauchez, Sainthood in the Later Middle Ages (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1997), 384. Moreover, it is female religiosity that provides charismatic personalities, which
experience visions and divine revelations. They do not interpret, but see a theology that came from
the heart, thus verifying the statement that women represent the sensitive and emotional side of
humankind. Dinzelbacher, “Rifiuto dei ruoli”, 35-36.
71
As Lamprecht of Regensburg, a thirtheenth century Franciscan, noted with respect to the
Beguines, “A woman becomes god for God;/ In the simplicity of her understanding/ Her gentle
heart, her frail mind/ Are kindled more quickly within her,/ So that in her desire she understands
better/ The wisdom flowing from Heaven.” Cited by Carol L. Flinders, Enduring Grace. Living
Portraits of Seven Woman Mystics, (New York: Harper Collins Publishing, 1993), 3. Thus, the
Duecento and the Trecento can be read as the “matriarchal age” of the Church, during which
female spirituality – gender distinctive, body-centered and suffering-oriented, according to the
author - flourished. Romagnoli, “La mistica, il dolore”, 109-111. Peter Dinzelbacher, in his turn,
emphasizes that prophetic vocation – renewed in the Catholic Church form the twelfth century,
after being absent from antiquity – proves to be distinctively feminine. Dinzelbacher, “Rifiuto dei
ruoli”, 33.
72
In his rules, he requires women to be avoided. RNB XII, 21; RB XI, 51. Actually, suspicion
against women – and the female body – was intensely promoted in the monastic milieu from Early
Christianity. Ware, “Ajutorul și dușmanul meu”, 110.
73
“E santa Chiara dice: «Santissimo Padre, perdonatemi, ch’io sarei degna di troppo grande
riprensione, se innanzi al Vicario di Cristo io, che sono una vile femminella, presumessi di fare
cotale benedizione»”. I Fioretti, chapter 33. In Clare’s writings we have found a rather ambiguous
reference – as she might be considering the weakness of human nature – in the same letter
addressed to Agnes of Prague mentioned before: “Verum quia nec caro nostra caro aenea est nec
fortitudo lapidis fortitudo nostra, immo fragiles et omni corporali sumus debilitati proclivae”.
24
have been acquainted with the impost of her gender, resulting in a more rigorous
asceticism. In other words, under the circumstances of this additional obstacle, she
may have felt the need to make a greater effort to surpass it, given the fact that, in
the Middle Ages, women’s religious life can only unfold within narrow limitations,
hence the emphasis on asceticism as a means to improving their condition. 74
In accordance with their prevailing corporeal and frivolous disposition,
women need to be controlled and subordinated to men. 75 For example, even within
the new religious orders which offered up-to-date devotional solutions, women were
still bounded to a more traditional form of religious life – namely a proper monastic
regime –, since a gender division of roles provides women with fewer choices. 76 In

MWLL 569 (38-39). See also The Testament 8, 91. By comparison to other female written texts –
as, for examples, those of the twelfth century ilustrious abbess and mystic Hildegard of Bingen –,
Clare’s thoughts on womanhood are inconclusive. In a letter addressed to Bernard of Clairvaux,
Hildegard deplores the miserable female condition: “Ego, misera et plus quam misera in nomine
femineo”. MWLL 1188.
74
This is the explanation André Vauchez offers to female propensity towards asceticism - see
“L’idéal de sainteté dans le mouvement féminin franciscain aux XIII e XIV siècles”, in Movimento
religioso femminile e francescanesimo nel secolo XIII. Atti del VII Convegno Internazionale,
Assisi, 11-13 ottobre 1979 (Assisi: Società Editrice di Studi Francescani, 1980), 326.
75
Apart form the Neoplatonic philosophy that shaped Western thought, especially form the twelfth
century, female subordonation was based on the Scripture: Ephesians 5: 22-24; 1 Corinthians 1: 7.
Saint Paul proclaims that women have to submit to their husbands, by virtue of the analogy that
man is the head of the wife just as Christ is the the head of the Church, and the head is responsible
for the salvation of the body. For a detailed account of the ideational corespondance between body
and society, see Baschet, La civilisation féodale, 599-602. On the other hand, there is the twelfth
century case of the Order of Fontevraud, according to which an abbess is granted the supreme
authority within a mixed community; nevertheless, nuns were still required a distinctive conduct,
marked by claustration and silence, which only indicates that women are expected to be rather
passive, so this is an exception that proves the rule. See Jacques Dalarun, Dumnezeu și femeia
[God and the Woman], (București: Artemis, 2009), 122 sqq.
76
Grundmann, Movimenti religiosi, 104-105. See also Nancy Bradley Warren, “Monastic Rules”,
in Women and Gender, especially the section “Women in the Mendicant Orders”, 577; Karen
Glente – “Vita di mistiche dal punto di vista maschile e femminile. Un confronto fra Tommaso da
25
this way, Franciscan nuns were denied active ministry in the Church – thus not being
permitted to preach –, instead being required to observe a rigorous fasting and
eventually to remain in strict enclosure. 77 Whereas Francis is able to follow Christ
by means of predication, as a woman, Clare is denied this way of action, so she
concentrates her endeavor to observe a Christic pattern within her ascetical
programe. 78 However, the prevailing aspect of the Franciscan proceeding of
imitating Christ is not precisely asceticism qua mortification of the flesh. In the High
Middle Ages, the emerging religious movements gave poverty an unprecedented
value, as both the apostles and Christ himself were poor; accordingly, Saint Francis

Cantimpré e e Caterina di Unterlinden”, in Movimento religioso e mistica femminile, eds.

Dinzelbacher, Bauer, 296-297 –, argues that monastic features related to a female community are
reflected in sources authored by a woman, whereas in the male-authored sources, santly woman
are depicted as exceptional and peculiar. Is within this context that specific religious roles are
clearly assigned to man, respectively woman, the latter having to specialize in contemplation, in
the via mistica, in Glente’s words.
77
Actually, in the thirtheenth century there was a sterling internal opposition to the integration of
women within religious orders, be they Mendicant or traditional ones. Francis explicitly tried to
avoid female admission on account of a particular feature of the Franciscan mission, namely
predication. Once let in, woman needed the assistance of male friars for the administration of
sacraments and also for supervision, as they were weeker by nature. Grundmann, Movimenti
religiosi, 172 sqq, 198.
78
We have established that, whenever during mission, he allows – indeed, prescribes – the friars
to eat whatever they are given by the faithfull. However, Clare’s community enclosure does not
offer an occasion for such a relaxation. In terms of resembling Christ, there are also her miracles,
including healing miracles, but the problem with those, as far as we make reference here to the
historical Clare, is that they are ascribed to the hagiographic Clare and the living saint would never
avail herself of this aspect. See Il processo, passim; The Bull of Canonization 18-21, 89; The
Legend, chapters IX, X, XV, XVI, XXI, 33 sqq, and also her further presented posthumous
miracles. Another example contemporary to Francis and Clare reveals the same distribution of
religious roles, based on gender: Thomas of Cantimpré performs sequela Christi through
apostolate and predication, while the women whose lives he presents are to observe silence, prayer
and submission, as they are confined the role of Mary. Romagnoli, “Agiografia e mistica nel
Duecento: le Vitae matrum di Tomasso da Cantimpré”, Hagiographica XVII (2010), 249-250.
26
transposes the devotion towards Christ’s humanity into the aim of following him in
absolute poverty. 79 Consequently, Clare also intended to follow Christ in poverty –
which she called incomparable treasure – and humility, the spiritual counterpart of
the lack of assets.80 But actually it was a real issue for her community from San
Damiano to be granted the right to live without any property, eventually given by
Pope Gregory IX in 1228 by way of the so-called Privilege of Poverty.81 Moreover,
the Saint’s hagiographic image appears to be focused on sequela Mariae, as she was
supposed to be an example for women. 82 In the absence of other evidence on this
negotiation, and taking into account the status subsequently acquired by Clare within
the Franciscan – male – tradition, we can conclude that she was bounded to
permanenly adjust her projects and moderate her expectations. 83 Under these

79
See Le Goff, Sfântul Francisc din Assisi [Saint Francis of Assisi], (Iași: Polirom, 2000), 76;
Grundmann, Movimenti religiosi, 16 sqq.
80
See MWLL 569 (7) and and further 569 (25): “sic et tu, sequens eius vestigia, humilitatis
praesertim et paupertatis”; respectively 56o (13): “virginitatis inviolabilis et paupertatis
sanctissimae vexillo resplendentissime insignita-in sancto servitio confortamini pauperis Crucifixi
ardenti desiderio inchoato.”
81
On Clare’s efforts to maintain the mendicant physiognomy of her community and The Privilege
of Poverty (in Sainte Claire, ed. Vorreux, 127) , see Grundmann, Movimenti religiosi, 104-105,
199; Romagnoli, “Il francescanesimo femminile”, 20 sqq.
82
As Catherine Mooney demonstrates, Clare’s hagiographical representation focuses on the
imitatio Mariae, imitatio Christi being rather presented as a consequence of imitating Francis,
while in her own teachings, the saint pays more attention to the model offered by Christ than to
the ideal represented by His Mother. Mooney, “Imitatio Christi or imitatio Mariae?”, 57 sqq.
Moreover, particulary in the rule – which Mooney asserts it is largely a repetition or an adaptation
of the earlier rule given to the sisters, or derives from Francis’ rule – Clare relates imitatio Christi
to imitatio Mariae. See Clare’s Rule, especially VI 3, VIII 2, XII 11, 80, 82, 88. Besides, she does
remind Agnes of Prague of Mary’s example – MWLL 569 (24) –, while Francis frequently
displays his devotion towards the Virgin.
83
In this regard, Giovanna Casagrande stresses that the Clarian model was spontaneously forged.
Intorno a Chiara. Il tempo della svolta. Le compagne, i monsteri, la devozione (Cità di Castello:
Edizioni Porziuncola, 2011), passim, 42. It is Pietro Maranesi who argues that Clare’s primary
intention would have been largely inserted into the Franciscan spirituality intended for men.
27
circumstances, fasting appears as one of the Saint’s last resort in her quest for
apostolic life. Eloquently, she associates poverty to bodily deprivation; 84 moreover,
fasting also meant forsaking food security, so as to survive on alms – in other words,
to observe strict poverty. 85
Thus Clare avails of her body in order to develop her religious commitment.
Such a finding, alleged to be generally valid for late medieval female spirituality, is
precisely the starting point of Bynum’s groundbreaking theory, according to which
medieval women benefited from the association between their corporeality and the
humanity of Christ, by practicing a body-centered spirituality, thus their focus on
mortification of the flesh and also on the Eucharistic devotion. 86 Nevertheless,
regarding Clare’s case, Bynum’s explanation is not to be admitted without

Chiara e Francesco. Due volti dello stesso sogno (Assisi: Citadella Editrice, 2015), 8. Concretely,
it seems that her original project wouldn’t have pursued a rigid confinement for the sisters, which
became instead a condition for their acceptance as an order. Idem, La clausura di Chiara d’Assisi.
Un valore o una necessità? (Assisi: Porziuncola, 2012), 51 sqq. On the Saint’s discontent with the
respective status quo, see Il processo, 46, as one witness in the canonization process reveals she
experienced a certain melancholy hearing about the martyrdom of some missionary friars in
Marocco and knowing it would be impossible for her to share that prerogative.
84
See MWLL 560 (6).
85
In the preamble of the Privilege of Poverty – whose significance in this context resides precisely
in granting Clare’s will –, this fundamental concept of Franciscan life is equated to food insecurity,
which will be compensated by divine protection: “D’ailleurs, Celui qui nourrit les oiseaux du ciel
et donne leur vêtement aux lis des champs ne vous laissera pas non plus manquer de vêtement ni
de nourriture.” See Joan Mueller, “Clare of Assisi”, in Women and Gender, 145.
86
Bynum, Holy Feast, passim, but especially 246 sqq. The author argues that suffering is the
fundamental feature through which women can identify with the Redeemer and mystically partake
of the salvation of mankind. Moreover, Peter Ochsenbein, conceptualizes an entire spiritual
tradition in the light of this feature; see “Mistica della sofferenza nei conventi femminili
domenicani del secolo XIV secondo l’esempio di Elsbeth di Oye”, in Movimento religioso e
mistica femminile, eds. Dinzelbacher, Bauer, 398-419.
28
emendation.87 The recourse to bodily practices – provided that she does not pay
much attention to the corporeal, with the almost sole exception of prescribing fasting
– appears to be rather a consequence of women’s socially assigned dependency and
lack of agency that confined her devotional options. On the other hand, it is the
greater emphasis on asceticism expressed in hagiographies that connotes the
acknowledged female frailty, but only to enhance the saint’s merit.

Conclusion
“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the
mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). A true Christian has to attend not only their bodily
requirements, but their spiritual needs, as well. Moreover, they do not live by earthly
nourishment alone, but delight on the bread of life, through which Christ – the

87
There is little evidence Clare conceived imitatio Christi as suffering; see MWLL 563 (21): “Cui
si compateris conregnabis, condolens conguadebis, in cruce tribulationis commoriens cum ipso in
sanctorum splendoribus mansiones aethereas possidebis.” Moreover, in the testimonies for the
canonization process, her mortifications and self-contempt are linked to the virtue of humility. In
the particular examples we employ, it is Francis that resembles Christ through suffering. Moreover,
it seems that the bodily manifestations discussed by Bynum are mainly retrieved in male examples,
except for the stigmata. Peter Dinzelbacher, Catherine Schockaert (trad.), “Caroline Walker
Bynum, Fragmentation and Redemption. Essays on Gender and the Human Body in Medieval
religion, New York, Zone Books, 1991”, Cahiers de civilisation médiévale, nr 162 (Avril-juin
1998): 186. Amy Hollywood reaches a similar conclusion, emphasizing that body-centered
religious occurrence is not so much a female case, as it is a male ascribed feature for female
spirituality. See above footnote 55. Still, this observation requires a further specification in
conjunction with the Clarian example. Bernard McGinn remarks that motives such as food,
abstinence, and bodily practices actually prevail in the accounts of Clare’s life. “Review: The
Religious Significance of Food for Late Medieval Women. Reviewed Work: Holy Feast and Holy
Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women by Caroline Walker Bynum”,
History of Religions, Vol. 28, No. 1 (Aug., 1988), 91. Yet, this does not retrace male-female
dialectics, as her prodigious fasting, along with her harsh asceticism, were first acknowledged by
the saint’s fellow nuns, in the canonization process. Actually, as Francis also practices a harsh
penitential routine, relentless fasting remains the hallmark of female discipline.
29
embodied Word – sacrificially gives Himself to the faithful so that they can be
deified. In the religious milieu we were examining, the daily bread does not cover
only the physical subsistence; it is primarily understood as a means of fulfilling one’s
eagerness for God. On the other hand, in a holistic mentality, the body is co-opted in
the religious life, as it is summoned to house divine grace and, in order to be worthy,
it has to restrain its sinful urges. Thus fasting – within the broader context of
asceticism – provides a temporary release from bodily constraints, so it has to be
understood as a foretaste of the heavenly existence, in which the redeemed bodies
will no longer have nutritive or sexual demands.88 Prescribing fasting, Francis and
Clare of Assisi seek to discipline the body as a prerequisite for salvation; observing
it, they proved to having been acquired God’s blessing and providential support in
their hardship. Moreover, fasting can be better understood if we refer to “feasting”
as its complement, since reverently receiving the Eucharist enables communion with
Christ, both in body and soul.
But beyond an investigation of the doctrine and practice of fasting in the texts
by and about the two saints, we intended to explore the motivation and significance
of a more rigorous female fasting, considering sociocultural factors, such as
Christian anthropology or gender roles. To resume, we have to recall the problem of
the sources: Clare’s experience in observing fasting can only be reconstituted based
on the accounts of her life, but, as far as her writings disclose to us, she was not a
resolute supporter of asceticism, although she prescribed a rather rigid food
abstinence. While Clare may have been affected by the prevailing conviction
regarding the concupiscent nature of womanhood – and, consequently, of its
propensity to succumb to sin –, the fact that asceticism as a topic, references to her

88
Giuseppe Ledda, “Cibi del Paradiso”, in Banchetti letterari, ed. G. M. Anselmi, G. Ruozzi
(Roma: Carocci, 2011), 123; Baschet, La civilisation féodale, 596.
30
prodigious fasting included, are only reported in hagiographic accounts allow us to
conclude that her body treatment is primarily to be linked to the limitations medieval
Church and society imposed on women. Without overlooking the apologetic
character of hagiographic literature, we suppose that Saint Clare eventually
complied with the idea that, as a woman, she can only become alike to the poor
Crucified by means of her body.

