How Did The Saints Fast? What Can They Teach Us?

From his vast knowledge of the history of the Saints and the forgotten customs of the Church, Mr Plese gives us some information on fasting. 

From One Peter Five

By Matthew Plese, TOP

Editor’s note: join hundreds of other Catholics in our lay sodality of fasting for the next fasting period starting next month.

But Jesus taking him by the hand, lifted him up; and he arose. And when He was come into the house, His disciples secretly asked Him: Why could not we cast him out? And He said to them: This kind can go out by nothing, but by prayer and fasting (Mark 9:26-28).

Our Lord is the role model and we are His followers. Like the Apostles, we too are admonished to advance in both prayer and fasting as the means to grow in sanctity, to habituate virtue, and to conquer the assaults of demons. Like the Apostles who championed prayer and fasting, the saints who followed them and won the crown of glory in paradise practiced both prayer and fasting. We too must practice both according to our abilities and states in life – carefully to observe at a minimum all the Church law obliges us.

How did the saints fast and what can we learn from their example?

The Apostles Championed Fasting

All of the Apostles practiced fasting. The great liturgist Dom Guéranger writes that the fast which precedes Easter originated with the Apostles themselves:

The forty days’ fast, which we call Lent, is the Church’s preparation for Easter, and was instituted at the very commencement of Christianity. Our Blessed Lord Himself sanctioned it by fasting forty days and forty nights in the desert; and though He would not impose it on the world by an express commandment (which, in that case, could not have been open to the power of dispensation), yet He showed plainly enough, by His own example, that fasting, which God had so frequently ordered in the old Law, was to be also practiced by the children of the new… The apostles, therefore, legislated for our weakness, by instituting, at the very commencement of the Christian Church, that the solemnity of Easter should be preceded by a universal fast.

The Catechism of the Liturgy by a Religious of the Sacred Heart (Paulist Press, 1919) likewise affirms the apostolic origin of the Lenten fast: “The Lenten fast dates back to Apostolic times as is attested by Saint Jerome, Saint Leo the Great, Saint Cyril of Alexandria and others.”

In one example of this, Dom Guéranger, writing about St. Matthew (who is called by the name Levi by Ss. Mark and Luke), acknowledges that St. Matthew adopted rigorous fasting after our Redeemer’s Ascension into Heaven:

In his simple-hearted gratitude, Levi made a feast for his divine Benefactor. It was at this banquet that Jesus, defending His disciple as well as Himself, replied to those who pretended to be scandalized: ‘Can the children of the Bridegroom mourn, as long as the Bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, when the Bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then they shall fast.’ Clement of Alexandria bears witness to the apostle’s subsequent austerity; assuring us that he lived on nothing but vegetables and wild fruits. The legend will tell us moreover of his zeal for the Master who had so sweetly touched his heart, and of his fidelity in preserving for Him souls inebriated with the ‘wine springing forth virgins.’

Thus, the Apostles teach us that the life of fasting is appropriate for even one who journeys and engages in apostolic works. St. Matthew, who traveled to Ethiopia and evangelized the people there, continued to observe austere fasting and abstinence throughout his ministry.

St. Fructuosus

To the Early Christians, fasting was performed until sundown, in imitation of the previous Jewish tradition. Dom Guéranger’s writings affirm, “It was the custom with the Jews, in the Old Law, not to take the one meal, allowed on fasting days, till sunset. The Christian Church adopted the same custom. It was scrupulously practiced, for many centuries, even in our Western countries. But, about the 9th century, some relaxation began to be introduced in the Latin Church.”

Remarkably, even water was forbidden during fasting times in the very ancient church as we learn from the testimony of St. Fructuosus. Fr. Alban Butler in Moveable Feasts and Fasts provides testimony of this when he writes:

St. Fructuosus, the holy bishop of Tarragon in Spain, in the persecution of Valerian in 259, being led to martyrdom on a Friday at ten o’clock in the morning, refused to drink, because it was not the hour to break the fast of the day, though fatigued with imprisonment, and standing in need of strength to sustain the conflict of his last agony. ‘It is a fast,’ said he: ‘I refuse to drink; it is not yet the ninth hour; death itself shall not oblige me to abridge my fast.’

We thus learn from St. Fructuosus to persist in fasting and abstinence to the greatest lengths, even when circumstances would dispense a person from the letter of the law. What remarkable fortitude that one who was undergoing martyrdom would persist in fasting and feast only after entering Heaven!

