16 October 2012. On the occasion of the official Italian celebrations for WORLD FOOD DAY in the Monumental Hall of the Library the book “The food of the cloisters. Dishes and desserts of the monastic tradition” by Angelo D’Ambrosio is presented.
For our part, we celebrate the anniversary with this editorial. This is an article published in the catalog of the exhibition entitled Food and the rule, set up in Casanatense for World Food Day 1996.
by Sabina Fiorenzi
The denial of food in the lives of Dominican saints and blesseds
“Everything I told you, my Truth already said. I have explained it to you from the beginning, speaking to you in his person, so that you may know the excellence in which the soul finds itself, which has climbed this second staircase, where it knows and acquires so much fire of love, that it immediately runs to the third , that is, to the mouth; thus she manifests that she has reached the perfect state. Where did she come from? For the heart. Because by the memory of the Blood, in which he was rebaptized, she left imperfect love, knowing the true love of the heart, seeing, tasting and feeling the fire of my charity. They have reached the mouth, and they demonstrate this by performing the office of the mouth. The mouth speaks with the tongue, which is in it; taste tastes; the mouth retains the food, delivering it to the stomach; the teeth crush it, because otherwise it could not be swallowed. This is what the soul does. First speak to me with the tongue that is in the mouth of holy desire, that is, with the tongue of holy and continuous prayer. This language has an external word and a mental one… I say that she eats, taking the soul as food on the table of the most holy cross, since she could not in any other way or at another table truly eat such food perfectly. I say she crushes it with her teeth, otherwise she couldn’t swallow it; crushes it with hatred and love, which are two rows of teeth in the mouth of holy desire, which receives food and crushes it with self-hatred and the love of virtue… And then having crushed this food, he enjoys it, savoring the fruit of labor and the delight of the food of souls, tasting it in the fire of my charity and that of others. Thus this food reaches the stomach: the stomach of the heart, which due to the desire and hunger of the souls was willing to receive it, with cordial love, with delight and charity towards others. Then he delights in it, and ruminates it in such a way that he loses all tenderness towards his corporal life, in order to be able to eat this food taken from the table of the cross, which is the doctrine of Christ crucified. Then the soul grows fat in true and real virtues, and swells so much from the abundance of food that the clothing of its own sensuality, that is, of the sensitive appetite of the body, which covers the soul, breaks. Whoever dies, dies. Thus the sensitive will remains dead. This happens because the well-ordered will of the soul is alive in me, it is clothed with my eternal will, and therefore the sensitive will dies. This is what the soul does that has actually reached the third staircase, I mean the mouth; and the sign that she has reached it is this: she has killed her will, and therefore the sensitive will dies… “. Catherine of Siena, Dialogue of Divine Providence, chapter 76
It seems almost paradoxical that St. Catherine herself developed a metaphor so closely connected to the theme of food, an aspect of human life that this saint has always strongly abhorred and strenuously denied. Yet, in this long description of the path of food – the spiritual one, true nourishment of the soul (and only nourishment of the body too, as far as it is concerned) such as ardent charity and holy and continuous prayer – one senses a sort of complacency, such meticulous precision, such attention towards this process (bringing to the mouth, chewing with the teeth, savoring with the taste, swallowing so that the food reaches the stomach and therefore achieving satiety and fatness), which are only justified if they think they are written by someone who has analyzed this process – bodily this time – in depth in order to appropriate it and then get rid of it in one fell swoop, like someone who drops a heavy ballast that hinders their flight. The ballast that hinders the soul’s flight towards God is precisely the body with its primary needs: first and foremost that of nourishment.
A rigidity and rigor already at the limit of human capabilities were required of the Dominican religious, men and women who chose this Order for a strong vocation to the apostolate, but also, evidently, for a desire to abandon the world: two needs that are only apparently contrasting , on the contrary perfectly coexisting. Absolutely extra-ordinary characters, however, are those who, having chosen a new family in which to live in the service of God and others, with a small leap, almost inadvertently, cross the divide that divides men from saints. Beyond that ditch there is a lonely and arid land, where the only nourishment of the soul hungry for God is prayer and the only heat it receives comes from the burning fire of charity.
The hagiographic tale narrates, with more or less imaginative variations in a rather rigid scheme, the stages of the life of the saints, the blessed, the venerable, men and women, placing a preliminary ruling at the basis of everything: each of them has given up eating, some immediately, even before being born, inducing the mother who leads him to abstain from certain foods. Others, certainly unconsciously, refuse milk from the very first moments of life and continue not to eat for entire days, without this negatively influencing their state of health. All this is interpreted and proposed to the reader as a sign of the Lord’s benevolence towards these chosen ones of him. But why is such a common gesture, so natural and primitive in its most elementary meaning linked to the perpetuation of life, attributed such a strongly negative value, so much so that the simple action of eating is considered to be the antechamber of Hell? Caterina says it: because of self-hatred and for the love of virtue, and self-hatred necessarily passes through the annulment of one’s corporeality.