31
 Chapter 2
What Else Do We Have But a Body?
Reflections on an Apparent Paradox89

“E poi che l’à schiacciato, el gusto il gusta, assaporando il frutto della fadiga
e’l diletto del cibo dell’anime, gustandolo nel fuoco della carità mia e del
prossimo suo. E così giunge questo cibo nello stomaco, che per desiderio e
fame dell’anime s’era disposto a volere ricevere, ciò è lo stomaco del cuore,
col cordiale amore, diletto e dilezione di carità col prossimo suo;
dilettandosene e rugumando per sì fatto modo, che perde la tenerezza della
vita corporale per potere mangiare questo cibo, preso in su la mensa della
croce, della dottrina di Cristo crocifisso.”
Saint Catherine of Siena, Il dialogo della Divina Provvidenza 90

From a contemporary perspective, since we are used to precise categories and

classifications, the quote above is surprising as it transgresses the boundaries
between body and soul. Moreover, it seems to indicate a strong focus on the
corporeal. Therefore, this chapter will discuss what some contemporary Western
scholars call “embodied spirituality” 91 in reference to Saint Catherine of Siena. As a

89
This article first appeared in Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai, Historia, Vol. 60, Nr. 1 (June
2015): 133-154.
90
S. Caterina da Siena, Il Dialogo, ed. Giuliana Cavallini (Siena: Cantagalli, 1995) LXXVI, 65-
66.
91
The notion employs a perspective that regards the body as an equal nominee for transcendence.
Ann Trousdale, “Embodied Spirituality”, International Journal of Children’s Spirituality, 18/ 1
(2013), 23-24. I also encountered the notion of “embodied piety”: Melissa Raine, “Fals flesch:
Food and the Embodied Piety of Margery Kempe”, New Medieval Literatures, 7 (2005): 101-126.
Jessica Barr (“Reading Wounds: Embodied Mysticism in a Fourteenth Century Codex”, Magistra,
19/1 [2013]: 27-39) uses concepts like “embodied mysticism”, “embodied female spirituality”,
“somatic spirituality”. Ola Tjørhom employs the phrase “embodied faith” in his homonymous
32
matter of fact, this specific feature of medieval Christian spirituality has been
approached in historical, theological, and even psychological research. 92
In his study, Sainthood in the Later Middle Ages, the French medievalist
André Vauchez argues that, towards the Late Middle Ages, the model of female
sanctity is both mystical and ascetic. Thus, holy women have a spiritualized life, but
they also circumscribe their religious experience to an outsourced devotion, based
on the conviction that the option for an authentic religious life has to be expressed
through manipulation of the body – understood as restraint and control.93
Using a different, psychologising method, the American historian Rudolph M.
Bell stresses even more the centrality of body in the devotional world of medieval
women. He points out that the prototype of female devotion, set in the Mendicant
milieu and represented by Clare of Assisi, values fast and mortification of the flesh
as defining elements of sanctity, imitated by women who wanted to please God.
Bell’s theory is a radical one, and no less controversial. He claims that “a historically
significant group of women exhibited an anorexic behaviour pattern in response to
the patriarchal social structures in which they were trapped”, with the difference that
their eating behaviour had a strong religious value.94 Bell’s concept was successful
among psychiatrists and psychologists, as all these analyses see anorexia as a means

work, Embodied Faith: Reflections on a Materialist Spirituality (Cambridge: Eerdmans

Publishing, 2009).
92
As bibliographical indications, see: Caroline Walker Bynum, Fragmentation and Redemption;
Thomas Cattoi, June McDaniel (eds.), Perceiving the Divine through the Human Body: Mystical
Spirituality (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011); Coakley (ed.), Religion and the Body
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997); Holmes, Flesh Made Word; Paolo A. Orlandi, I
fenomeni fisici del misticismo (Milano: Piero Gribaudi Editore, 1996); Warren, The Embodied
Word: Female Spiritualities, Contested Orthodoxies, and English Religious Cultures, 1350-1700
(Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2010).
93
Vauchez, Sainthood, 354, 384-390.
94
Bell, Holy Anorexia, xi, 86.
33
of seeking control, and make a link between it and the ideal of perfection of the
epoch. 95
Caroline Walker Bynum also considers that late medieval culture has an
“extreme interest in physicality”, which is particulary seen in women’s devotion,
based on fasting, Eucharistic devotion and food multiplication. 96 For the American
historian and femminist, all this are basically food practices. 97 On the other hand,
those are also part of a devotional purpose: imitating Christ; hence pain and self-
sacrifice become means by which medieval women feel that they can mystically take
part in the salvation of mankind.98 The author rejects the reading of fasting as
anorexia for many reasons: it is voluntarily assumed and its motivation is
theological, namely the comprehension of suffering as the path to salvation. She also
rejects the body-soul dichotomy or the idea of internalized misogyny as explanations
for women’s self-inflicted punishment.99 Bynum’s reading is extremely influential,
being quoted and assimilated in the works on female spirituality published ever
since.
Thus, research in the last decades has been captured by the bodily dimension
of spiritual life, the flesh being depicted either as blamed or subjected to a rigorous
control, either as a realm to be embraced and explored. Through this investigation, I
will address several clues regarding the spirituality of Saint Catherine of Siena

95
For examples, see below the psychological approach to Saint Catherine’s asceticism.
96
Bynum, Holy Feast, 274.
97
Ibid., 75.
98
Ibid., 114.
99
Ibid., 202-206, 237-238. A strong insistence on the context, followed by a cautious use of
concepts can also be found in the survey made by Joan Jacobs Brumberg in her 1988 book, Fasting
Girls.
34
(1347-1380),100 as traced in her writings and complemented by her disciples’
accounts. 101 I will refer to asceticism, devotion to the humanity of Christ, bodily
metaphors and the situation of the flesh in Catherinian theology, 102 in order to discern
the extent and the limits of a bodily-oriented religious understanding. As it concerns
Catherine’s particular case, it has become a preferential example, very often quoted
inside the psychological/ pshychiatric approach, which advocates for the
interpretation of medieval women’s radical fast as anorexia. 103 On the other hand,

100
Italian mystic, member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic, canonized in 1461, and declared
Doctor of the Church in 1970.
101
For Catherine’s writings, see: Il Dialogo; Lettere di Caterina da Siena, ed. P. Misciattelli
(Firenze: Marzocco, 1939); S. Caterina da Siena, Le Orazioni, ed. Cavallini (Roma: Edizioni
Cateriniane, 1978). For the sources on her life, see: Tommaso Nacci Caffarini, Vita di S. Caterina
da Siena scritta da un divoto della medesima con il supplemento alla vulgata legenda di detta
santa, ed. Ambrogio Ansano Tantucci (Siena: Stamperia di Luiggi e Benedetto Bindi, 1765);
Blessed Raymond of Capua, The Life of Saint Catherine of Siena (Dublin: James Duffy and Co.,
s.a.); Il Processo Castellano. Santa Caterina da Siena nelle testimonianze al Processo di
canonizzazione di Venezia, eds. Tito S. Centi, Angelo Belloni (Firenze: Edizioni Nerbini, 2009).
102
I have previously addressed this topic, in an attempt to retrace the various hypostases of the
body, as they were understood by Saint Catherine, and her disciples: from vitiated flesh to God as
flesh, from tortured body to totally spiritualized body and to holy relic. This was the topic of the
research „Carne mizerabilă sau icoană vie? Trupul în viziunea sfintei Ecaterina de Siena și a
Caterinati” [Miserable Flesh or Living Icon? The Body Seen by Saint Catherine of Siena and the
Caterinati], in Fragmente din trecut. Tinerii cercetători și istoria [Fragments from the Past. Young
Researchers and History], eds. Anamaria Macavei, Diana Maria Dăian (Cluj-Napoca: Presa
Universitară Clujeană, 2015), 59-72.
103
For a bibliographical investigation, Bibliografia analitica di S. Caternina da Siena 2001-2010
(Roma: Centro Internazionale di Studi Cateriniani, 2013) is a most valuable tool. Many recent
studies are dedicated to her works, to her political and ecclesiastical activity, to her doctrine, but
also to her spirituality. A significant number of works are dominated by a psychological approach:
Fernando Espi Forcen, “Anorexia Mirabilis: the Practice of Fasting by Saint Catherine of Siena in
the Late Middle Ages”, The American Journal of Psychiatry, 170/4 (2013): 370-371; Pascal
Guingand, Anorexie et inédie: une même passion du rien? (Ramonville, Saint-Agne, Strasbourg:
Érès-Arcanes, 2004); Mario Reda, Giuseppe Sacco, “Anorexia and the Holiness of Saint Catherine
of Sienna”, Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture, 8/1 (2001): 37-47; Finn Skårderud,
“Hellig anoreksi Sult og selvskade som religiøse praksiser. Caterina av Siena (1347–80)”,
35
there is a theological exegesis of Saint Catherine spirituality, which also takes into
account the strong emphasis she placed on the corporality. For example, Maria degli
Angeli Gambirasio, O.P. stresses that the Saint’s path to perfection – as it is settled
in her Dialogue – is literally an uplift of the soul from Christ’s feet to His head. 104
Compared to the psychologising method, but also to the historiographical attention
directed towards other saints’ body-related spiritual practices,105 the place of body
within Catherinian spiritual life is evidently less discussed. One contribution worth
mentioning is that of Kristine Fleckenstein, who explores Catherine’s body images,
in which – alongside her bodily austerities – the foundation of her power was rooted.
According to the author, the Saint believes in the reciprocity of soul and, by turn,
world, God and the body of Christ, accomplished through charity, intense prayer and

Tidsskrift for Norsk Psykologforening, 45/4 (2008): 408-420; Ines Testoni, Il dio cannibale:
anoressia e culture del corpo in Occidente (Torino: Utet Libreria, 2001); Walter Vandereycken,
Ron van Deth, From Fasting Saints to Anorexic Girls: The History of Self-Starvation (London:
Athleone Press, 1994).
104
Maria degli Angeli Gambirasio, “La via della Verità come irradiazione apostolica”, manuscript,
Centro Internazionale di Studi Cateriniani (Roma: 1975). Retrieved from
http://www.centrostudicateriniani.it/download/Ascesi_Cateriniana_Unico.pdf, (January 11,
2020). See also, Giuliana Cavallini, “La verità nell’ascesi cateriniana”, manuscript, Centro
Internazionale di Studi Cateriniani (Roma, 1974), retrieved from the same website (January 11,
2020). The author emphasizes that Saint Catherine literally understands asceticism as an ascent to
the divine, which starts with the effort to overcome sensuality.
105
See some of the works mentioned in footnotes 91 and 92 aforesaid. Jessica Barr is focusing her
study on Beatrice of Nazareth, Melissa Raine refers to Margery Kempe and Ann Trousdale
provides the example of Julian of Norwich. In the book edited by Cattoi and McDaniel, studies on
Christian saints refer to Christina the Astonishing and Mechthild of Magdeburg, whilst Emily
Holmes considers Hadewijch of Brabant, Angela of Foligno and Marguerite Porette. Nancy
Bradley Warren discuses not only the case of Catherine of Siena, but also that of other medieval
mystics, such as Julian of Norwich, Birgitta of Sweden and Margery Kempe.
36
a spiritual-physical union with the Savior. This regime of identification reflects a
“positive bodiliness”.106
This research is circumscribed to the history of spirituality, and employs an
authentic interdisciplinary approach. It is beyond the purpose of this analysis to
elaborate reflections on gender or distinguish a specific female spirituality, although
this is a common topic among researches dealing with this issue. For example,
Caroline Walker Bynum asserts that relating feminity to corporeality is a
transcultural feature, crossing the entire history of civilization. At the same time,
women are more likely to somatize emotions and spiritual experience. 107
This chapter therefore intends to bring a broad contextualization of Saint
Catherine’s body-centered devotion and her religious reflections, impregnated with
metaphors of flesh – both internal, in reference to the Saint’s thinking, and external,
linked to the spiritual context she belongs to –, in an attempt to avoid what we
assume would be the methodological trap of over-extending the limits of embodied
piety. In the case of Saint Catherine, a sense of balance between the outsourced

106
Kristine Fleckenstein, “Incarnate Word: Verbal Image, Body Image, and the Rhetorical
Authority of Saint Catherine of Siena”, Enculturation: A Journal of Rhetoric, Writing, and
Culture, 6/2 (2009): 1-20. See also Dominique de Courcelle, “La chair transpercée d’un Dieu: au
delà des angoisses de la raison, quelques représentations de peinture et d’écriture: Catherine de
Sienne, Andrea Mantegna, Jean de la Croix, Le Greco”, in Les enjeux philosophiques de la
mystique: Actes du colloque, 6 – 8 avril 2006, du Collège international de philosophie, ed. eadem
(Grenoble: J. Millon, 2007), 50-70. The author proposed a philosophical approach to the
representation of an incarnated God, who had a sensitive body. Tom Grimwood, “The Body as a
Lived Metaphor: Interpreting Catherine of Siena as an Ethical Agent”, Feminist Theology, 13/1
(2004): 62-76, stresses that the Saint, despite being a woman, was autonomous and had a real
authority, using her body as a manipulative tool. Romagnoli, “Il linguaggio del corpo in santa
Caterina da Siena” in Dire l’inefabile. Caterina da Siena e il linguaggio della mistica, eds. Lino
Leonardi, Pietro Trifone (Firenze: Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2006), 205-229, highlights the fact that
the body is a multifaceted symbol in Catherine’s writtings.
107
Bynum, Fragmentation and Redemption, 172-173.
37
religious experience and a genuine spiritual insight is required. Furthermore, this
study offers an alternative to the agonistic vision which is traditionaly considered in
regard with the body-soul relationship, showing that the apparent rivalry of the two
principles is subject to the hierarchy established between the divine and the
mundane. At this stage of the research, I can only assess such a ratio with respect to
a particular case, but further research may verify it in other medieval writers’
thinking.

Punishing the sinful flesh

“What else do we have but a body?” (O abbiamo noi altro che un corpo?):
this is the rhetorical question Saint Catherine asks in point of her profound wish to
dedicate herself to God. She realizes that the main available instrument she has is
her own body; this is her only belonging, so that offering it to God signifies devoting
herself entirely. 108 She gives her body as a sacrifice; entrusting it to God, Catherine
professes her disponibility to suffer. As André Vauchez argued, female mystics in
the Late Middle Ages glorify the passion of Christ, and the mortification of the flesh
allows them to experience on their own the redeeming suffering. 109 Moreover, as a
saint builds his/her own sanctity, their efforts are displayed upon the body. 110

108
According to Thomas Caffarini, the Saint has said: “Signore, ho un solo corpo; te lo offro e te
lo rendo. Ecco io ti offro la mia carne, ecco ti offro il mio sangue, che esso sia sparso e distrutto e
disperso; che le mie ossa siano stritolate fino al midollo...” Thomas Caffarini’s testimony, Il
Processo Castellano, 102. Elsewhere, Catherine defines the Christian’s duty as follows: “a dare la
vita per Cristo, o abbiamo noi altro che un corpo? […what else do we have but a body?] Perché
non dar la vita mille volte, se bisogna, in onore di Dio e in salute delle creature?” Lettere CCXVIII,
685-686.
109
Vauchez, Sainthood, 384.
110
Sofia Boesch Gajano, “Sfințenia” [Sainthood], in Dicționar tematic, 734.
38
 The female body was mostly associated with sexuality and women were
thought to be more likely to yield to the temptation of flesh. Therefore, the religious
literature of the time recommends chastity and abstinence, as means of control for
women.111 Under these circumstances, the main possibility of expression women
used to have was manipulating the body. 112 Consequently, in the religious
environment of the fourteenth century, particularly in Dominican female convents,
the drive towards mortification was a common feature; moreover it seems it was
guided by God and it was a quest for joining God’s will. 113
Consequently, the Saint exercises a “holy hatred” against herself and strives
to detach from the world, entrusted to the belief that love of God and the attachment
to the worldly – even to her own temporary existence – are incompatible. 114 For the
same purpose, she practices humility, obedience and charity. 115
Moreover, she implements an extensive ascetical program which implies
fasting, 116 sleep and rest deprivation, using a couple of planks instead of a proper
bed, vow of silence, voluntary mutilation – through flagellation, use of an iron chain

