Saint Catherine of Siena was anorexic?

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I just returned from a class (I’m in college, prayers would be greatly welcomed) on P.E. for K-6 education – and today’s focus was on eating disorders. The professor showed us a videotaped Nova special on anorexia nervosa and bulimia. Suddenly out of nowhere, there was Saint Catherine. They showed that beautiful picture we are all familiar with of her cutting her hair, then of her in habit adoring a crucifix – and then, the narrator said “Catherine of Siena died at age 33 of starvation.”
I wanted to jump out of my seat, but I realized I didn’t have her actual cause of death filed away in my memory. I do, however, feel certain that she did not die of anorexia! :rolleyes: Can anyone help me out?

Thanks,
Cherub
 
Well, the Catholic Encyclopedia at New Advent says this:
In the Eternal City she spent what remained of her life, working strenuously for the reformation of the Church, serving the destitute and afflicted, and dispatching eloquent letters in behalf of Urban to high and low in all directions. Her strength was rapidly being consumed; she besought her Divine Bridegroom to let her bear the punishment for all the sins of the world, and to receive the sacrifice of her body for the unity and renovation of the Church; at last it seemed to her that the Bark of Peter was laid upon her shoulders, and that it was crushing her to death with its weight. After a prolonged and mysterious agony of three months, endured by her with supreme exultation and delight, from Sexagesima Sunday until the Sunday before the Ascension, she died. Her last political work, accomplished practically from her death-bed, was the reconciliation of Pope Urban VI with the Roman Republic (1380).
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EWTN says this:
On April 21, 1380, a paralytic stroke made her helpless from the waist downwards, and eight days later she passed away in the arms of her cherished friend, Alessia Saracini. The Dominicans at Rome still treasure the body of Catherine in the Minerva Church, but Siena has her head enshrined in St. Dominic’s Church. Pope Pius II canonized Catherine in 1461. The saint’s talents as a writer caused her to be compared with her countrymen, Dante and Petrarch.
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The secular Bartley site says this:
1347–80, Italian mystic and diplomat, a member of the third order of the Dominicans, Doctor of the Church. The daughter of Giacomo Benincasa, a Sienese dyer, Catherine from early childhood had mystic visions and practiced austerities; she also showed the devotion to others and the winning manner that characterized her life. At age 16 she entered the Dominican order as a tertiary and lived at home. In 1370, in response to a vision, she began to take part in the public life of her time, sending letters to the great of the day. She went to Avignon and exerted decisive influence in inducing Pope Gregory XI to end the “Babylonian captivity” of the papacy and return to Rome in 1376. She helped bring about peace between the Holy See and Florence, which had revolted against papal authority. In the Great Schism, she supported the Roman claimant, Pope Urban VI, and worked vigorously to advance his cause. She also advocated a crusade against the Muslims. In 1375 she is supposed to have received the five wounds of the stigmata, visible only to herself until after her death. She became the center of a spiritual revival and a formidable family of devoted followers gathered around her. Though she never learned to write, she dictated hundreds of letters and a notable mystic work, commonly called in English The Dialogue of Saint Catherine of Siena or A Treatise on Divine Providence (or both as title and subtitle), which has been much used in devotional literature. She was canonized in 1461 and declared a Doctor of the Church in 1970. Feast: Apr. 29. The accounts of her life collected by her followers were used in a biography by her confessor, Fra Raimondo da Capua (1398).
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She “practiced austerities” is as close as even a secular site got to addressing, even glancingly, her practice of abstention from food save the Eucharist. . .and it’s a blind leap from there to “died of starvation”.

Sheesh. You know what Nova is Spanish for, right?
NO GO.

Food (so to speak) for thought. . .
 
Tantum ergo:
Sheesh. You know what Nova is Spanish for, right?
NO GO.

Food (so to speak) for thought. . .
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😃 Thanks for the resources, and the laugh. It really did seem like “NO GO” to me. Like I said, the clip about Saint Catherine seemed to come out of the blue, like it didn’t even belong in the documentary. It was as if the editors were going over the final cut and one of them noticed something was missing:

“Hm, there’s something missing here. Ah! I know: we forgot to ridicule a Christian. The world of academia will never buy this unless we have a blatant attempt to undermine at least one Judeo-Christian paradigm. Let’s make it look like the Church loved to suppress women by making them feel inferior about their weight.”
 