Dominic, in adopting the rule of St. Augustine for himself and his followers, had made a very precise choice: he had wanted a loose-knit rule, to be thickened with the Premonstratensian constitutions, to be further tightened, as regards the norms on food and fasting, with a restrictive vision, a position of almost rejection towards these aspects, which have always been the subject of reflection and final denial in the life of religious people. He had placed a very strong emphasis on the absolute necessity of abstinence and fasting both on the part of himself and his friars, from whom he categorically demanded respect for these precepts. Poverty and, consequently, begging are the foundations of the Order and the intransigence and severity, bordering on cruelty, of Dominic are handed down in all the Lives of the Saint:
And not only did the Holy Father desire poverty in buildings, but beyond that… he also craved it in all other things especially in eating, so much so that he did not want to agree in any way that he should provide himself with food, one day for On the other hand, because it often happened that the Friars found themselves without bread and without anything other than living, he took as much pleasure in it and was as happy with it as someone else would have done with any precious treasure acquired. And if sometimes, on the contrary, it was necessary for his religious to have some abundance of food, he was distressed from within, also showing no small signs of his discontent on the outside. Therefore, once giving the Procurator to the friars at the table, a little more than what, in his opinion, was suitable for that rigorous abstinence… he shouted loudly and harshly rebuked the said Procurator, telling him, so you want to kill my Friars ? And yet… the procurator had not exceeded in anything other than giving the Friars a few more eggs or a few pieces of fish, beyond the ordinary and miserable food that was given to them “. G. M. Pio, Della nobile et generous progenie di S. Domenico, p. 409.
This sought-after shortage of food meant that very often the friars of Dominic’s convent had nothing at all to eat, a situation which gave rise to the saint’s performance of at least two miracles. The friars didn’t even have what to compose the “pittanza”: warned of this, Domenico gathered them all in the church and with them began to pray to the Lord, trusting more in him than in men. But one day in the convent there wasn’t even a crust of bread: ” So it happened… that the same Prosecutor went to find him again [S. Domenico] and told him that he had no more than two loaves of bread in the convent that he didn’t know how to provide food for the Friars that whole day… Son, he replied, don’t worry don’t despair, because you won’t lack the no bread for everyone. So having had that bread given to him, he cut as many small pieces as there was the number of friars (which was also large) and then having had the blessing of the table done, they all sat down at the table and ate abundantly and to their heart’s content, feeding on that little bread alone. , and nothing else, with as much taste and satisfaction as if they had feasted on copious and lavish foods… “. Op. cit., ibidem
And the second time there was the famous intervention of the two angels who supplied the friars with bread and dried figs.
The decision to adhere to the Dominican rule sometimes appears dictated by chance, such as the presence of a community of preachers in the area where the religious aspirants live; but often also from the desire to adhere to a particularly strict monastic lifestyle with regards to food regulations. Caterina de ‘Ricci, wanting to embrace religious life at a very young age, visited many monasteries before choosing that of S. Vincenzo di Prato, because she seemed to find there the primitive austerity of the dictation of St. Dominic. The path to perfection is paved with renunciations, abstinence, corporal and moral mortifications; man’s suffering, however great, is not even comparable to that of Christ on the Cross, and identification with the Passion, the ultimate goal of mysticism, can only be achieved by denying human nature and all his miseries. First of all the need to eat. Therefore both men and women sustain themselves miraculously with the Eucharist, they fast for days and days (even 80 in a row, as is said of St. Catherine of Siena), they barely swallow a little bread, herbs or legumes, they mortify taste, by sprinkling ash on that already miserable food, they refuse even the little wine that would be permitted by the rule they follow. Or rather, which they should follow.
In fact, their abstinence goes well beyond the rules, which they would also be required to obey: total fasting is a constant practice and only the insistence of family members or confreres or of the doctor or confessor very rarely serves to induce them to take some particle of extra bread or some kind of comfort, exclusively during illness.