111
Klapisch-Zuber, “Masculin/feminin”, 445.
112
Bynum, Holy Feast, 2 sqq. See also Gajano, “Sfințenia”, 740.
113
Ochsenbein, “Mistica della sofferenza”, 399, 413.
114
Lettere XCV, 300; CXLIX, 458: “...con desiderio di vedervi l’affeto e il desiderio vostro
spogliato e sciolto dalle perverse delizie e diletti disordinati del mondo, le quali sono cagione e
materia che parte e divide l’anima de Dio.” The concept of “holy hatred” is mentioned by Raymond
of Capua: “Catherine, faithful to the inspirations of God, excited a holy hatred against herself.”
The Life, 51-52; and also in Thomas Caffarini’s deposition: “Dalle quale rivelazioni essa fu
condotta a un ammirabile amore di Dio ed insieme a un grande odio verso se stessa. Odio che essa
chiamava santo, in quanto per opera di tale odio l’anima diviene immune di ogni pecatto e anche
perché in forza di tale odio si fa vendetta delle tentazioni della sensualità e di qualsiasi peccato
commesso.” Il Processo Castellano, 116. Both testimonies note that the Saint’s attitude was God
inspired.
115
Il Dialogo IV, 4; LXIII, 53; CLIV, 166; Lettere L, 157.
116
The Life, 5-7, 24, 265. See also Vita di S. Caterina, 3-4; Supplemento, 215, 220-221.
39
which stung the flesh, causing severe pain –, together with continuous and fervent
prayers and vigils.117 Catherine interprets in a radical manner the Pauline
Neoplatonic dialectics, according to which the rule of the body is contrary to the rule
of God (Romans, 7:23) and man serves the law of God with his mind and the law of
sin with his body. Hence the Saint pictures a vicious body, enemy and prison of
mankind.118 The paradigm for this attitude of hatred against sin and compensation
of sin through scourging the body was offered by Christ himself on the cross.119
On the other hand, Saint Thomas emphasizes the fact that body is also God’s
creation and it has an ontologically positive essence (S.T. I, q 65, art.1). In agreement
with the Thomistic thought, the Saint did not design an entirely negative
representation of the flesh; on the contrary, she values it, being created by God. 120
Besides, during the High and Late Middle Ages, Christian theology started to
promote a more positive attitude towards the body, since it had been strongly
denigrated and denied by the various heretical movements. At this time, the Church
upholds the doctrine of transubstantiation or the devotion to the host as Corpus
Christi. By the Late Middle Ages, the sense of body as a place where God may reside
– as old as the cult of saints – had become notably influential. 121 But Saint Catherine
suggests that humankind was created to be far more than bodily existence; in order

117
The Life, 25-26, 38. Vita di S. Caterina, 4-5. The testimony of Augustin of Pisa Il Processo
Castellano, 311.
118
Il Dialogo CXLV, 154: “stando nella carecere del corpo...”; CLXVII, 185-186: “desidera
l’anima mia d’escire della carcere del corpo tenebroso...” See also Lettere – CLXXXIX, 581-582:
“l’uomo, mentre che vive nella carcere corruttibile del corpo suo (il quale è una legge perversa,
che sempre lo invita e inchina a peccato)...”; CCXCIV, 927: “L’ultimo nemico nostro, cioè la
miserabile carne coll’appetito sensitivo...”.
119
Le Orazioni I, 1; Lettere CCXCIX, 943-944.
120
Il Dialogo I, 1; XV, 16 sqq; Lettere XXI, 58; Le Orazioni I, 1 sqq.
121
Bynum, Holy Feast, 252-255.
40
to discover their beauty and dignitiy and access their divine potential, 122 humans
have to aknowledge God within, since the creature is futility and God is absolute and
perfect.123
Moreover, for Catherine, God is also body. The antidote of mortal, filthy flesh
is none other than Christ’s tormented body and the memory of his sacrifice. 124 This
representation, however paradoxical it might seem, it is the typical bivalent image
medieval people had on the flesh. The body was blamed, due to the original sin and
it was also the reminder of salvation. 125 In an orthodox, non-dualistic view, the body
is necessary for salvation, as it is dangerous: is a medium for the soul and a locus of
learning, but it is also fond of the material world, so it may compromise the quest
for salvation. 126

Embodied devotion to the humanity of Christ

Emerging in the thirtheenth century, devotion to the humanity of Christ and
the endeavour to resemble Him in his sufferings will be subsumed – in the following
century – to the mystical ideal, particularly in female religious experience.
According to this, authentic Christian life is demonstrated under several
circumstances, like exhausting fasting, continuous abstinence or severe punishment

122
Il Dialogo IV, 3; CLXVII, 186. See also Cavallini, “La verità nell’ascesi cateriniana”.
123
In this regard, the Saint often refers to her own nothingness, evoking, at the same time, the
scriptural quotation “I Am who I Am” (Exodus 3:14) in order to underline the divine completion.
Le Orazioni XIII, 18: “perché tu sei quello che sei ma io sono quella che non sono.” Elsewhere:
“Io sono colui che so’, e voi non sete per voi medesimi, se non quanto sete fatti da me...” Il Dialogo
XVIII, 18.
124
Romagnoli, “Il linguaggio del corpo”, 220. See within Lettere: CCLVI, 789: “con la carne sua
flagellata sconfisse il nemico della carne nostra”; CCLVII, 802, which resumes the idea.
125
Le Goff, Nicolas Truong, Il corpo nel Medioevo (Roma, Bari: Laterza Editori, 2007), 20.
126
Kristin L. Burr, “Body in Literature and Religion”, in Women and Gender, 81.
41
of the body. 127 Moreover, the main understanding of female spirituality, as it was
shaped and disseminated by theologians and preachers, was centered on the
Eucharist and the related topic of the humanity of Christ, which was then perceived
in its corporeal dimension.128 Surely not least, Dominican spirituality is Christ-
centered, with a particular focus on the Passions. 129 Consequently, Catherine’s
Christocentrism implies embracing the redemptive suffering – imitatio crucis – and
also Eucharistic devotion, both of them testifying to the Saint’s externalized piety.
Catherine sees in pain a path towards God, since the salvation of humankind
was mediated by the Cross. Through suffering an intersection between the divine
and the human is accomplished. 130 Loving God cannot be separated from bearing
pain for His sake and for the service of one’s fellows; in other words, pain seems a
quantifier of an unutterable feeling. 131 The Saint points out that the most valuable
struggle is the inward fatigue, and also the will to suffer. 132 In other words,
undergoing pain transcends the physical dimension of existence, as suffering is

127
Vauchez, Sainthood, 388, 408.
128
Bynum, Holy Feast, 80, 114.
129
See William A. Hinnenbusch, Dominican Spirituality. Principles and Practice (Washington
D.C.: 1965). Retrieved from the website of The Holy Rosary Dominican Province,
http://www.holyrosaryprovince.org/2011/media/essencial/dominican_spirituality.pdf (May 15,
2015), 14 sqq.
130
Il Dialogo IV, V. God tells the Saint that, as a consequence of the inherent imperfection of
human condition, man cannot be acquainted with God but through suffering. LXXXIII, 72.
Elsewhere: “My great consolation is to suffer, because I am aware that by suffering I shall obtain
a more perfect view of God.” The Life, 141-142. In his turn, Bartholomew Dominici shows that
Catherine considers herself united to Christ in suffering. Il Processo Castellano, 273.
131
“Molto e piacevole a me il desiderio di volere portare ogni pena e fadiga infino alla morte in
salute dell’anime. Quanto l’uomo più sostiene, più dimostra che m’ami: amandomi più cognosce
della mia veritá e quanto più cognosce più sente pena e dolore intollerabile dell’offesa mia.” Il
Dialogo V, 5. “E chi molto ama molto si duole, unde a cui cresce amore cresce dolore.” CXLV,
154.
132
Lettere CCXXV, 710; Il Dialogo III, 3.
42
always sublimated into an ethical value.133 Just as the flesh implies an ambivalent
understanding, suffering is, at the same time, the inevitable fate of the fallen creature
and a possibility to retrieve the relation between God and his creature. 134Answering
to her wish, Christ gives Catherine the capacity of experiencing his Passions, by
sending her a terrible chest pain, the worst pain ever felt by the Saint. 135 Therefore,
suffering is a blessing and a consolation. 136 Despite her tremendous torments,
Catherine was always calm and serene, as a consequence of the “gift of
impassibility” she received.137
On the other hand, as the Crucified Savior illustrated, suffering is serving, the
greatest charitable act of all. 138 Just as Christ takes the chastisement for the sins of
mankind upon his body, 139 Catherine prays that God might expiate her fellow’s sins
through her sufferings.140 After mystically united with Christ, the Saint will benefit

133
Jean-Claude Schmitt, “Trup și suflet” [Body and Soul], in Dicționar tematic, 777.
134
Philip A. Mellor, “Self and Suffering: Deconstruction and Reflexive Definition in Buddhism
and Christianity”, Religious Studies, 27/ 1 (1991): 49-93, especially 55.
135
The Life, 298. See also Bartholomew Dominici’s testimonial, Il Processo Castellano, 273.
136
See within Il Processo Castellano the deposition of Thomas Caffarini, 149: “non soltanto
desiderava le sofferenze, ma quando l’affligevano sembrava godere di esse”; Bartholomew
Dominici’s testimonial, 273: “Infatti essa sentiva le sofferenze comme dolci doni del suo Sposo e,
quando aumentavano, dicevache erano ancora piu dolci.”; Francis Malavolti’s deposition, 338:
“Sofferenze che ella chiamava singolari doni di Dio.” See also, The Life, 108 and Il Dialogo
CXXXVII, 142.
137
“... il dono della impasibilità”, notion belonging to Thomas Caffarini, Il Processo Castellano,
136. This particularity is mentioned all over the narratives on her life: Supplemento, 117; The Life,
passim; Il Processo Castellano: deposition of Bartholomew Dominici, 273, deposition of Francis
Malavolti, 338; and also Barduccio’s letter, Appendix to The Life, 361.
138
Bynum, Holy Feast, 171, 179; Il Dialogo IV, 5. From the Saint’s perspective, pain is in
proportion to the love of neighbour and love of God. Ibid.V, 5.
139
Le Orazioni I, 1: “... hai punite le nostre iniquità e la disobediencia di Adam sopra el corpo
tuo...” See further prayer XIX, 23.
140
Il Dialogo II, 2; Le Orazioni: XIV, 19; XXVI, 30; Lettere CCCXXXI, 1065. Elsewhere: “Lord,
[...] inflict the chastisment that this people merit on my body.” The Life, 252; “Signore, affligi il
43
from this grace. 141 Therefore, physical pain is far from being a goal in itself; it is
rather a way to empathize with God’s humanity and also an understanding of his
divine love, which led him to endure the most dreadful pain and death. 142
On the other hand, the Holy Communion, which is central to Catherine’s
religious experience, appears to give her the chance to be eventually united to
Christ.143 In fact, both from a theological and a devotional point of view, medieval
Christianity acknowledges the real presence of the Son in the Eucharist. 144 Often,
when receiving the host, Catherine feels like taking blood, raw meat, or even Christ
himself in her mouth. Moreover, the Saint sometimes assists in the transformation

corpo mio, conndanandolo a sopportare quante pene, ed infermità si possono mai provare in questa
vita mortale, perchè sono pronta a sagrificare alla Giustizia tua il corpo mio, sogettandolo
all’oppressione di tutti i malori per condegna soddisfazione delle colpe da questo miserabile
Religioso comesse...” Supplemeto, 133. See also Il Processo Castellano, Thomas Caffarini’s
deposition, 138-139, and additional details to the testimony of Bartholomew Dominici, 299.
141
Christ tells Catherine: “... but thou shalt expose thyself to every species of fatigue in order to
save their souls. Follow therefor courageously the inspiration which will enlighten thee; for I shall
draw, by thy aid, numerous souls from the gulf of hell, and I will conduct them, with the help of
my grace, to the kingdom of heaven.” The Life, 96-97. Supplemento, 223: “... per placare l’ira
Divina, provocata per tanti ribellioni, ed inquità offersi volontieri di sacrifizio in propiziazioni il
corpo mio, sottoposto perciò dal giusto Giudice a continui gravissimi dolori [...] onde accettato
avendo il clementissimo mio Sposo, questo spontaneo mio sacrifizio in cambio de’ castighi dovuti
a gente ambiziosa, superba e feduttrice, non vi è nel corpo mio parte alcuna, che non sia quasi da
saette acuta traffita.” Caffarini further shows that, through her pain, the Saint managed to get
remission for her fellows’ sins. Ibid., 189-190. Peter of Giovanni Ventura asserts in his deposition
that the Saint took upon herself his sins. Il Processo Castellano, 354. She also suffered atoning
pain in account of her father’s sins. The Life, 147-148.
142
Ellen Ross, “She Wept and Cried Right Loud for Sorrow and for Pain. Suffering, the Spiritual
Journey, and Women’s Experience in Late Medieval Mysticism” in Maps of Flesh and Light: The
Religious Experience of Medieval Women Mystics, ed. Ulrike Wiethaus (New York: Syracuse
University Press, 1993), 50.
143
María del Mar Graña Cid, “Mística feminina e semellanza das mulleres con Cristo. A propósito
de santa Catarina de Siena”, Revista galega de pensamento cristián, 16 (2009), 76.
144
Poor, “Christian Spirituality”, 780. The doctrine of the Real Presence was affirmed at the Fourth
Lateran Council, in 1215.
44
of the three Persons of the Holy Trinity into one or is being given the host by one of
them or by an angel. 145
Not least, the Eucharist nourishes the Saint, to the point where the Sacrament
remains her only food. As a consequence of literally tasting Christ’s blood during an
ecstatic rapture – as a reward of her overcoming the disgust caused by the wound of
a woman she took care of – Catherine becomes completely spiritualized. This
heavenly food is, as Christ says to the Saint, “a liquor above nature”, still expressed
as a feeding material, but one that nurtures the soul and the body alike. 146 Her bodily
functions were completely modified and she even becomes able to live without any
corporeal food.147
In other train of thoughts, Cathrine mystical experience is described by the
whitnesses of her life in terms of a physical or a temporal fusion, through themes
such as the mystical marriage, changing hearts with Christ or the stigmatization.
Therefore, we find that the proximity to the divine transcends the ideal and spiritual
dimension, as it is exhibited through concrete, corporeal signs. On the other hand, as

145
Depozition of Thomas Caffarini, Il Processo Castellano, 131.
146
The Life, 86-87, 93, 94. As Raymond notes, Christ approached Catherine with the following
words: “Never hast thou been dearer or more pleasing to me – yesterday in particular thou didst
ravish my heart. Not only didst thou despise sensual pleasures, disdain the opinions of men, and
surmount the temptations of Satan, but thou didst overcome nature, by joyfully drinking for my
sake a loathsome, horrible beverage. Well, since thou hast accomplished an action so superior to
nature, I will bestow on thee a liquor above nature. […] Drink, daughter that luscious beverage
which flows from my side, it will inebriate thy soul with sweetness and will also plunge in a sea
of delight thy body, which thou didst despise for love of me.” Consequently, Catherine applies her
mouth to the wound: “she drank long and with as much avidity as abundance; in fine, when our
blessed Lord gave her notice, she detached herself from the sacred source, satiated, but still
eager…” Ibid., 93-94.
147
According to Raymond of Capua, Christ told Catherine: “I will difuse in thy soul such an
abundance of grace, that thy body itself will experience its effects and will live no longer except
in an extraordinary manner...” Ibid., 95-96, 98-102.
45
a consequence of receiving the holy grace, the Saint is considered to be in a
permanent state of mental communion with the divine. 148 Despite presenting her
connection to Christ as a corporeal bond, the Saint’s disciples are aware that the core
of her religious life is above the temporal, bodily dimensions. As a consequence, we
can ascertain a sort of juggling between the two fields, as if it was no boundary
between them. This is especially confirmed when it comes to the Saint’s concept of
food and nourishment.
The holy blood of Christ, shed on the cross is the ultimate nourishment and
the substantial, physical source of salvation. In Catherine’s writtings, 149 the divine
blood or flesh are angelic, sweet, glorious, immortal nourishment, they are the food
of life (cibo angelico/ dolce/ glorioso/ cibo di vita etc.), taken at the housing of the
Cross (alla mensa della santa croce). In other words, the sacrificial act turns into a
feeding process.150 Besides, as an instance for Catherine’s representation of body
and soul as an amalgamation, the Saint asserts that the human being can be nourished
by sufferings and fatigue, by the penance, by the words of God, charity, humility or
prayer, as well as by the “quest for honouring God and for the salvation of souls”
(cercare l’onore di Dio e la salute dell’anime). The Saint truly admitted the
possibility of replacing bodily with spiritual food, since in her Dialogue, she refers
to feeding in terms of a vital need of the imperfect. 151 Regarding Catherine’s

148
Ibid., 109. See also the letter of Giovanni di Domenico, Schiarimenti to Alfonso Capecelatro,
Storia di S. Caterina da Siena e del papato del suo tempo (Roma, Tournay: Tipografia liturgica di
S. Giovanni, 1886), 565: “...secondo il corpo, fu da Siena e lassollo a Roma; e secondo l’anima,
fu e sempre sarà del Cielo...”; Il Processo Castellano: “la sua santa mente era inseparabilmente
immersa in Dio e a Dio attualmente unita”, Stefano Maconi’s deposition, 236; “è del tutto evidente
che lo Spirito Santo era con lei e rimasse con lei per sempre”, Mino di Giovanni’s testimony, 359.
149
Specifically in the Dialogue, but also in the Letters, passim.
150
Bynum, Holy Feast, 175.
151
“perché pure dell’erba non vive il corpo della creatura, parlando comunemente e in generale di
chi non è perfetto...” Il Dialogo CXLIX, 159. Furthermore, Catherine had already known that
46
particular case, her disciples pointed out that her subsistence derived from the
aboundance of grace.152

