The term anorexia was coined in 1873, but there are many documented cases in the past starting in the middle ages. But what we know as anorexia nervosa now is not exactly the same kind of anorexia that was suffered in the past. What is now labeled as anorexia mirabilis was starvation motivated for spiritual/religious reasons.
Why are we talking about anorexia mirabilis today? Well, it’s the anniversary of Catherine of Siena who starved herself to dead in 1380 when she was only 33. She fasted to fight the sin of gluttony, she started as a teen and continued until her dead. She wanted to be pure, have control over her human desires and be deserving of God.
Besides her there are a few other cases of people fasting in the Middle Ages for religious reasons. Like Marie of Oignies who also self harmed and mutilated her body, Beatrice of Nazareth sick at the smell of food and who also tortured her body, Angela of Foligno who didn’t eat food but ate pus and lice from the sick, Margaret of Cortona only eating bread and vegetables when not fasting or Lidwina of Schiedam who didn’t eat or sleep.
They all were looking for control over their human nature weaknesses for a greater spiritual life. Their lives are quite fascinating, in particular Catherine of Siena one so if you want to keep reading on the subject just follow the links in their names to their wiki pages.
The fasting girls, was a phenomenon on the Victorian era. In those years some pre-teen girls starved themselves and a few became popular icons, but the reasons to do it were quite different from the religious ones of the women mentioned before.
Sarah Jacobs was one of the fasting girls. She died at 12 after starving herself since she was 10. She became quite famous and many people thought she was a miracle girl and peregrinated to her home. When the doctors announced she was dying her parents stopped the nurses from giving her any food. She died and her parents were convicted of manslaughter.
Mollie Fancher, Lenora Eaton and Josephine Marie Bedard were other fasting girls in the Victorian era. Last one, supposedly a fraud, was exhibited by many companies for commercial gain. All these girls became super popular and had nicknames to make them even easier to remember for the public. Mollie was the “Brooklyn Enigma”, Sarah the “Welsh fasting girl” and Josephine the “Tingwick girl”.
This is a subject deserving more than a single post, there’s a lot of information and history attached to it. We have some other posts planned in our calendar (subscribe to our blog to not miss any!) but if you feel like having a deeper look this is a fascinating book: Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women 