But almost always the surplus compared to their usual rigid diet is expelled: “Here it will be the place to mention her abstinence, which was so rigorous and continuous that her entire life can be considered a perpetual fast that began as a child, when she placidly remained without breastfeeding for a considerable period of time, and sometimes for a few whole day. Little girl never wanted to eat sweet, ripe fruit or meat. And although as she grew up she was forced by her parents to eat this, nevertheless, hearing her first confessor explain to her a few months later what fasting was, she immediately resumed her initial abstinence from all sorts of meats, from which she could no longer possible to remove it. As an adult, she refreshed herself only once a day with such a small quantity of bread, that she did not reach two ounces, and with a few leaves of salad. Sometimes she ate some legume soup, leftover from four or five days, often worm-eaten. She drank pure water, or vinegar, and of this in large quantities, to further mortify herself, or boiled lupins, with the flour of which she also formed biscuits to eat instead of bread. Sometimes she spent days, and even entire weeks, without tasting any sort of food at all, subsisting on water alone. Generally speaking, regarding food, she observed the Rule given to her by Saint Catarina, and it was this. From 14 September, when the Exaltation of the Holy Cross is celebrated, until Christmas, bread and salad leaves. From Christmas to the first day of Lent, bread and water. From Lent to Easter she would eat the salad again. For the remainder of the year, either bread or soup in the aforementioned manner. For salad she used a certain mix of artichoke leaves, rue, wormwood, or other very bitter herbs. And although the Confessor towards the last years of her life forced her to moderate such rigid abstinence, nevertheless this did not serve to increase her torment, since as soon as she took any food, or substantial broth, she was forced to vomit it not without much trouble, and pain of stomach. She also wanted the Lord on several occasions to manifest his will in this regard with various wonders, of which we will be content to note a few of hers. Having once expelled Claudia from her home, and having taken refuge with her, a neighbor of hers wanted to make her eat certain meat; but as soon as she took a bite she immediately felt her palate becoming soggy, and her fingers, which had touched it. So she had to immediately spit it out of her mouth. At another time, having placed a mushroom that had been given to her to cook on her embers, it suddenly turned into a toad. “. G. Marangoni, Life of the servant of God Sister Claudia de Angelis, p. 84-85.
Another example, among the many that can be given: certainly the most famous case, that of St. Catherine of Siena, whose rule of life inspired the Dominican nuns aspiring to perfection who came after her: “Having reached the age of seven… she decided to make a vow to God of perpetual Virginity… Having made this vow, the Sacred girl thought, to better observe it, to abstain from eating meat. Because while at the table, she often gave her part to Stefano, nicknamed her brother; that is, she threw it (but secretly so that her mother wouldn’t shout at her) at her cats. And what amazes and marvels is that in her soul in those days such an ardent zeal and desire for the conversion of sinners and the salvation of souls was kindled that she had the fantasy of changing her habit several times, and under species of man, like another Euphrosyne, or Eugenia, to enter any Monastery, or Convent, in order to be able to better help the souls who were perishing… In the fifteenth year of his age the wine, which had previously been so watered he drank, who believed in nothing else than the color, and left the simple and raw water for the rest of his life, contenting himself with it. In her early years, as we mentioned above, she also abandoned her flesh and abhorred it so much that she was even offended by the smell of it. In about the twentieth year, she also deprived herself of the use of bread, feeding herself only on raw herbs. Ultimately, not by use, nor by nature, but only by a divine miracle… this blessed virgin reached such a high state that although her little body was subject to many infirmities, and aggravated by many labours, nevertheless the consumption of radical moisture there was no place in her, nor did the stomach perform its duty of digestion, nor did her bodily strength weaken in any way due to the deprivation of food and drink: so much so that her whole life appeared miraculous. ” S. Razzi, Life of the glorious virgin St. Catherine of Siena, p. 6-7, 22-23.
Anorexia, we would say today. True: women soon became anorexic, while it would seem that men faced abstinence and fasting without any particular psychological implications. There is almost never talk of vomiting or more or less severe ailments after eating food by the friars, while it is very frequent, if not the norm, for the nuns.
The men, who, carrying out their preaching mission and following in the footsteps of the holy founder, live a life of greater energy expenditure, do indeed put into practice the same fasting strategies as their sisters, but one has the sensation that their deprivations are less rigid, or that the hagiographer gives less importance to their privations, underlining them only rarely and only when they become a striking case of proof of sanctity: “His abstinence was such that once he almost died from it, although due to his continuous and long fasts and little eating, the meatuses of his throat and his mouth with his teeth dried up in such a way. They closed so tightly that they could barely be opened with many instruments to allow a little liquor or food to be fed into the stomach. And although he escaped from that danger, because the Lord had destined him to be the great champion of his Church, and he moderated to a large extent his rigid abstinence, yet so moderate, it remained so rigid that it was judged to exceed human strength. “. A summary of the life of the glorious martyr St. Peter, p. 4-5.