Metaphors of the body, expression of the soul

The body language is central as a means of expression in Saint Catherine’s
writings.153 The words “body”/ “flesh” are frequent occurences in the Dialogue, in
which the body is depicted as corrupt (corpo suo corrotto, massa corrotta d’Adam),
tenebrous (tenebre del corpo) mortal (mortale), mortified (mortificare il corpo),
tortured (macerando la carne/ il corpo), punished (gastigare il corpo loro), killed
(uccidere il corpo suo), injured (cicatrici nel corpo suo), being hit (percotendo il
corpo), burning (dessi il corpo mio ad ardere), sweating, bleeding (il corpo sudava,
escire del corpo suo sudore di sangue).
But just as numerous are the references to the resurrected beatified body (la
beatitudine del corpo dopo la resurrezione), to the mystical body of the Church

grace: “davo e do una disposizione a quel corpo umano, in tanto che meglio starà con quella poca
de l’erba, o alcuna volta senza cibo, che inanzi non faceva col pane e co’ l’altre cose che si dànno
e sono ordinate per la vita de l’uomo. E tu sai che egli è così, ché l’ài provato in te medesima.”
Ibid. There is also mentioned that it is the forthcoming of good Christians to benefit from a transfer
of grace upon the body: “...l’anima darà beatitudine al corpo: darà dell’abbondanzia sua, rivestita
nel’ultimo dì del giudicio del vestimento della propria carne la quale lasò. Come l’anima è fatta
immortale, fermata e stabilita in me, così il corpo in quella unione diventa immortale: perduta la
gravezza è fatto sottile e leggiero.” Ibid. XLI, 34.
152
The Life, 101-102; Il Processo Castellano, passim (depositions of Bartholomew Dominici,
Francis Malavolti, Peter of Giovanni Ventura and many others).
153
An analysis of Saint Catherine’s body-related language was one of the main issues I have
addressed in my Bachelor thesis, Hrănirea mistică, 66, 79-84. I have concluded that, on the one
hand, mystical experience is described as body-centered in Western medieval Christianity, since
it regards the individual as a whole and body-related images like hunger or marriage are simple,
natural ways of expressing an intimate connection with God. On the other hand, I have also
observed that, in the specific case of Saint Catherine, bodily notions like feeding/hunger or illness
were mainly used figuratively.
47
(corpo mistico della santa Chiesa e l’universale corpo della cristiana religione) or
to the glorified body of Christ (il corpo glorificato ne l’umanità glorificata de
l’unigenito mio Figliuolo): embodied Word (corpo del Verbo del dolce mio
Figliuolo) and sacrificial lamb (la morte della colpa nostra tolse la vita corporale
allo immaculato Agnello). This duality perfectly corresponds to the ambivalent
representation of the body in medieval Christianity, which we have discussed before.
But a particular metaphor reveals another common aspect of medieval thought,
namely imagining the Church and the society as a body. While advocating for the
importance of charity, there is an eloquent depiction of the ideal society as a perfectly
functioning body. 154
However, Catherine’s body-related metaphors and allegories are much more than
that. The adjective “sweet” is frequently referred to, alluding to the holy, to those
people or qualities she highly appreciates (dolce e amoroso Verbo, Maria dolce,
dolce Verità, dolce bontà di Dio, cognoscimento dolce, dolce pazienzia, dolcezza
della mia carità, and so on). In fact, there are plenty of metaphors the Saint often
used: for example, the metaphor of dressing (vestire di pene/ della carità/ della
verità/ della dolce volontà di Dio), of bathing in Christ’s blood (bagnatevi nel
sangue di Cristo crocifisso), of residing within the knowledge of God (stando nel
cognoscimento di Dio), of espousal (questo dolce sposo, Cristo), of inebriation

154
“Le membra del corpo vostro vi fanno vergogna, perché usano carità insieme, e non voi; unde,
quando il capo à male, la mano il soviene; e se 'l dito, che è così piccolo membro, à male, il capo
non si reca a schifo perché sia maggiore e sia più nobile che tutta l'altra parte del corpo, anco el
soviene co' l'udire, col vedere, col parlare e con ciò ch'egli à; e così tutte l'altre membra. Non fa
così l'uomo superbo che vedendo il povaro, membro suo, e infermo e in necessità non il soviene,
non tanto con ciò che egli à ma con una minima parola…” Il Dialogo CXLVIII, 158. In medieval
culture, Christ was the head of the Church, whose limbs were the believers; similarly, spiritual
leaders were the heads of their people, and men were head to women, represented as body. Burr,
“Body in Literature and Religion”, 79.
48
(inebriarse del sangue di Cristo crocifisso/di questo prezioso sangue, il quale
sangue inebria l’anima), of giving birth (partorisce i vizi/ le virtù, la superbia nasce
ed è nutricata da l'amore proprio sensitivo), of the eye of intellect/ eye of mercy
when refering to God (levando l'occhio dell'intelletto nella dolce Verità, aprendo
l'occhio dell'intelletto; vollendo l'occhio della sua misericordia/ l'occhio della
pietà), of the bridge that links the human to the divine (questo ponte, unigenito mio
Figliuolo/ è levato in alto, e non è separato perciò dalla terra). All this expressions
bear witness of the tendency to express religion-related concepts and emotions
through concrete, temporal or bodily actions.
In addition, the disciples currently call the Saint “sweet Mother” (dolce
Mamma, dolcissima Mamma), so that Catherine is vested with the temporal
hypostasys of maternity, besides being portrayed in a maternal stance towards the
infant Jesus, as she holds Him in her arms. 155 Moreover, they use a broader range of
metaphorical language – namely bodily metaphors.156
Such linguistic structures derive from the conception that claims the
complementarity between the various human faculties. Thereby the soul’s corrupt
attitudes are rather linked to the physiologic and the elevating potential of the body

155
Supplemento, 170.
156
For example, Thomas Caffarini refers to “the viscera of charity” (viscere della carità), the fact
that the Saint was “inebriated by the Spirit” (inebriata dallo Spirito) and that she was fed by “the
perfect food of the perfect knowledge and the perfect charity of God” (cibo perfetto del perfetto
cognoscimento e della perfetta carità di Dio). Il Processo Castellano, 98, 101; Lettere dei
discepoli, in Lettere I, 1286. In its turn, an unnamed man, who sends a letter to Raniero Pagliaresi
talkes about “the eye of understanding” (occhio de lo intendimento), being “dressed in darkness”
(vestito di scurità), “hunger and appetite for the good” (fame et apetito de cosa buona).
Batholomew Domenici also uses expressions like: “our sweet Saviour that inebriates us with His
precious” (nostro dolce Salvatore che c’inebrii di questo prezioso sangue) or “the soul who is in
love and comforted by Christ’s blood” (l’anima adunque innamorata e confortata nel sangue di
Cristo). Ibid, letter VIII, 1297; letter XX, 1321.
49
to the spiritual. Back then the human being was perceived as an inseparable unit. In
this respect, scholars have pointed out how the Middle Ages has witnessed an
“overlapping of physical and mental states”.157 Consequently, the mystical
experience describes the encounter with the divine as takes place in intellectual,
affective and, not least, sensorial plan. 158
Just like any other human experience, the religious practices are also mediated
by the physical dimension of existence and expressed through it. In Christianity,
perceiving the divine message cannot be merely an inner fact inasmuch as the
divinity itself is conceived as embodied Word which resides at the very heart of
creation as God the Son. 159 From the complementary manner of understanding the
relationship between body and soul originates the conviction that the qualities of the
soul are displayed on the body. 160 Moreover, the Christian is called to turn his body
into a mirror of Christ’s virtues, as proved during his bodily existence, so that the
whole body is involved in the spiritual growth. 161 Under these circumstances,
medieval Christian authors favor bodily metaphors. 162 Therefore, objectifying the
spiritual in physical terms is a commonly used, highly coherent communication
proceeding.

157
Danielle Jacquart, Claude Thomasset, Sexualité et savoir médical au Moyen Âge (Paris: Presses
Universitaires de France, 1985), 83-84, quoted in E. Ann Matter, “Theories of the Passions and
the Ecstasies of Late Medieval Religious Women”, in A Representation of Women’s Emotions in
Medieval and Early Modern Culture, ed. Lisa Perfetti (Gainesville: University Press of Florida,
2005), 26. The author recalls the same observation in the works of Dyan Elliott. Ibid. See also
Schmitt, “Trup și suflet”, 779-780. For the particular case of Saint Catherine’s Dialogue, see
Fleckenstein, “Incarnate Word”, passim.
158
Bynum, Holy Feast, 151. See also Romagnoli, “Il linguaggio del corpo”, 219.
159
Hans Urs von Balthasar, apud. Mellor, “Self and Suffering, 54.
160
Schmitt, “Trup și suflet”, 776-777.
161
Cattoi, “Conclusion. The Virtues of Sensuality”, in Cattoi, McDaniel (eds.), Perceiving the
Divine, 224.
162
Schmitt, “Trup și suflet”, 780.
50
 The mystical experience is lived as a voluptuousness, being equated with
tasting ineffable delights, impossible to translate in the common language. 163
Mystics intend to present their meeting with the divine in a form understandable for
the profane audience, so that they appeal to sensorial imagery. 164
In fact, through her Dialogue, Catherine discloses a new dimension of
corporality, one that corresponds to the order of the spirit. For her, the word is more
than the basic unit of speech; she believes in the objectifying effect of the word, as
her permanent reference is the embodied Word. 165

The theological perspective: the place of the flesh in the quest for
Godlikeness
The ultimate aim of mystical spirituality is the perfect immersion into God’s
will, preceded by self-surrender. Saint Catherine currently expresses her exhortation
to comply with Christ the Crucified. This aspiration has a strong vocation of the
concreteness, both from the Saint’s perspective – eager to take upon her body the
punishment for her fellow’s sins –, and from her disciple’s point of view – who
present the familiarity between Catherine and her divine Spouse as a nearness
validated in temporal and physical terms, through themes like marriage and change
of hearts.

163
Cristina Mazzoni, “Italian Women Mystics: a Bibliografical Essay”, Annali d’Italianistica:
Women Mystic Writers, 13 (1995), 405. See also Rick McDonald, “The Perils of Language in the
Mysticism of Late Medieval England”, Mystics Quarterly, vol 34/ 3-4 (2008), 45. On the other
hand, Grace Jantzen reconsiders this concept: when evoked by mystics, the ineffable refers not to
their subjective experience, but to God’s nature. Power, Gender and Christian Mysticism
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 304.
164
Rick McDonald, “The Perils of Language”, 63.
165
Romagnoli, “Il linguaggio del corpo”, 209-210, 211-212.
51
 Yet, in Catherinian theology, earthly and bodily existence is miserable and
alienated from God. 166 With the aim of achieving the union between the human soul
and his Creator, one must abandon his own selfish will; 167 from this perspective,
particularly reluctant is the sensitive will (volontá sensitiva), which is understood as
fondness to the evanescent reality and to carnal pleasure, giving rise to the vices. In
this regard, Catherine shares the Thomistic perspective, according to which the sin
occurs due to the exaggerated, inordinate appetite – inordinatu appetitu – for worldly
goods, which resides in the measureless self attachment (S.T. I, q 77, art.4). True to
this doctrine, Catherine currently uses the locution disordinato as a reference to what
is contrary to God’s will and to the calling of mankind, which is becoming Godlike.
Inspired by the scholastic philosopher, Catherine perceives the sin as a
primarily mental deed, without denying its effectiv, factual reality. 168 In a similar
way, the availability or – in other words – the desire (desiderio) is a crucial
component of the fact, which defines it, since its sense emerges in the field of
conscience. From a quantitative perspective, this concept is probably as frequently
used as the notions of body and flesh, or even more. This is the prerequisite of
perfection since it has an infinite potential; and God, who is infinite, cannot be
reached through finite actions.169

166
Il Dialogo CLXVII, 186; Le Orazioni XVI, 20. See also The Life, 9; Supplemento, 114-125.
167
Il Dialogo IV, 5; CXXVI, 121. See also The Life, 44-45.
168
Il Dialogo VI, 6.
169
“Ma è vero questo: che col desiderio dell'anima si satisfa, cioè con la vera contrizione e
dispiacimento del peccato. La vera contrizione satisfa alla colpa e alla pena, non per pena finita
che sostenga, ma per lo desiderio infinito; perché Dio, che è infinito, infinito amore e infinito
dolore vuole.” Il Dialogo III, 3.
52
Thus, perfection is a state of mind, of knowledge and will alike. 170 Therefore,
mortification of the flesh must be accompanied by the annihilation of the perverted
will (macerando il corpo suo e uccidendo la volontà).171 As Thomas Caffarini
stresses, self-love is equally reprehensible, be it sensitive or spiritual; 172 self-love
and divine love being totally opposites.173 In other words, Saint Catherine also
envisages an illicit spiritual bond. In fact, in the Saint’s writings, the vice – like any
other category of human affairs – is both corporeal and spiritual; the two adjectives
are often mentioned conjunctively, as they are, for example, in the phrase “dirt of
body and mind” (immondizia di corpo e di mente/ corporale o mentale).
Furthermore, we can notice that, for Catherine – faithful to the Thomistic
representation of the soul, of an Aristotelian origin – the human soul is primarily an
intellectual principle. Moreover, any action has a mental foundation, initiated within
the inner cell (cella del cognoscimento di sé).
As a result of all the above considerations, Catherine of Siena – like her
disciples and, in general, her contemporaries – does not find a fundamental
distinction between body and soul; the real discrimination she ascertains and
describes is between the divine and the worldly. The first is the field of perfection,

170
“Questo medesimo amore ti costringa ad illuminare l'occhio de l'intelletto mio del lume della
fede acciò che io cognosca la verità tua manifestata a me. Dammi che la memoria sia capace a
ritenere i benefici tuoi, e la voluntà arda nel fuoco della tua carità; il quale fuoco facci germinare
e gittare al corpo mio sangue, e con esso sangue dato per amore del sangue, e con la chiave
dell'obedienzia io diserri la porta del cielo.” Il Dialogo CLXVII, 185.
171
Ibid., CLVIII, 171.
172
“Da questo capriccioso amore spirituale deriva quell’attaco biasimevole a qualche santo, e
virtuoso esercizio, fingiamo al digiuno: ma costoro pertinaci nel proprio sentimento non si fanno
scrupolo alcuno nell contradire all’ubbidienza, che non li vorrebbe cosi astinenti, perchè desidera
di vederli più docili.” Supplemento, 225-226.
173
“Il quale cognoscimento spoglia l’anima del proprio amore, e vestela d’odio santo e d’un amore
divino, cercando solo Cristo crocifisso, e non le creature, nè le cose create, nè se medesimo
sensitivamente...” Lettere CXXVI, 401-402.
53
of true goodness, love and bliss. On the other hand, the man who disregards God’s
will is the slave of his body, lives in a profane, selfish, sinful, contemptible horizon,
under the power of the devil. 174 Any means to reach God is welcomed and
ontologically positive, irrespective of its significance on the secular scale of values.
When it comes to the ideal of Godlikeness, suffering equates enjoyment. 175
Consequently, the body and soul differentiation is only valid insofar as it takes
the form of the confrontation between the temptation of worldliness and the ascent
to the divine. The Saint acknowledges the potential of the soul to receive God’s grace
and the contrary drive of the fleshliness, so that the rational soul must rise against

174
“Or così pensa, carissima figliuola, che diviene a l'anima: o e' si conviene che ella serva e speri
in me, o serva e speri nel mondo e in se medesima, però che tanto serve al mondo fuore di me di
servizio sensuale, quanto serve o ama la propria sensualità […] Mentre che esso spera in sé e nel
mondo none spera in me, perché 'l mondo, cioè i desideri mondani de l'uomo, sono a me in odio e
in tanta abominazione mi furono che Io diei l'unigenito mio Figliuolo a l'obrobbriosa morte della
croce” Il Dialogo CXXXVI, 141. See within Lettere: XXVIII, 80, in which the world, the flesh
and the devil are all presented as enemies of man; and also CLXXXII, 557; CCXVIII, 680. The
medieval mind was used to the opposition between – on the one hand – fleshly, temporal, material,
and – on the other hand – the spiritual. Schmitt, “Trup și suflet”, 781.
175
“Sai come sta il vero servo di Dio, che si notrica alla mensa del santo desiderio? Sta beato e
doloroso, come stava il Figliuolo di Dio in sul legno della santissima croce: perocchè la carne di
Cristo era dolorosa e tormentata, e l’anima era beata per l’unione del desiderio nostro in Dio, ed
essere vestiti della sua dolce volontà; e dolorosi per la compasione del prossimo, e per tollere a noi
delizie e consolazioni sensuali, affiggendo la propria sensualità.” Lettere LXV, 199. Coupling the
two notions, apparently antithetic, also appears in: Le Orazioni XVI, 20; Il Dialogo LXXVIII, 68.
54
it.176 Man was given both sensuality and reason, but God expects him to serve the
soul and to practise virtue even by means of flesh. 177

Conclusion
The Christian perspective on the flesh is ambiguous: it is the foundation of
original sin, as it is its counterweight. Similarly, suffering is inherent to the fallen
human condition and also a path to redemption. Thus, Saint Catherine of Siena
undertakes various austerities and deprivations in order to repress lust and treasures
pain as a chance to experientially merge with Christ’s humanity. On top of that,
mortification of the flesh has to be complemented by the desire to annihilate the
perverse will and to entirely surrender to God.
As for Catherinian figurative representation of the body – namely bodily
metaphors for yearning and finding the divine –, it is a paradox only from a
contemporary standpoint. In a culture that regards human faculties as a continuum,
religious experiences and emotions, piety and grace, were expressed through
references to the body and through allegories. Therefore, medieval mentality does
not perceive bodily and spiritual dimensions as self-dependent, but as
interdependent. In the light of Catherine’s intimacy with Christ – portrayed by her

176
The Saint states that only the rational soul can receive divine grace. Le Orazioni XVI, 21. This
is due to the Christian belief according to which the rational soul never ceases to bear the seal of
the divine, despite all the limitations imposed on the human nature by the original sin. Schmitt,
“Trup și suflet”, 773. Catherine also underscores that “La sensualitá e contraria allo spirito, e però
in essa sensualitá pruova l’anima l’amore che à in me, suo Creatore. Quando il pruova? Quando
con odio e dispiacimento si leva contra di lei.” Il Dialogo XCVIII, 89. See also Le Orazioni XI,
11: “ribbelione della carne contra lo spirito”; Lettere LXXXIV, 265.
177
“La sensualità è serva, e però è posta perché ella serva all’anima, ciò è che con lo strumento
del corpo proviate ed esercitiate le virtù.” Il Dialogo LI, 46.
55
disciples as a virtually physical union –, this junction is accurately reflected by her
purely spiritual subsistence.
In conclusion, it must be observed that Catherinian focus on the corporeal is
not first-hand, as the body is nothing but a means of expression, both factually and
figuratively. The true meaning of human experience, be it bodily or spiritual,
externalized or internalized, is revealed to the extent that it is directed towards the
divine.