“Hm, there’s something missing here. Ah! I know: we forgot to ridicule a Christian. The world of academia will never buy this unless we have a blatant attempt to undermine at least one Judeo-Christian paradigm. Let’s make it look like the Church loved to suppress women by making them feel inferior about their weight.”
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:rotfl:

Thanks for the return laugh!

Sad, but probably more or less what happened over at NOVA. I stopped watching their programs with any regularity about 10 years ago. Same with the History Channel, TLC, etc. The biases started out small but have become staggering lately. When I have to move this summer, you can be sure I’m moving someplace which offers EWTN (our Green Mtns. have very spotty coverage, if you’re not in one of the three areas, forget it). The rest of TV land is too sad.
 
I once read a book entitled “Holy Anorexia”, detailing what the author assumed was this eating disorder in several saintly women including St. Catherine. From a secular prespective, it would be impossible to live solely on the Eucharist, because secualar people do not acknowledge that the Eucharist is the Body, Blood, Sould, and Divinity of Christ. So if a person lived only on the Eucharist it would make sense for a non believer to conclude that the person is either an anorectic or a fraud. We of course know that Jesus can sustain us apart from earthly food if He so chooses, and so need not be troubled by the (very logical) conclusions of a non believer.

Yours,
Jessica

St. Catherine of Sienna, pray for us!
 
I have noticed lately a tendency to label many of those who fasted for spiritual reasons as anorexic. Of course the depth to which people fasted centuries ago were usually more stringent that what people practice today, but I think this is a grave error. I have also seen a tendency to label people who threw up food that they ate, which in some medical circles was acutally medically advised during the times for people of weak constitutions, as bulleimic.

I found a web site once, whose manager claimed to be a former nun, where it listed anorexia and bullemia as characteristics of saints, and commented that those people could not have been saints if they had such characteristics. The site also went into detail about practices of severe mortifications, which I don’t necessarily agree was good for the people, but that is imposing my values and knowledge on thier times and inappropriate.
 
this must be a coincidence but a couple of the 8th grade girls mentioned at our lent retreat that a jr hi health teacher has told her class that fasting for religious reasons can be dangerous and a sign of anorexia.
 
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puzzleannie:
this must be a coincidence but a couple of the 8th grade girls mentioned at our lent retreat that a jr hi health teacher has told her class that fasting for religious reasons can be dangerous and a sign of anorexia.
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Sign of anorexia. Sign of the times. I am guessing this is a public Jr. High School. :rolleyes:
 
I work with people who have eating disorders. Many admit to claiming they were fasting for religiious reasons, when in fact they were anorexic and were lookginf for a way to hide their problem. I don’t think the fear is unwarranted for health teachers; eating disorders are major problems.

I don’t think learning about the saints or religion in any way encourages eds; in fact the scripture says to treat your body like a temple for the holy spirit, which starving it does not do (and many people with eating disorders also have self injury issues). For some religion has helped them over come their problems.
 
Wow talk about attacks…we had to watch a movie about women mystics of the middle ages in my History 112 class and they were talking about how St. Clare of Assisi and St. Francis of Assisi starved themselves, excuse me “Clare and Francis of Assisi” don’t want to reconize that they are Saints. The movies whole premise was that 1. there is no God and 2. that women starve themselves to become men…because deprivation of food for women may lead to the loss of menstration. Modern historians are fools, those saints also saved a ton of souls because of the grace that they brought down… but no don’t think about that. Sorry I am venting I am done now…
 
Such tripe!

Secularists do not get it! And to do something like sustain oneself on teh Eucharist alone is a supreme act of love. They don’t understand love of anyone other than self, let alone the love born to mankind through Jesus’ Crucifixion, or a saints love for his redemptive suffering in the same crucifixion. I truly believe that is why Saint Faustina was to prepare us for Christ’s second coming through the Divine Mercy. So I suppose the production crew of shows like Nova, liberal politicians, Florida judges and spouse wanting to starve people to death, and so on are what Christ is talking about. Let us pray to soften their hearts and for all of us to trust in Jesus’ mercy for ourselves and others.
 
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puzzleannie:
this must be a coincidence but a couple of the 8th grade girls mentioned at our lent retreat that a jr hi health teacher has told her class that fasting for religious reasons can be dangerous and a sign of anorexia.
Click to expand...
Some day if you meet remind her that teaching information about which you are not particularly well informed is the mark of a small mind encased in a large ego which means you rattle a bit… 😛
 
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