Mortify oneself, do penance for sins and faults, completely annihilate oneself in the contemplation of the Crucifix, relive the passion of Jesus on one’s body, drink one’s soul from the source of charity, nourish oneself through mystical communion with the wounds of the Lord. It is an exhausting, continuous training in subtraction: first the meat is removed, then all the other foods that the rule prohibits, then bread is also given up, even those bitter and disgusting herbs found in the fields and on the edges of the paths and finally even water, an absolutely essential element for survival. To further humiliate themselves, some of them place themselves in front of food and water, observe them intensely, give thanks to God for having created them and then reject them; it’s like witnessing a sort of courtship at the end of which the suitor censors himself, denying himself the conclusion that would satisfy his desire. And if it is absolutely essential to drink, then let the water be at least hot and disgusting; and if it is absolutely essential to eat, at least the food should be as repugnant as possible.
It almost always happens that the father confessor is involved by relatives or superiors to convince them: that they feed themselves at least a little, their health is in danger (as if this depended on earthly and material factors, rather than supernatural ones!) and furthermore their behavior is a source of scandal. Out of pure obedience they agree to ingest a little food, also aware – and therefore even happier – of the suffering that such a departure from their habits will entail.
Athletes of faith, they are called the saints: their spiritual father is like a coach who fine-tunes the diet for his champion. And so among tests, attempts, experiments to which these champions of Christ meekly submit in a spirit of humility and obedience, we try to reconcile holiness with human needs. This is not possible. It seems to see them with a lost, vague smile on their lips (as their “portraits” show them to us, on the frontispiece of their Lives), absolutely submissive, docile and meek accepting all impositions, while with the heart, with the soul, with their spirit and with what remains of their body they stubbornly proclaim, infinitely, their unique, absolute, all-consuming love for Christ. They always win: they return to fasting.
During the ecstatic visions, the rats, many of them drink from the wound on the side of Jesus and after having tasted the very sweet and ineffable flavor of that holy blood, no earthly nourishment can be taken, except for the consecrated host: body and blood of Christ in mystical communion is transfused into the body and blood of the saints, but above all – and what is much more important – they nourish their soul. Drinking the blood, eating the body, expressions full of symbolism and ancestral references: the language of mysticism exudes the more physicality, the stronger the urgency of signifying its total annulment in the mystical union with Christ. These women, these absolutely unregulated men, want to lose themselves in Christ, the outsider par excellence. They exceed in everything: they don’t eat, they don’t sleep, they don’t have physical relationships of any kind with other human beings, unless it’s their neighbor who is suffering and in need of acts of charity, in whom however they see not so much men and women , as Christ on the cross. They do not speak, rigidly observing the Dominican rule of silence and they pray, pray continuously, having reduced, or elected, their body to a sacrificial altar.
The love that God brings to these special children of his materializes in the harsh trials to which they are subjected. Added to voluntary corporal mortifications are illnesses (which are only rarely interpreted as being caused by the terrible living conditions to which these women and men voluntarily subject themselves), temptations of all kinds and there is also the suffering caused by the misunderstanding of family members and the world. that surrounds them. Their life outside the rules is often embarrassing, leads to suspicion, generates doubt, disorientates even the most sensitive consciences: the devil is always lurking, we need to be vigilant. The desire for total annihilation, for the destruction of the flesh for the exclusive benefit of the spirit, is certainly a diabolical temptation, a sin of pride. It is not permitted for man to voluntarily lose his body, even if this happens in the name of Christian mortification. Death is not accepted or justified when it originates from an excess of deprivation. Because Christ never despised the body of man, in which he even chose to incarnate himself, towards whose weakness he always felt compassion and pity, dedicating his miracles to it and to his health.
And in truth the saints do not deny the weakness of the flesh of others, but only of their own: to the crowds of needy people who surround them they grant not only the comfort of the spirit, but also that of the body: and here is the multiplication of bread, oil, honey, recovery of spoiled flour or wine and the list could continue, although with a rather limited typology. They follow the example of Jesus: the sufferings and needs of their brothers and children in Christ are their constant thoughts and compassion, combined with a fervent charity, is the feeling that guides them in performing these miracles, which all have the aim of feed the people devoted to them. Only towards themselves do they continue to be absolutely implacable without ever compromising: man does not live by bread alone – this is the evangelical precept that lies at the basis of this daily relationship with food. Even though they very often don’t even allow themselves that.
Agnese, Caterina, Vincenzo, Claudia, Ludovico, Colomba, Pietro and many other simple names, of simple men with a great dream: to become perfect, like angels, without a body. More, like Christ, whose passion and death on the cross they celebrate, every day, on their own skin, praying, fasting; flogging, despising and humiliating one’s own body, but also exulting and glorifying the Lord and all his creatures.
And, finally, dying.