56
 Chapter 3
Beyond a Hagiographic Cliché.
On the Supernatural Sustenance of Saint Catherine of Siena178

“[Saint Catherine of Siena’s] vital functions became so modified, that food

was no longer necessary to her, and aliments caused her serious suffering.”179

I. Introduction
In the history of medieval Christianity, sainthood appears as a multifaceted
phenomenon. From a spiritual, reflexive point of view, it represents the quest for the
divine, through a range of behavioral choices intended to lead to a new state of mind,
entirely submitted to God’s will and permeated by His grace. Furthermore, during
the pursuit for godlikeness, the saint – as a living proof of this process – adheres to
a tradition which puts them in the wake of certain recognized predecessors of whom
Jesus Christ is undoubtedly the paragon. On the other hand, in a theological and
religious perspective, sainthood testifies to the revelation of God’s love and to the
fact that mankind was meant to be transformed by it. Actually – as Sofia Boesch
Gajano asserts – sainthood has two hypostases, as it can be either experienced or
venerated, yet they are both historically conditioned and constitute the result of a
deliberate operation of construction. 180 While the saints relate to previous models,

178
This research has been published in Set Me as a Seal upon Thy Heart. Constructions of Female
Sanctity in Late Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Early Modern Period ed. Andrea-Bianka
Znorovszky (Budapest: Trivent Publishing, 2018), 101-132.
179
The Life, 98.
180
Gajano, “Sfințenia”, 734, 738, 742. In a pioneering study regarding canonized sanctity -
addressed in a sociological perspective –, Pierre Delooz differentiates between the saint as a living
person and “le saint construit”. Simultaneously, he claims that every venerated saint is, to a certain
57
performing imitatio Christi or imitatio sanctorum, hagiographic works such as vitae
or canonization processes knowingly integrate them within a pattern that mirrors the
expectancies of the day regarding the ideal of Christian perfection. 181 Among all of
this instances, asceticism – and fasting in particular – becomes a recurrence,
especially when it comes to women’s religious experience, in its lived dimension,
but also in hagiographies.
In this chapter, we will consider the case of the fourteenth century Italian saint
Catherine of Siena, a Dominican tertiary, known for her intense mysticism and
fruitful political militancy. She has also developed a firmly body-centered
spirituality, characterized – among other features – by a rigorous asceticism,
including an extreme fasting practice that ultimately became an inability to nourish
according to nature. 182 Saint Catherine’s increasing fasting and eventually foodless

extent, a “constructed saint”, since their image is shaped according to collective mental
representations, beyond their historical existence and actual personality. Therefore sainthood
comes to be proclaimed by the community (“saint par les autres”) and juridically validated by the
Church, through the canonization processes. Delooz, “Pour une étude sociologique de la sainteté
canonisée dans l’Eglise catholique”, Archives de sociologie des religions, 13 (Jan.- Jun., 1962),
23, 43.
181
Bynum, Holy Feast, 82-84. In a foregoing study I have asserted that, retrospectivelty, saints
imitate previous models and, prospectively, they become models to be imitated, thus being
explained the typologies and the striking similarities between holy people. See “Între memorie și
venerare. Imaginea sfintei Clara de Assisi în procesul de canonizare” [Between Memory and
Veneration. The Image of Saint Clare of Assisi in the Canonization Process], Buletinul Cercurilor
Științifice Studențești Arheologie – Istorie – Muzeologie [Bulletin of Student’s Scientific Circles
Archeology – History – Museology] 22 (2016), 91.
182
A survey of the topic regarding Catherine’s body-centered religious experience has been
attempted in the previous chapter, “What Else Do We Have but a Body? Reflections on an
Apparent Paradox”. In another train of thoughts, we need to mind that saint Catherine’s case is by
no means unique. Rebecca Lester, “Embodied Voices: Women’s Food Asceticism and Negotiation
of Identity”, Ethos, 23/2 (1995), 204. Actually, late medieval religious women related to the
Dominican spirituality were particularly prone to rigorous asceticism, including extreme fasting.
Ochsenbein, “Mistica della sofferenza”, 398-419.
58
subsistence appears virtually in almost all the accounts about her life: her two main
vitae, written by Raymond of Capua, respectively Thomas Caffarini, the testimonies
in her canonization process and also the canonization bull; 183 moreover, the majority
of this texts’ authors claim to be direct witnesses of this phenomena, although – as
we shall further see – they acknowledge different degrees of intensity as respects
food deprivation. On the other hand, Catherine herself deals with this topic in her
writings, a highly unusual attitude compared to her general impersonal teachings. 184
Under these circumstances, one question arises: is radical fasting just a landmark in
the process of constructing the image of a saint or is it something more about the
survival without corporeal food than a hagiographic cliché?
Before elaborating a response, we shall ascertain our methodology and the
distinctive traits of our approach, as this subject has largely been addressed and from
a variety of standpoints. We will not interpret Saint Catherine’s food deprivation as
a medical condition, 185 nor her food-related conduct as solely an identity or social

183
For Catherinian sources, see above footnote 101.
184
We shall ascertain that there is definitely an asymmetry between Catherine’s historical
personality and the hagiographic portrait framed by her biographers. Her saintliness was rather
unusual as it involved ambiguous phenomena – self-starvation being one of them – or the
unexpected attitude of political activism. Therefore, the advocates of her sainthood had to employ
imaginative strategies: Raymond accentuated the ecstatic dimension of her experience, while
Caffarini tried to insert her peculiarities – such as the stigmatization – into tradition. See Heather
Webb, “Catherine of Siena’s Heart”, Speculum 80/3 (Jul. 2005),802; Elena Lemeneva, “The
Borders and Borderlines of Sainthood: on the Stigmata of St. Catherine of Siena”, Annual of
Medieval Studies at Central European University Budapest 6 (2000): 193-202.
185
Within the general concern towards the growing incidence of eating disorders in Western
society, in the 1970’s and the 1980’s, psychoanalysis draws attention to the similarities between
anorexia nervosa and ascetical practices coming from various spiritual traditions. We can recall,
for instance, Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson’s study on Hinduism, “The Psychology of the Ascetic”,
Journal of Asian Studies, 35/4 (August 1976): 611-625. More specifically akin to our topic is the
article of the psychiatrist David Rampling, “Ascetic Ideals and Anorexia Nervosa”, Journal of
Psychiatric Research 19 (1985): 89-94, in which he particularly refers to Saint Catherine of Siena.
59
statement;186 her arduous fasting that will culminate in a supernatural sustenance will
be rather deemed an ontological fact, inseparable from the mystical nature of her
experience, and eventually of its theological significance. Observing Jesus’ example
of absolute compliance with the plan of the Father – to the point of assuming death
on the cross in order to atone for the sins of mankind –, by renouncing their will

In his view, her asceticism “included all the behaviors and resulted in the bodily changes which
we would identify as characteristic of severe anorexia; moreover, the same ‹clinical› characteristics
have been seen as an integral and necessary part of the charism which has enabled her to be
elevated to the highest levels of sanctity within the Roman Catholic tradition” (89-90). The
historian Rudolph M. Bell embraces a similar perspective, launching a new, controversial, concept
in his homonymous book, Holy Anorexia. Thenceforward, comparable approaches were proposed
by historians and medical specialists alike. We can further indicate several studies on the particular
case of Saint Catherine: Reda, Sacco, “Anorexia and the Holiness”; Skårderud, “Hellig anoreksi”;
Forcen, “Anorexia Mirabilis” (see above footnote 103). A related type of inquiry claims that
extreme asceticism, conjoined with intense, contemplative prayer, may lead to an alteration in the
state of consciousness, providing us with a scientific ground – based on neurosciences – for the
saint’s mysticism and ecstatic experiences. See Jake Winchester, “Food of Angels: Fasting and
Altered States of Consciousness in the Works of Catherine of Siena”, manuscript, 2014, retrieved
from
https://www.academia.edu/16836908/Food_of_Angels_Fasting_and_Altered_States_of_Conscio
usness_in_the_Works_of_Catherine_of_Siena (December 1, 2017).
186
This is the main intendment of gender studies. Its most acknowledged representative is the
historian Caroline Walker Bynum, whose seminal work cited above has the merit of retracing an
extensive cultural context for medieval female piety, emphasizing the key importance of food, as
both a metaphor and a practice within religious life. Food stands as the only resource women can
control and, besides, they came to be associated with it and its metaphysical connection to
physicality and particularly the corporeality and the humanity of Christ. Therefore, she rejects the
modern “diagnosis”: “The notion of substituting one’s own suffering through illness and starvation
for the guilt and destitution of others is not symptom- it is theology.” Holy Feast, 206. The author
also rejects the interpretation of women’s asceticism as masochism or internalized misogyny,
alleging that it was rather an exploration of the possibilities of their bodies. Just as Bynum,
historian Joan Jacobs Brumberg – author of Fasting Girls – is also indebted to a feminist creed;
this is also the case of other (female) scholars of religious studies, like Daphne Hampson –
Theology and Feminism (Oxford: Blackwell, 1990) – or Sarah Coakley – for instance, Powers and
Submissions: Spirituality, Philosophy and Gender (Oxford: Blackwell, 2002).
60
through an increasing ascetic training, the saints are given a renewed nature, on the
strength of their complete immersion into the divine. Accordingly, their very
physicality comes to be transformed, as they overcome biological limitations. Inside
the religious environment of the Middle Ages, and mostly in hagiographic literature
– all the more in early hagiographies, rather unmindful of the biographical precision
of the saints’ portrait187 – sainthood is, first and foremost, a theological phenomenon,
and no other explanation for its affiliated occurrences would have been equally
appropriate. We will therefore read it from the perspective of Christian anthropology,
according to which the saint grows into an imago Christi.188 Although we assume
that holy anorexia provides an inadequate, totally anachronistic argumentation, we
cannot ignore the gender-related determinations and the historical dimension of

187
The French medievalist André Vauchez states that, during the early Middle Ages,
hagiographers passed by the actual existence of saints and delineated “fragments of eternity”.
“Sfântul” [The Saint], in Omul medieval [The Medieval World] ed. Goff (Iași: Polirom, 1999),
287.
188
According to Jaroslav Pelikan, the saint is a “reflection of Christic virtues”. Tradiția creștină.
O istorie a dezvoltării doctrine [The Christian Tradition. A History of the Development of
Doctrine], (Iași: Polirom, 2006), vol. III Evoluția teologiei medievale (600-1300) [The Evolution
of Medieval Theology (600-1300)], 200-201. For the Western medieval context, this perspective
was expressed by Gregory of Tours, one of the great authoritative figures of the Church, so it
became part of the Christian tradition. Apud. G. Klaniczay, “Healing with Certain Conditions: the
Pedagogy of Medieval Miracles”, Cahiers de recherches médiévales et humanistes, 19 (2010),
236. Furthermore, Olivier Clément asserts that humankind has a Christological hereafter, so much
so that even the physical nature will become glorified, like Christ’s resurrected body. And it is the
experience of sainthood that exemplifies the spiritualized corporeality, as part of the raised mode
of the creature. See Riflessioni sull’uomo (Milano: Editoriale Jaca Book, 1991), especially 37, 105-
107. Jacques Burr clearly points out that the transfigured, glorified body will transcend the
limitations of the biological condition – and also worldly existence –, yet not as a flight from
matter, but a spiritualization of the whole being. Sens chrétien de l’histoire. Initiation au Mystère
du Salut (Paris: Éditions P. Téqui, 1973), 368-372.
61
devotional options, respectively sainthood paradigms. 189 Thus, in order to allow a
better understanding of our case study, we will compare hagiographic texts to the
saint’s own vision, disclosed through her writings. We shall also complement our
investigation with a diachronic perspective, taking into account earlier models
emerged in the Franciscan milieu, namely Clare of Assisi – as a fasting saint – and
Francis – as an alter Christus. Hereupon, fasting – as part of a wider range of
austerities, but associated with intense prayer and charity, too – is to be related to
practices such as imitatio Christi and imitatio sanctorum,190 and eventually becomes
a sign of the saint’s Christification. 191 In brief, Catherine’s fasting will be scrutinized
in manifold dimensions – ideological, historical, textual, and not least experiential –
, with the purpose to capture its meaning for the Catherinian milieu.

189
As regards the specificity of female religious experience and female sainthood, Bynum’s Holy
Feast remains the benchmark. The historical dimension of sainthood has been substantiated in the
work of Vauchez, Sainthood. Despite its universalism, mysticism is also conditioned by the
historical context, as proven by Peter Dinzelbacher – Christliche Mystik im Abendland. Ihre
Geschichte von den Anfängen bis zum Ausgang des Mittelalters (Paderborn: Schöningh, 1994) –
or McGinn – The Presence of God, 7 vol. (New York: Crossroad, 1991-2017).
190
These devotional patterns become fundamental in Western Christianity in the eleventh century,
in the context of eschatological expectations following the Millennium. The ideal to retrace
Christ’s earthly life co-occured with a penitential trend, that upholded the ascetic precedent of the
Desert Fathers. Lawrence, Medieval monasticism, 247 sqq. Actually, for Catherine of Siena, the
Desert Fathers represented a preeminent model. The Life, 26.
191
The concept is used on several occasions by the Italian historian Alessandra Bartolomei
Romagnoli in referrence to Saint Catherine’s case; see, for example: “La mistica, il dolore”, 113;
“Il corpo dell’estasi. Il lingaggio delle immagini dal medioevo al barocco”, Donne nello specchio
dell’Altissimo. Cuaderni di Arte, Cultura e Spiritualità (2014), 39. It is also employed by María
del Mar Graña Cid, who views Saint Catherine as a “feminine Christological model”. “Mística
feminina”, 84.
62
 II. Catherine’s fasting within hagiographic accounts: towards a
theological exegesis
Hagiographic accounts praise the saint’s virtues, among which the prodigious
fasting occupies a central place. Raymond of Capua regards Catherinian abstinence
as an exceptional achievement – comparable to the case of Mary Magdalene – which
only proves the degree of perfection God can impart to His saints. 192 According to
him, the saint gradually restricted her diet. At the age of six, when she received the
first vision of Christ, she diminished her food intake, as she got solicitous about
meditation and prayer. 193 Afterwards, her sister’s Bonaventura death made Catherine
realize the nothingness of the worldly existence; hence, at only fifteen years old, the
girl embraces the aim of godlikeness for good. She would eat nothing but bread,
water and raw vegetables; likewise, around the age of twenty she would renounce
even bread. The young woman had already been accustomed to unsavory food, but
she survived ever since on water, bitter herbs and the holy host alone. 194 In
Caffarini’s words, the saint discarded the levity of the juvenile life – giving up wine,
meat and bread – as she passed under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and her living
became miraculous.195
Whatever the psychosocial causes of Catherine’s behavior, we should not
overlook the mental atmosphere of the epoch, dominated by the belief that sin has
attracted God’s wrath.196 Following the great plague and its devastating

