User:Queencity/practice

"Anorexia mirabilis literally means "miraculous lack of appetite". It refers almost exclusively to women and girls of the Middle Ages who would starve themselves, sometimes to the death, in the name of God. The phenomenon is also known by the name "inedia prodigiosa" (a great starvation).[1]

Anorexia mirabilis differs from the more modern, well-known anorexia nervosa in several distinct ways.

In anorexia nervosa, people usually starve themselves to attain a level of thinness, as the disease is associated with body image distortion. By contrast, anorexia mirabilis was frequently coupled with other ascetic practices, such as lifelong chastity, flagellant behavior, the donning of hairshirts, sleeping on beds of thorns, and other assorted self mutilations. It was largely a practice of Catholic women, who were often known as "miraculous maids".

Until recently, plumpness was a clear sign of affluence, and emaciation either a sign of poverty, ill health, or both. Women did not typically begin depriving themselves of food for outer beauty until the Victorian era, they did however starve themselves for spiritual fulfillment."