192
The Life, 27. Catherine herself had a special devotion for the Magdalene, who had lived in the
desert for 33 years in a total fasting, and also for Agnes of Montepulciano, another example of
radical abstinence. See also Vita, 120.
193
The Life, 5-7.
194
Ibid., 24,
195
Vita, 3-4.
196
Raymond also alleges that Catherine felt guilty about her sister’s death and categorically
refused to get married, pleading her cause through fasting. The Life, 13-16. In secondary literature,
63
consequences, there emerges the conviction that repentance is the only answer.
Under these circumstances, the penitential trend is reinforced. When she was
seventeen or eighteen, Catherine herself joined a local religious community, called
the Sisters of Penance, which forgathered devout lay woman – especially widows –
who undertook pious practices according to the spirituality of Saint Dominic and
fought together against temptation. 197 The endeavor to lead a holy life implied a
battle against fleshly drives and earthly fondness through renunciation and
asceticism. 198 Alongside fasting, Catherine employed sleep and rest deprivation,
using a couple of planks instead of a proper bed, vow of silence, voluntary mutilation
– through flagellation, or the use of an iron chain which stung the flesh, causing
severe pain –, together with continuous and fervent prayers and vigils.199 Ultimately,
all of the saint’s efforts prove their relevance within a Christic reference point: for
late medieval believers the self-inflicted pain of asceticism was a way of
identification with the suffering of the incarnate Lord.200 Thus mortification of the
flesh, and specifically investing it with a higher meaning, may have worked as a
coping mechanism in a time of great distress, when pain – both physical and
emotional – was irremovable, so that embracing it expressed conformity with God’s
plan. All the more, as hagiographies are retrospective accounts, ascetic practices are

this aspect is emphasized as an identitary option based on the allegiance that a life consecrated to
God requires the repudiation of the sinful flesh. Bell, Holy Anorexia, 38-41; Bynum, Holy Feast,
167; Reda, Sacco, “Anorexia and the Holiness”, 41-44.
197
The Life, 33, 36. Concerning the penitential ethos of the Dominican order, see Hinnenbusch,
Dominican Spirituality.
198
Casagrande, Vecchio, “Păcatul”, 588.
199
The Life, 25-26, 38. Vita, 4-5. The testimony of Augustin of Pisa Il Processo Castellano, 311.
200
See G. Klaniczay, “Illness, Self-inflicted Body Pain and Supernatural Stigmata: Three Ways of
Identification with the Suffering Body of Christ”, in Infirmity in Antiquity and the Middle Ages.
Social and Cultural Approaches to Health, Weakness and Care eds. Christian Krötzl, Katariina
Mustakallio, Jenni Kuuliala (Farnham: Ashgate, 2015), 124.
64
explicitly represented as means of preparing the union with the divine that can only
be attained through self-denial and detachment of the selfish will, which isolates
man from God. Through the neutralization of the ego, and the assimilation of the
individuality within the divine Oneness, a new person – inseparable from the latter
– arises.201
In fact, Christians assume that the body is a creation of God, and is neutral by
itself – it can mediate either grace or sin –, therefore its destination should be to
accomplish godly ends. 202 Towards the end of the High Middle Ages, Scholastic
theology determined that sin occurs when reason and will cannot compel
concupiscence;203 consequently, it was compulsory to strictly control the body and
subject it to the spirit, so that the latter might be freed from passions and not minded
to disobey the divine will anymore. 204 Concomitantly, medieval thinkers regarded
women as being more likely to comply with the desires of the flesh. Moreover,
gluttony and lust were considered female vices par excellence and went hand in

201
According to her confessor, Catherine received a vision of Christ in which he told her
“Daughter, think of me and I will think continually on thee” and translates it as an admonishment
to banish any personal thoughts, chiefly the concern regarding her own salvation. The Life, 44-45.
See Cavallini, “La verità nell’ascesi cateriniana”.
202
For the theological background, see Ware, “My helper and my enemy: the body in Greek
Christianity”, in Religion and the Body ed. Sarah Coakley (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1997), 90-110; see also Dailey, Promised Bodies, 2 sqq.
203
Casagrande, Vecchio, “Păcatul”, 586-587.
204
See Louth, “The body”, 119; Dunn, The Emergence of Monasticism, 16. Early Christian ascetic
literature – as the founding source of medieval asceticism – provides numerous acconunts of the
radical attitude towards the flesh, which is treated with outermost strictness, and even violence;
despite this, the danger “comes through the body”, it does not lie in the body, but in an
undisciplined use of the body. Von Thaden, “Glorify God”, 197-198.
65
hand, so that renunciation of food and renunciation of sexual intercourse were both
prescribed as solutions to relinquish worldly satisfaction. 205
Consequently, in order to have an authentic spiritual experience, women were
expected to live secluded lives and to undergo ascetic training. It is only once with
the foundation of the Mendicant orders and their openness to the lay society that
women find more options for their religious aspirations – apart from becoming
consecrated virgins – although significant austerities were still required. 206 Within
the Franciscan environment, women were given a model in the person of Saint Clare
of Assisi. In her legend, female gender is described as a weaker one, so her example
should serve as a guide for the surmounting of the respective disadvantage. 207
Hagiographic literature presents the saint as a tenacious fasting woman. In the
canonization process, Clare’s strict fasting appears to be a daily practice. She was so
severe in matter of food, that her merely survival seemed astounding to the fellow
nuns who gave depositions on her holiness.208 There is a recurrent detail the

205
Klapisch-Zuber, “Masculin/feminin”, 445. Actually, in medieval anthropological reflection, the
soul – regardless it belonged to a man or a woman – was an image of God. Therefore, it was their
bodies that engendered women’s weakness. Nancy Caciola, Discerning Spirits: Divine and
Demonic Possession in the Middle Ages (New York: Cornell University Press, 2003), 139, quoted
by Sarah Hanson, “Connections between Body and Soul: the Asceticism of Medieval Saints”, The
UCI Undergraduate Research Journal, XII (2009), 25.
206
Bynum, Holy Feast, 14 sqq. Whereas the model of female perfection represented by the Virgin
Mary was inimitable, Mary Magdalene – the penitent saint – provided a more approachable option.
Jacques Dalarun, Dumnezeu și femeia, 67.
207
Preface to The Legend, and also chapter V bis. As to the discussion about female religiosity in
the context of the emergence of the Franciscan model, see Romagnoli, “Il francescanesimo
femminile”. The author emphasizes that women largely and actively partake the new religious
movements, including the heretical ones that the Roman Church tried to overcome in the thirteenth
century. Thereby, Clare was presented as an orthodox choice for female devotional needs.
208
In the testimony of sister Pacifica, there appears the following remark: “E disse che nei cibi era
tanto stretta, che le suore si meravigliavano come il suo corpo vivesse.” Il processo, 7.
66
witnesses refer to, namely the fact that three days a week – on Mondays, Wednesdays
and Fridays – the saint ate nothing at all, whereas in the rest of the days she only
took bread and water. 209 Consequently, she became ill, for which reason Saint
Francis and the bishop of Assisi urged her to eat on a daily basis; thereupon, Clare
complies with this exhortation by virtue of the vow of obedience. In the bull of
canonization issued by Pope Alexander IV, we meet again with the motifs of the
three-day complete abstinence and a general sense of extreme frugality – so much
so it brought astonishment210 –, along with many other austerities.211 Moreover, her
unbelievable rigor, including her “continuous fasting, at every time of the year” is
extensively addressed in the legend, which follows and expands the motifs in the
canonization process which were broadly recalled in the bull. 212 Regarding her
“admirable and inimitable” fasting, it further alleges the supernatural force that kept
her alive, as well as her cheerful spirit and serenity that accompanied all her
austerities.213
As to Catherinian literature, fasting is taken to a whole new level. According
to her main biography, Catherine was twenty five or twenty six when she became
completely spiritualized, right away after the mystical marriage to Christ occurred.
Her bodily functions were entirely modified, so she would begin to live in a

Furthermore, sister Amata assesses that the Saint appeared to be fed by angels and sister Balvina
declares that her abstinence seemed impossible to be kept by a human being. Ibid., 36, 45.
209
Ibid., 24, 36. In a slightly different version, sister Benvenuta claims that, during Lent and Saint
Martin’s Lent, Clare took but bread and water and a little wine on Sundays. Ibid., 15.
210
Bull of canonization 15, 88.
211
“aveva per letto la terra nuda e qualche volta dei sarmenti, e per guanciale un duro legno sotto
il capo; era contenta di un'unica tonaca con un mantello di vile, rozzo ed ispido panno grossolano:
e mentre con così umili vesti copriva il suo corpo, sulla nuda carne si cingeva talora di un aspro
cilicio intrecciato con cordicelle di crine di cavallo.” Ibid., 88.
212
The Legend I, XI 17, 34-35.
213
Ibid., XI 18, 35-36.
67
supernatural manner, being freed from the need to consume food. 214 Her new
ontological state was attained as a consequence of literally tasting the blood from
the side wound of the Crucified during an ecstatic rapture; this came as a reward for
overcoming the disgust which she had previously faced while grooming a woman’s
festering wound. 215 Thenceforward, Catherine would be permanently and intimately
connected to her divine Spouse and her life would become a constant sequence of
ecstasies and miracles. 216
For medieval christocentric religiosity – particularly within female piety –, the
ability to survive without earthly food implies the accession to a supply of spiritual
nurture, materialized by the holy host.217 At this point, some contrasting details come
to light, which may be regarded as a mere tribute to the fact that human memory is

214
According to Raymond of Capua, Christ told Catherine: “I will diffuse in thy soul such an
abundance of grace, that thy body itself will experience its effects and will live no longer except
in an extraordinary manner...” The Life, 96 and further 98-102. See also the opening quotation. On
his turn, Caffarini reads Catherine’s prodigious abstinence as an effect of a divine intervention,
namely the sacrament of absolution administered to the Sienese virgin by Christ himself during an
ecstasy. Supplemento, 118 sqq. As to the nuptial experience – the incident that foreshadowed the
mystical union –, see The Life, 57-59.
215
Ibid., 86-87, 93-94. As Raymond notes, Christ approached Catherine with the following words:
“Never hast thou been dearer or more pleasing to me – yesterday in particular thou didst ravish my
heart. Not only didst thou despise sensual pleasures, disdain the opinions of men, and surmount
the temptations of Satan, but thou didst overcome nature, by joyfully drinking for my sake a
loathsome, horrible beverage. Well, since thou hast accomplished an action so superior to nature,
I will bestow on thee a liquor above nature. […] Drink, daughter that luscious beverage which
flows from my side, it will inebriate thy soul with sweetness and will also plunge in a sea of delight
thy body, which thou didst despise for love of me.” Consequently, Catherine applies her mouth to
the wound: “she drank long and with as much avidity as abundance; in fine, when our blessed Lord
gave her notice, she detached herself from the sacred source, satiated, but still eager…”
216
In this regard, Catherine experiences mystical phenomena such as the exchange of hearts with
Jesus – leading to an essential coalescence, to an identity of thoughts –, the stigmatization, the
mystical death (motif which will be reopened below) and even levitation. I have addressed this
topic in my article “Carne mizerabilă sau icoană vie?”.
217
Brumberg, Fasting Girls, 41-42.
68
only relatively accurate; furthermore, we assume it samples the veridicity of the
recounted events, which definitely appear as something else than a stereotypical
reccurence.218 Catherine’s primal complete fasting is related in the sources to the
feast of the Ascension of the Lord. 219 In the day of observance, Catherine ate bread
and vegetables, than she proceeded with her fasting, in an almost uninterrupted
course from then on. The Eucharist became her main food and equally her provision
of divine grace, which infused her entire being, ensuring inclusively energy for her

218
For instance, the statement above has to be nuanced in the sense that Catherine was seen going
without normal food for long periods of time. Raymond of Capua recalls that she confessed him:
“‹God satisfies me so›, she answered, ‹in the holy Eucharist›, that it is impossible for me to desire
any species of corporal nourishment.›” The Life, 102. Thomas Caffarini is slightly temperate when
he claims that the saint survived for weeks, even for months on the host alone, and by the end of
her life she lived in this condition for almost a year. Similar assertions appear in various
testimonies given in the canonization process: see Il Processo Castellano: depositions of Steven
Maconi, 237; Francis of Lucca, 315; Peter of Giovanni Ventura, 356-357. Francis of Lucca, for
instance, did not personally meet the saint, but he specifies to have learnt from trustworthy people
that Catherine’s frequent communion allowed her to forgo any other food but the host. Such a
perspective – indicative for the way in which the Catherinian model was disseminated and
receipted – stresses even more the importance given to the saint’s prodigious abstinence. Once
with the canonization bull issued in 1461, pope Pius II – a Sienese himself – officially sanctions
the sanctity of his fellow citizen and acknowledges Catherine’s asceticism, drastic fasting and
prodigious abstinence. On the latter aspect, the bull assumes the fact that the saint sometimes fasted
from Ash-Wednesday until the Ascension, surviving on the Eucharist alone. For not less than eight
years, she has been eating nothing but some juice of herbs, “which she could not even retain on
her stomach”; for her, eating was a punishment and the Holy Communion was a celestial banquet.
Bull of Pius II, Appendix, 400-401.
219
Raymond of Capua indicates a twelve weeks term, beginning with the Lent, while Bartholomew
Dominici offers as an inaugural milestone Passion Sunday and refers to a fifty-day time span. The
Life, 101; supplementary specifications at Dominici’s testimony, Il Processo Castellano, 283. And
that was not the only contradiction: Raymond pretends the saint kept her strength and mood during
all that time, but Bartholomew points out Catherine’s exhaustion and faintness, as she was afraid
that she would either die or start a whole new, miraculous way of life. As for Thomas Caffarini,
he speaks of a fifty-five days abstinence during Lent without any negative effects on her health.
Supplemento, 187-188.
69
body.220 Practically, the mindset according to which the soul can influence the body
– as the human being was conceived as a psychosomatic unity – entails the belief
that spiritual plenitude can compensate bodily shortage. 221 For that matter, the
miraculous fasting of the Sienese saint serves – according to her confessor – as an
objective demonstration for the biblical assertations that “Man shall not live on bread
alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4) – Christ
being the Word of God, whose actual body is consumed as the host –, respectively
“The righteous will live by faith” (Romans 1:17). 222 In a similar manner, Thomas
Caffarini states that Catherine’s miraculous survival was a way through which God
displayed his almightiness.223
Indeed, late medieval mysticism connects the world to the supernatural realm,
as the mystic embodies God’s message, prefiguring concurrently the promised
everlastingness through their faultless life. 224 From a theological point of view,
sainthood – as a universal vocation – follows the communion between the Savior
and his Church, invited to partake of his glory as he partook of our humanity, thus
the possibility for all human beings to be deified. 225 Consequently, the Christified

220
The Life, 101-102. The respective state is thus described by her confessor: “deprived of all
exteriorly, but abundantly nourished in the interior.” (102)
221
Bynum, “The Female Body and Religious Practice in the Later Middle Ages” in Fragmentation
and Redemption, 222. The high and the late Middle Ages advanced a new focus on the spiritual,
in close connection to the belief in the soul’s ability to influence the body. Hanson, “Connections”,
26.
222
The Life, 101.
223
Supplemento, 187.
224
See Peter Dinzelbacher, Vision und Visionsliteratur im Mittelalter (Stuttgart: Anton Hierseman,
1981), chapters 12-16, quoted by McGinn, “The Changing Shape of Late Medieval Mysticism”,
Church History 65/2 (Jun. 1996), 215.
225
Pelikan, Tradiția creștină, 200-201. In the matter of medieval views on the theme of deification
– very present in the writings of religious women –, see Thomas A. Fudgé, Medieval Religion and
its Anxieties. History and Mystery in the Other Middle Ages (New York: Palgrave Macmillan,
70
saint becomes a living replica of the earthly biography of the Savior, and also of his
divine nature that overrules the limitations of human existence. On top of that,
medieval Christianity professes a strong assurance that heavenly-like
incorruptibility might be reached ahead of time, as it is proven by the perfect
conservation of holy relics and the divine power they comprise, but also through the
living saints’ miraculous survival without food, the cessation of excretions, as well
as any phenomena defying biological functions. 226 As a matter of fact, the main
Christian thinkers proclaim – based on the prospect of the Apocalypse 7:16 – that
living in Paradise presupposes the remission of physiological necessities such as
hunger, thirst or sleep, the perdurable hungerlessness as a glorious fasting becoming
a privilege of the eternal beatitude.227 In this context, the previously mentioned
theme of Catherine’s mystical feeding – the Saint being offered to drink the blood
from Christ’s side wound – is presented by Raymond of Capua as an example of
heavenly feeding; it was thought that within the realm of the blessed nurture is
faultless, since a spiritual and miraculous nourishment ensured an endless delight
and a full satisfaction, yet never induced a sense of saturation. 228 In a similar manner,
Thomas Caffarini remarks that the privilege to be exempted from bodily demands is

2016) chapter “Sensuality, Spirituality, and Sexuality in the Religious Experience of Female
Mystics”, 157-181, especially 170-171.
226
Bynum, “The Female Body”, 194.
227
For that reason, fasting may be practiced in order to obtain a temporary liberation from the
fleshly constraints, approximating the practicioner to the angelic condition. Ledda, “Cibi del
Paradiso”, 119, 123.
228
Ibid., 121. This is how Raymond resumes the presentation of the respective episode: “in fine,
when our blessed Lord gave her notice, she detached herself from the sacred source, satiated, but
still eager, because she experienced no repletion at being satiated, nor pain at still desiring.” The
Life, 94.
71
granted to those few perfect ones that are mentally united to God, which fact allows
the release from lower functions.229
Against this background, the saint’s supernatural subsistence evinces its full
meaning only in relation to the Christic model she follows and into which she gets
to be absorbed.230 Around 1370, when she was twenty three, the Lord commissioned
her to launch into a public activity, 231 initiated with charitable deeds – such as giving
her own garments, distributing food or taking care of the sick and destitute. 232 Later
on, the saint would be able to perform miracles related to Christological precedents:
sinners were converted and eventually saved due to her prayers, physical ailments
were cured, demons were exorcised and so on.233 Furthermore, Raymond’s
description of the metamorphosis of Catherine’s face – which assumes the features
of the Savior in a moment when her confessor had doubts about the source of her
revelations – is particulary illustrative for the theme of the saint’s Christification, a
leitmotif in the legend.234
In this respect, within the context of the rivalry between the two main
mendicant orders, Saint Catherine may be compared to Francis of Assisi, whose

229
Caffarini’s deposition, Il Processo Castellano, 126.
230
Practically, Catherine’s life is presented in her legend as a faithful copy of the Gospel, as the
saint is identified with Christ through the mystical marriage, respectively through suffering. Cid,
“Mística feminina”, 74.
231
Despite the fact that, within the medieval society, women were kept at distance from the public
affairs, in the later Middle Ages – particularly in the fourteenth century – female saints, mystics
for the most part, benefited from favorable conditions for recognition. Within the context of the
moral and institutional crisis of the Church, saintly women were regarded as the only ones worthy
of receiving messages from God in a realm of (male) corruption. This was due to their hearty
religious commitment – partaking of Christ’s redemptive suffering – and their detachment from
worldly pursuits. Vauchez, Sainthood, 384.
232
The Life, 61-62 sqq.
233
Ibid., 152 sqq, 167 sqq, 182 sqq, 187 sqq.
234
Cid, “Mística feminina”, passim. For the aforementioned episode, see The Life, 43.
72
Christification was substantiated on the reception of the stigmata.235 As a matter of
fact, Catherine’s stigmatization – notwithstanding that it was sanctioned and
venerated in the Dominican devotional environment – has been disputed, precisely
due to the fact that bearing the holy wounds of the Lord had been recognized as an
exclusive prerogative of Saint Francis. 236 The Sienese saint’s likeness to Christ –
noticeable through her way of living and especially her readiness to suffer, as we
shall further see, as well as through the mystical phenomena which marked the route
of her fusion with the Lord – indicates in this case the arrogation within the Order
of Preachers of the special blessing with which God endowed their religious
community, as a response to the similar assumption made by the Franciscans.
Regardless the fact that Francis might have assumed a rather feminine path – as
Jacques Dalarun suggests 237 – we presume it was the theological significance of his
experience, namely his transformation into an alter Christus, that prevailed at that
time. And this is what the Dominicans emulated.

235
This episode of Francis’ life is present in all his primary biographies – Thomas of Celano’s Vita
prima (II, III 94-95) and Vita secunda (II, XCVIII 135), respectively Legenda major (XIII) and
Legenda minor (VI 1) written by Bonaventura of Bagnoregio. In other train of thoughts, it has
been noticed that there is a predilection towards relating Catherine’s life to male models of sanctity
(like Saint Dominic) as she was making her way through the public life, at least in her main
hagiography. On the other hand, rigurous fasting is based on female precedents. Cid, “Mística
feminina”, 78, 81. Moreover, as Gábor Klaniczay shows, it is at the level of female religious
experience that the model of Saint Francis – based on the pathematic understanding of Christ’s
suffering – is followed to the ultimate consequence of personally assuming the redemptive
passions. See “Illness”, 127 sqq.
236
Thomas Caffarini actually claimed the superiority of Catherine’s stigmata, which only remained
invisible due to her modesty. Lemeneva, “The Borders”, 197. See also Romagnoli, “La disputa
sulle stimmate”, in Virgo digna coelo. Caterina e la sua eredità. Raccolta di studi in occasione del
550ᵒ anniversario della canonizzazione di santa Caterina da Siena (1461-2011), ed. eadem et al.
(Cità del Vaticano: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2013), 407-446; Tamar Herzig, “Stigmatized Holy
Women as Female Christs”, in Archivio italiano per la storia della pietà, XXVI (2013),158.
237
Dumnezeu și femeia, 147 sqq.
73
 On the same note, Catherine’s new ontological level states under the sign of
the redemptive mission she was entrusted; thereby, the freewill imitation of Christ
by means of ascetic practices was followed by the divine privilege to atone for her
fellow’s sins and make amends for the sake of the Church. 238 This undertaking
primarily arises as imitatio Christi, in which terms suffering becomes the paramount
experience.239 It is this the interpretative key which upholds the salient allegations
about the saint’s inedia, according to which any attempt to eat is told to cause her
tremendous distress.240 This burden is manifestly not a feature of the glorified

238
See The Life, passim, for instance: [Christ told Catherine] “... but thou shalt expose thyself to
every species of fatigue in order to save their souls. Follow therefor courageously the inspiration
which will enlighten thee; for I shall draw, by thy aid, numerous souls from the gulf of hell, and I
will conduct them, with the help of my grace, to the kingdom of heaven.” (96-97); “I have already
promised thee, and I do promise thee to reform the Church my Spouse, by the sufferings of my
servants, whom I invite to expiate in union with thee, by sorrows and weeping, the iniquity of her
ministers.” (256).
239
For instance, the legend mentions that, during an ecstatic dialogue with her Spouse, the saint
has chosen the crown of thorns instead of the crown of gold: “‹Lord,› replied Catharine, ‹I have
long since renounced my own will, and have promised to follow thine in all things: hence I have
no choice to make but if thou wilt have me to answer, during this life, I desire to be conformed to
thy blessed Passion, and find my chief delight in suffering with thee.› Saying this she took the
crown of thorns with both hands, as the Saviour presented it to her, and pressed it on her head with
so much violence that the thorns entered on all sides. She felt the wounds sensibly after the vision,
as she herself informed me.” The Life, 89. Elsewhere: “My great consolation is to suffer, because
I am aware that by suffering I shall obtain a more perfect view of God.” (141-142). In his turn,
Bartholomew Dominici shows that Catherine considers herself united to Christ in suffering. Il
Processo Castellano, 273.
240
Caroline Walker Bynum suggests that Catherine took the challenge as a divine favor. Holy
Feast, 169. “When she was obliged to take food, she was so incommoded that it would not remain
in the stomach and it would be quite impossible to describe her grievous pains on such occasions.”;
“her stomach could digest nothing, and rejected whatever was taken into it; she afterwards suffered
the most terrible pains, and her whole body appeared to be swollen she did not swallow […] every
day, she was forced to throw up what she had taken, and that with so much difficulty, that it was
necessary to assist her by every possible means.” Raymond of Capua resumes that the saint’s new
condition raised suspicions, and her incredible living was deemed a possible temptation of Satan.
74
corporeality. Christ’s body kept its historical dimension and concreteness after the
resurrection, while being nonetheless spiritualized, acquiring the conditions of
impassibility, subtlety, agility and clarity, which the good will subsequently share
with him – "He will reform the body of our lowness, made like to the body of His
glory." (Philippians 3:21). Thereby, the Lord could eat with the disciples, although
not needing to (Luke 24:41-43, John 21:13).241 Thus Catherine’s inability to feed
herself in a natural manner was – as paradoxical as it may sound – rather a token of
her earthliness. More precisely, she was still belonging to the sinful world by means
of her biological body – which experienced degeneration and ultimately death 242 –,

Therefore, her confessor at that time, Thomas della Fonte, ordered her to eat. She obeyed by virtue
of obedience, but it brought her on the brink of death. In these conditions, Catherine convinced her
confessor that eating for her was a veritable suicide, for which reason she was allowed to persevere
in her fasting, as Thomas became assured this was God’s will. The Life, 95, 98-99, 108. On top of
that, the testimonies in the canonization process offer supplementary details. See, for example the
very illustrative account of Francis Malavolti: “...prendeva un po’ di insalata e di erbe crude o un
po’ di frutta e dopo avere masticato tali cose le restituiva di nascosto dalla bocca. [...] In questa
operazione la vergine soffriva talmente che la sua faccia appariva tumefatta, tale era la sofferenza
per fare uscire quel liquido da ogni punto dove fosse giunto. Il procedimento era il seguente, e cioè
era necessario che essa si appartasse con una delle sue compagne, bevesse aqua fredda e poi con
una pagliuzza di fieno o con una piuma, introdotte nella gola, con intollerabile pena, provocasse il
vomito di tutto ciò che era entrato nello stomaco.” Il Processo Castellano, 337. In his turn, Steven
Maconi declares to have repeatedly witnessed that the saint threw up blood and if she could not
eliminate whatever food or drink she had ingested she would eventually faint. Ibid., 237.
241
The aforementioned qualities are unravelled by Thomas Aquinas, one of the major theological
authorities in medieval times, all the more in the Dominican milieu from which he came. See
Summa Theologiae, trans. by Fathers of the English Dominican Province, online ed. Kevin Knight,
2016, retrieved from the website of New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia,
http://www.newadvent.org/summa/5.htm (December 4, 2017), Third Part, question 54, 55
(especially art. 6, on the episode of Christ dining with his disciples); Supplement to the Third Part,
q. 82-85. Besides, Aquinas states that the resurrected body would need no food because of its
immortality. Ibid., q. 81, art. 4.
242
In the legend, her condition before she died is thus described: “She appeared to die, because
the gross sense of mankind did not descry her glory”. The Life, 238-239.
75
so pain was to be embraced as an unavoidable part of the fallen state. On the other
hand, we must take into account that medieval female religiosity and mysticism is
primarily associated with and – from the part of its protagonists – focused on the
humanity of the Lord, so that saintly women relate themselves to the suffering Christ,
through mortification of the flesh. Under these circumstances, Catherine of Siena is
to be compared to the crucified Christ, which is why her ascetic strain and the general
relevance of pain within her piety are reported to increase as she advances in the
mystical union. 243 Nevertheless, the assimilation of the human nature of the Word
shall ultimately lead to a participation in His glory. 244
In any case, Catherine’s inedia is chiefly a manifestation of a personal
condition. Thereat, Bartolomeo Dominici’s testimony is particularly eloquent: he
declares that the saint imputed herself the vice of gluttony and saw in her disability
a favorable answer to the prayer of being punished for it. 245 As a result, she decided
to eat once a day along with the other members of her religious community to
counteract the skepticism surrounding her incredible lifestyle. She was in pain every
single time, but endured it as an opportunity to expiate her sins. 246 Accordingly, the
saint saw her torment as an act of justice. 247

243
Cid, “Mística feminina”, 78.
244
Raymond reveals that God told the Sienese virgin “the more thou wilt suffer for me, the more
thou will be like me, and... the more thou wilt resemble me in sufferings, the more, also, thou shalt
be like unto me in grace and glory.” The Life, 9.
245
Supplementary specifications at Bartholomew Dominici’s testimony, Il Processo Castellano,
284-285. Raymond also says that the saint was convinced that her state was a consequence of her
infinite trespasses. The Life, 105-106.
246
“she answered those who asked her why she took no nourishment – ‹God,› said she, ‹on account
of my sins, has stricken me with this infirmity which prevents me from taking food; I desire to eat,
but it is impossible.›” She furthermore refers to “the great grace He accords me of allowing me to
make satisfaction in this world.” Ibid., 105-106, 108.
247
“Come, let us do fit justice to this miserable sinner.” Ibid., 108. “Perciò essa chiamava questo
quotidiano supplizio di vomito ‹santa giustizia›.” supplementary specifications at Dominici’s
76
 III. An inner perspective upon supernatural sustenance
I have already pointed out that extreme fasting as a proof for sanctity becomes
a central topic in hagiographic literature. 248 On the other hand, as regards Catherine’s
case, confronting the hagiographic texts with the saint’s own writings – namely her
letters, a theological treatise entitled The Dialogue of Divine Providence, and a small
collection of prayers 249 – suggests that it captures the interest of the saint as well,
and in a truly personal manner. In very deed, this only enhances a sense of
genuineness towards that particular practice. At first view, fasting does not seem a
major concern for Catherine – ascertainment that also applies to Clare – and she even
recommended moderation to some of her correspondents. 250 Conversely, we have
seen the extent to which the testimonies on her life reflect the respective aspect of
Catherinian religious pattern. This apparent inconsistency is explainable if we take
into account that the two type of sources do not belong to the same genre, having
instead different aims, and being addressed to different audiences: 251 in the first
place, the saint’s writing is rather abstract and highly impersonal; 252 furthermore, she

testimony, Il Processo Castellano, 285. The same notion is evoked by Steven Maconi, respectively
Francis Malavolti (238, 337).
248
Bynum, Holy Feast, 83.
249
For the sources, see the aforesaid footnote 101.
250
Lettere CLXXIV, 539; CCXIII, 659. As to Saint Clare, see MWLL cited above (footnote 34),
letter 569 (37, 40).
251
This aspect is particularly made clear by David F. Tinsley, in relation to Catherinian asceticism.
The Scourge and the Cross: Ascetic Mentalities of the Later Middle Ages (Leuven: Peeters, 2010),
3.
252
The Dialogue is conceived as a revelation of the divine wisdom, disclosed by God to an
impersonal soul and by way of the letters, the saint gives advice regarding spiritual and sometimes
even practical issues. Actually, within the Abrahamic tradition, mystics may see themselves as
simple messengers of the Lord (although in the Middle Ages also emerges an autobiographic
mystical discourse). Anthony J. Steinbock, Phenomenology and Mysticism: The Verticality of
77
did not promote her lifestyle, which she found as being beyond her own agency. In
general terms, Catherine is silent about her experience, but she surely makes an
exception when it comes to her inability to eat according to nature. More than that,
one alarmed devotee inquired of her health, which clearly reveals the fact that the
unparalleled circumstance was an undeniable reality in the Catherine’s environment,
not merely a metaphor or a cliché.
The saint’s answer provides us with an inner outlook on her inedia. Catherine
confessed she would want to eat like everyone else and she has been praying and
constantly struggling to achieve that goal. 253 The saint described her condition as an
illness (infirmitá) and suggested therewith that it could have resulted from a demonic
deception; nevertheless, she hoped it was godsent, to help her suppress the vice of
gluttony, which she could not correct on her own, to her great misery. 254 In
Catherine’s view, any disability has a spiritual component, but simultaneously
involves pain, which is an opportunity to follow the way of the cross. 255 And under
the fulcrum of the cross – ergo the lead of Christ –, the demon would have no power
over her.256 In a reciprocal manner, the same emphasis on the dialectics between the
divine and the diabolical is present in Raymond’s biography and also in Caffarini’s

Religious Experience (Bloomington, Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2007), 241-242;

McGinn, “The Changing Shape”, 213.
253
Her words are highly eloquent: “E io vi dico, padre mio, e dicovelo nel cospetto di Dio, che in
tutti quanti e’ modi che io ho potuto, sempre mi sono sforzata, una volta e due il dì, di prendere il
cibo; e ho pregato continuamente, e prego Dio e pregherò che mi dia grazia che in quest’atto del
mangiare io viva come le altre creature, se egli è sua volontà, perocchè la mia c’è.” Lettere XCII,
290.
254
Lettere XCII, 289-290.
255
Ibid., CCCXIV, 1008.
256
“Ma io mi rivolgo, poi, e appoggiomi all’arbore della santissima croce di Cristo crocifisso, e
ine mi voglio conficcare; e non dubito che s’io sarò confitta e chiavellata con lui per amore e con
profonda umiltà, che le dimonia non potranno contro di me, non per mia virtù, ma per la virtù di
Cristo crocifisso.” Ibid., XCII, 290.
78
work.257 Despite the fact that the saint has never completed her struggle nor
sormounted the tension resulted from the relentless awareness of the fallen state –
so that she is constantly mindful of the abiding intrusion of the devil 258 –, her
entourage concludes that her extraordinary condition was definitely enabled by God.
For instance, Thomas Caffarini claims that Christ validated Catherine’s conduct and
even confirmed to the saint that her peculiar sustenance has been happening in
agreement with His will; more than that, she would have been encouraged to
persevere.259
Returning to the previous idea, we can distinguish thereby the saint’s own
statement with respect to the value of pain and of imitatio crucis withal, so much so
that her allegiance to the humanity of Christ can be asserted, reinforcing the
assignments of those who bear witness about her godlike existence. 260 To resume,
suffering is for her a path towards heaven – based on the fact that the salvation of
humankind was mediated by the cross –, an experience at the intersection between
divinity and humanness.261 Longing for God cannot be separated from the

257
The Life, passim, especially 98 sqq (on the suspicions raised by the saint’s inability to eat);
Supplemento, 187 (on the same topic).
258
Catherine has continuously been tormented by demonic temptations, against which she
countered with the increasing sternness of her way of life. The Life, 50-51.
259
“Figliuola mia, non mancare di confidenza; le opere tue sono a me molto grate, ed accette;
prosegui con perseveranza, e quiete di animo in esse.” Supplemento, 95. As to Raymond’s doubts
and eventual conviction that Catherine was acting under God’s consent, see footnote 59.
260
Catherine has been asking God for the permission to suffer for the salvation of her neighbor. Il
Dialogo II, 2; Le Orazioni XIV, 19; XXVI, 30; Lettere CCCXXXI, 1065. On the other hand, her
main exhortation in the letters adverts to the compliance with the crucified Christ (“conformarsi
con Cristo crocifisso”).
261
See Il Dialogo IV, V. Catherine proclaims that it was the Savior who, through the sacrifice of
the cross, professed the attitude of disregard to his will, respectively hatred against wicked flesh
and scourging the body in order to give satisfaction for the original sin. Le Orazioni I, 1; Lettere
CCXCIX, 943-944. Moreover, God tells the Saint that, as a consequence of the inherent
imperfection of human condition, man cannot be acquainted with God but through suffering. Il
79
disposability to endure pain for His sake and for the service of one’s fellows, hence
agony is a proof of the greatest love and is pleasing to the Lord.262 In the end, this
reflections may be perceived as Catherine’s affirmation of the ascetic option her
biographers speak about.263
In connection with the question of the saint’s struggle, one further clue
regarding the actual complementarity between her attitude and her disciples’
hagiographic perspective may be remarked. According to Steven Maconi, Catherine
uncovered her motivation to persist in the exhausting process of forcibly eating and
purging: besides the conviction that she was given the chance to correct the vice of
gluttony, and the determination to respond to those outraged of her striking
subsistence, by means of her perseverance she avoided being totally distracted from
her earthly existence, ensuring her body would not get unfeeling. 264 We shall remind
that, as a result of the new ontological level she had reached, the saint was perceived
to have been in a permanent state of ecstasy, in other words, as literally living in the

Dialogo LXXXIII, 72. I have formerly discussed the question regarding the prominence of
suffering for the Sienese saint in “What Else Do We Have”, 142-143.
262
“Molto e piacevole a me il desiderio di volere portare ogni pena e fadiga infino alla morte in
salute dell’anime. Quanto l’uomo più sostiene, più dimostra che m’ami: amandomi più cognosce
della mia veritá e quanto più cognosce più sente pena e dolore intollerabile dell’offesa mia.” Il
Dialogo V, 5. “E chi molto ama molto si duole, unde a cui cresce amore cresce dolore.” (CXLV,
154).
263
In the saint’s opinion, the flesh has to be restrained, in order to annihilate the selfish perverted
will and comply with the will of God. See Lettere CCLXXXVII, 906: “però la ragione con libero
arbitrio, e con la santa e buona volontà, si leva con odio e dispiacimento, macerando il corpo e la
carne sua, e occidendo la propria volontà col coltello della santa obedienzia.”; CCXCIV, 927: “la
miserabile carne [...] domarla col digiuno e vigilia e continua orazione...”.
264
This last reason is thus presented: “la mente, per mezzo di questa pena corporale, torna ad
occuparsi del corpo; altrimenti essendo la mente sempre così assorta, il corpo rimarrebbe
insensibile.” Testimony of Steven Maconi, Il Processo Castellano, 238.
80
spiritual realm. 265 While the devotees considered her a rather celestial being, in the
light of Maconi’s declaration, Catherine proves to be aware she had to abide in the
via crucis of the earthly, bodily existence. Thus she continued to pursue Christ’s
passions instead of delighting in his glory that had already been revealed to her in a
three-day vision equivalent to a mystical death, through which she was allowed to
directly contemplate heavenly reality. 266 Although the body – upon which she
projected a negative image, referring to it as an imprisonment of the true self, namely
the soul267 – turned out to be an impediment to the complete union with the divine
Spouse,268 the saint nevertheless assumed her corporeality. We presume this is due
to the fact that it enabled her to cultivate pain in imitation of Christ and to carry on
this way the Savior’s expiatory undertaking.
In another train of thoughts, we have particularized how the Sienese virgin
was told to have survived totally devoid of proper food; in fact, Catherine herself
appears to be committed to the possibility that spiritual nourishment may substitute

265
In this regard, besides the details previously specified (see footnote 38), we shall append one
more eloquent assertion of Raymond of Capua: “As soon as the thought of Jesus penetrated her
mind, the soul appeared to retire from the sensual part, and the extremities became cold, contracted,
and insensible. During her ecstasies, she was often lifted above the earth, her body pursuing her
soul, in order to shew the power of the spirit that attracted her.” The Life, 65.
266
“her spirit was so absorbed in the contemplation of heavenly things, that during three days and
three nights her body remained insensible; several persons present thought that she was dead, or
at the point of death. Others better informed, believed that she was ravished with the Apostle [Paul]
to the third heaven. When the ecstasy had terminated, her mind remained so filled with the
remembrance of what she had seen that she returned with difficulty to things of earth, and remained
in a kind of slumber or ebriety from which she could not be aroused.” Ibid., 127.
267
Il Dialogo CXLV, 154: “stando nella carecere del corpo...”; CLXVII, 185-186: “desidera
l’anima mia d’escire della carcere del corpo tenebroso...”; Lettere: CLXXXIX, 581-582: “l’uomo,
mentre che vive nella carcere corruttibile del corpo suo (il quale è una legge perversa, che sempre
lo invita e inchina a peccato)”. I have also emphasized this anthropological understanding of the
saint in “What Else Do We Have”, 141.
268
Cid, “Mística feminina”, 77.
81
the material altogether. For instance, the saint points to the fact that the Eucharist is
the actual “bread of life”, that God gave the mortals in order to fortify them during
their journey through this transient life.269 For medieval Christianity, the perception
according to which the body and the soul were indivisible and thus complementary
resulted in the inference that the flesh is also part of the divine plan and it will
eventually resurrect along with the soul, in a glorified state.270 In addition, as it
ensues from the conception of Saint Paul the Apostle, the body is more than a
biological entity: it is conjoint with a spiritual faculty that intercepts the divine grace,
so that a conduct concordant to God’s will may be assumed, and mirrors its impact
on the human being. For that reason, Pauline anthropology – which exert a
considerable influence on Catherinian thought, since the epistles are repeatedly
quoted in her writings – establishes an antithesis between a living according to the
flesh and a living according to the Spirit (Romans 8); the latter is the ultimate aim
of Christian existence and brings to light the transformative potential of the body. 271
Not coincidentally, Catherine’s new ontological condition highlighted in
hagiographic texts was secured through a triumph against the fleshly response that
interfered with her holy undertaking. 272

269
Il Dialogo CXI-CXII, 104; CXXXV, 140.
270
For the medieval conception about the posthumous fate, see Bynum, “Material Continuity,
Personal Survival, and the Resurrection of the Body: A Scholastic Discussion in Its Medieval and
Modern Contexts”, in Fragmentation and Redemption, 239-298, and eadem, The Resurrection of
the Body in Western Christianity, 200-1336 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1995).
271
Dailey, Promised Bodies, especially 2, 8. Regarding the authoritative role of the Scripture for
(female) mysticism see Roberto Rusconi, “La storia religiosa ‹al femminile› e la vita religiosa delle
donne”, in Innesti: donne e genere nella storia sociale, ed. Giulia Calvi (Roma: Viella, 2004), 184.
272
As one principle of mysticism denotes, the body is made available for the soul, in order to
perform God’s mission. Michel de Certeau, Fabula mistică [The Mystic Fable] (Iași: Polirom,
1996), 83.
82
 Furthermore, as the Dialogue introduces the miracle of multiplication of
loaves performed by Saint Agnes of Montepulciano, eating is designated as a vital
need of the imperfect, leaving room for a feasible unearthly subsistence; through
this, the saint shares Raymond’s aforementioned enunciation – based on the
Scripture – with respect to the transformation of man’s life according to the spirit.273
As an ensuing elucidation, Catherine asserts that after the Last Judgement –
consequent to the Savior’s crucifixion and resurrection – the human nature will be
regenerated and the saved ones will benefit from a transfer of the spiritual
abundance, acquired through divine grace, to the body. 274 All the more, in the same
fragment concerning Saint Agnes, there is a clear reference to Catherine’s own
experience of foodless survival. 275 To conclude, the saint’s thinking – as well as her
disciples’ – subordinates to the logic of the immanence of God, who directly

273
“perché pure dell’erba non vive il corpo della creatura, parlando comunemente e in generale di
chi non è perfetto...” Il Dialogo CXLIX, 159. Elsewhere, the Holy Sacraments are referred to as
food for the soul, which is the true nourishment of life: “Tu vedi che ne l'anima, per la vita sua, Io
l'ò dati i sacramenti della santa Chiesa, perché sono suo cibo: non il pane, che è cibo grosso e
corporale e dato al corpo, ma perch'ella è incorporea vive della parola mia. Però disse la mia Verità
nel santo Evangelio che di solo pane non viveva l'uomo, ma d'ogni parola che procede da me, cioè
di seguitare con espirituale intenzione la dottrina di questa mia Parola incarnate”. Ibid. CXLII,
147-148.
274
“Sì che non è il corpo che dia beatitudine all'anima, ma l'anima darà beatitudine al corpo: darà
dell'abbondanzia sua, rivestita ne l'ultimo dì del giudicio del vestimento della propria carne la quale
lassò. Come l'anima è fatta immortale, fermata e stabilita in me, così il corpo in quella unione
diventa immortale: perduta la gravezza è fatto sottile e leggiero. Unde sappi che 'l corpo glorificato
passerebbe per lo mezzo del muro, né il fuoco né l'acqua non l'offenderebbe; non per virtù sua ma
per la virtù dell'anima, la quale virtù è mia, data a lei per grazia, e per amore ineffabile col quale
Io la creai alla imagine e similitudine mia.” Ibid. XLI, 34.
275
Thus God can offer the righteous the following privilege: “davo e do una disposizione a quel
corpo umano, in tanto che meglio starà con quella poca de l’erba, o alcuna volta senza cibo, che
inanzi non faceva col pane e co’ l’altre cose che si dànno e sono ordinate per la vita de l’uomo. E
tu sai che egli è così, ché l’ài provato in te medesima.” Ibid. CXLIX, 159.
83
communicates with his creatures and actively intervenes in their lives. 276 The
hagiographic accounts about Catherine of Siena – particularly thoughtful about the
supernatural dimension of her existence –, as well as the teachings of the saint –
which primarily deal with the ideal of imitating Christ’s humanity and his suffering
– suggest the same Christological framework. While the theme of Catherine’s
Christification may seem a cliché indebted to hagiographic conventions – certainly
based on the prominent influence of theology and ultimately of religious belief –,
this standpoint shall be amended in accordance with the saint’s writings. The latter
comprise an inner insight into what definitely appears to be an actual happening –
specifically, her inability to eat in a natural way –, which complement and confirm
the claims of her devotees regarding their personal experience of this token of divine
grace.

IV. Conclusion
The attitude towards food evinced by Saint Catherine of Siena provides us
with a glimpse into the core of sainthood, as it has been understood by late medieval
Christianity; all the more concerning the ascetical and mystical path, the
Christological reference is indispensable, so that the saints are believed to share and
reflect the virtues of the Savior. Through fasting, alongside many other
mortifications, the Sienese virgin committed to imitate the Lord’s passions.
Subsequently, after becoming mystically united to Christ and being granted a whole
new, spiritualized ontological status, the saint would be exempted from the need to
eat regular food and only survived on the Holy Communion. However, she endured
tremendous pain in the effort to feed herself according to nature and found it a gift

276
Against this background, the saint ultimately ascribes her fleshly burden to the divine will.
Lettere CXXIV, 399.
84
from God, in order to correct her vices and expiate the sins of her neighbor.
Therefore, through suffering, Catherine partook the human nature of the Lord and
was promised that, correspondingly, she would benefit from His glory as well. We
can thus conclude that all questions related to the saint’s food deprivation – in both
hagiographic and personal acceptations – are ultimately subsumed to the purpose of
obeying and accomplishing God’s will.
There is undoubtedly a cultural ethos and a historical background in which
our case study integrates: it shapes the saint’s experience, respectively her
posthumous image, adjusting her fasting – either willful or glorious – to a pre-
established pattern. Nevertheless, Catherine’s inability to consume earthly food was
an authentic fact for her disciples and for the saint as well. Although the writings
about, respectively by the saint focus on different aspects, the hagiographic portrait
and Catherine’s own interests converge into the same ethical, anthropological and
cosmological paradigm, that ultimately consider fasting and its further implications
in a theological setting. 277 Thereby, the problem of Catherine’s supernatural
sustenance – aside from providing the opportunity to partake of Christ’s redemptive
suffering – testifies to the genuine belief in the transformability of matter according
to the spirit as a result of the saint’s Christification, and eventually foreshadows the
promised deification of the entire creation.

277
This finding prompts us to rethink, at least for this particular case, the bias concerning the
distance between female religiosity and its perception by their male entourage. In this respect, see
Mooney (ed.), Gendered Voices, particularly Hollywood’s contribution, “Inside out”.
85
 Chapter 4
A Glimpse into Iconography

The final chapter of this work shall cast a glance over imagery, for I regard it
not only as a visual exemplification, but as an insight into the perception of the saints
among the believers. I consider so inasmuch as images are deemed Poor Man’s
Bible, since the majority of medieval people were illiterate.
The medieval iconography of Saint Francis of Assisi mainly portrays him with
the stigmata, disclosing his intimate connection with Christ to the point of
experiencing the wounds of the crucifixion. The following image is the first known
representation of the saint, a 1235 panel by Bonaventura Berlinghieri, found in the
Church San Francesco di Pescia.278

278
Retrieved from https://www.wga.hu/support/viewer/z.html (January 10, 2020).
86
87
 Francis of Assisi is also renowned for his profound reverence toward poverty
and for his altruistic love for the entire creation. Nevertheless, food related motives
are omitted from Franciscan iconography, unlike female saints’ iconography, as we
will further see.

Renunciation of Worldly Goods, Giotto (1297-1299), Basilica Superiore di San

Francesco, Assisi279

279
Retrieved from https://www.wga.hu/support/viewer/z.html (January 10, 2020).
88
Sermon to the Birds, Giotto (1297-1299), Basilica Superiore, Assisi280

280
Retrieved from https://www.wga.hu/support/viewer/z.html (January 10, 2020).
89
 Regarding Saint Clare of Assisi, most of her representations – including the
earliest – introduce the motive of the lily, the symbol of purity and saintly virginity.
Though later on, the saint is depicted with the Holy Monstrance, as a token of her
Eucharistic piety, becoming directly associated to the spiritual food of the Eucharist.

Giotto’s fresco of Saint Clare holding the lily, ca. 1325281

281
Retrieved from https://www.wga.hu/support/viewer/z.html (January 10, 2020).
90
The painting below, dating at the earliest from 1620, is one of the first
representations of Saint Clare repelling the Saracens through a Eucharistic miracle,
elevating the Monstrance. It is a panel belonging to Francesco Montelatici,
pertaining nowadays to the Zeri Photo Library. 282

282
Retrieved from
http://catalogo.fondazionezeri.unibo.it/scheda/opera/55268/Montelatici%20Francesco%2C%20S
anta%20Chiara%20respinge%20i%20saraceni%20con%20l%27ostensorio (January 6, 2020).
91
 Saint Catherine of Siena is peremptorily related to the theme of heavenly
nurture, offered by Christ himself by means of his Holy Blood. This hagiographic
episode is indissociable from and cannot be fully understood but by reference to the
topic of the mystical marriage or changing hearts with Christ.

Giovanni di Paolo’s painting figures the mystical marriage of Saint Catherine to

Christ (ca. 1447-1465).283

283
Retrieved from https://www.wga.hu/support/viewer/z.html (January 10, 2020).
92
In the following, there is another depiction of the same topic: the Virgin Mary
holding the Christ Child gives Saint Catherine the ring. The picture is attributed to
the Sienese painter Benvenutto di Giovanni, and dates approximatively from the end
of the XVth century. 284

284
Adriana Oddasso Cartotti, Insegnamenti cateriniani (Roma: Edizione Cateriniane, 1977), s.p.
93
Painted sometime between 1447 and 1465, the panel of Giovanni di Paolo illustrates
the change of hearts between Saint Catherine and her heavenly Groom. 285

285
Retrieved from https://www.wga.hu/support/viewer/z.html (January 10, 2020).
94
The meaningful theme of Christ nourishing the saint with the blood from His wound
is represented by Sano di Pietro in the second half of the XVth century. 286

286
Retrieved from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sano_di_Pietro_001.jpg?uselang=it
(January 6, 2020).
95
The same value in emphasizing the centrality of spiritual, Eucharistic nourishment
for Saint Catherine has the topic of the miraculous Communion. First, we recall the
painting of the above-mentioned Giovanni di Paolo (ca. 1447-1465).287

287
Retrieved from https://www.wga.hu/support/viewer/z.html (January 10, 2020).
96
At the beginning of the XVIth century, this motive transcends the boundaries of the
Italian space. The next painting, by a Polish artist, portrays the Saint receiving the
Holy Host directly from the hands of Christ. Moreover, it exemplifies her stigmata,
the wounds of the Crucified Savior on her hands. 288

288
Retrieved from
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Comunione_Santa_Caterina.jpg?uselang=it (January 6,
2020).
97
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