St. Nicholas of Myra

While St. Nicholas is well known for his charity and generosity, it is seldom mentioned how strictly he observed the laws of fast and abstinence from his infancy, as the traditional Roman Breviary remarks in the lessons at Matins:

Nicolas was born in the famous city of Patara in Lycia. His parents obtained him from God by prayer, and the holiness of his life was marked even from the cradle. When he was at the breast, he never would suck more than once on Wednesdays and Fridays, and that always after sunset, though he sucked freely on other days. This custom of fasting he never broke during his whole life.

Through St. Nicholas, the model of the modern-day Santa Claus, we see that those who engage in charity to others are not exempted from fasting and abstinence. How many people allege they do enough good works or go to Mass on “extra” days and are thus exempt from abstinence? Follow St. Nicholas and do charity, engage in prayer and the liturgy, and continue to fast and abstain on appropriate days.

St. Francis of Paola

St. Francis of Paola was born in 1416 to parents who were childless for many years but obtained children through the prayers of St. Francis Assisi, and Francis was born. As a young boy, St. Francis journeyed on a pilgrimage to Rome and Assisi and decided to follow the will of God and become a hermit. Before he was even twenty years old, he began to attract followers and thus founded the Hermits of Saint Francis of Assisi, who were approved by the Holy See in 1474.

St. Francis was regarded as a miracle worker, prophet, and defender of the poor. St. Francis had a love for animals and took a vow to never eat any animals, even fish. According to his biographers, it is said:

Francis had a favorite trout that he called ‘Antonella.’ One day, one of the priests, who provided religious services, saw the trout swimming about in his pool. To him it was just a delicious dish, so he caught it and took it home, tossing it into the frying pan. Francis missed ‘Antonella’ and realized what had happened. He asked one of his followers to go to the priest to get it back. The priest, annoyed by this great concern for a mere fish, threw the cooked trout on the ground, shattering it into several pieces. The hermit sent by Francis gathered up the broken pieces in his hands and brought them back to Francis. Francis placed the pieces back in the pool and, looking up to Heaven and praying, said: ‘Antonella, in the name of Charity, return to life.’ The trout immediately became whole and swam joyously around his pool as if nothing had happened. The friars and the workers who witnessed this miracle were deeply impressed by the miracle.[1]

St. Francis also raised his pet lamb from the dead after it had been killed and eaten by workmen as the text further adds:

Being in need of food, the workmen caught and slaughtered Francis’ pet lamb, Martinello, roasting it in their lime kiln. They were eating when the Saint approached them, looking for the lamb. They told him they had eaten it, having no other food. He asked what they had done with the fleece and the bones. They told him they had thrown them into the furnace. Francis walked over to the furnace, looked into the fire and called ‘Martinello, come out!’ The lamb jumped out, completely untouched, bleating happily on seeing his master.

St. Francis of Paola died on Good Friday, April 2, 1507, in Pelssis, France as the Passion according to St. John was read to him. He was canonized in 1519 by Pope Leo X. He remains an extraordinary example of abstinence for us to follow.

St. John of the Cross

Far from his mystical theology, the life of St. John of the Cross shone with brilliance because of his austere fasting and abstinence which caused him to suffer greatly at the hands of his superiors.

At the age of 21, St. John entered the Carmelite Order by a prompting from the Holy Ghost on February 24, 1563. At that time, he took the name John of St. Mathias since he received the habit on the Feast of St. Mathias. At the onset, St. John felt called to personally keep the ancient rule of the Carmelites that was given by St. Albert, Patriarch of Jerusalem, which was approved by Pope Innocent IV in 1254. His superiors permitted him to do so. However, the Carmelites at that time instead kept a mitigated rule which had been approved by Pope Eugenius IV in 1447. The mitigated rule allowed the consumption of meat, and it did not require the fast that lasted from the Feast of the Holy Cross all the way to Easter. It also permitted the friars to wear shoes.

Yet, St. John was called by God to observe the ancient rule. He did so while at the Carmelite Monastery, even though this brought the ridicule of his brethren down upon him. Many days he would go hungry as there were no special meals prepared for him. Yet, he continued to observe the ancient observance and would permit himself no excuse from any function at the monastery.

The young St. John felt drawn to the Carthusian Order, but he was asked by St. Teresa of Ávila to help her in the restoration of the primitive Carmelite Rule of Life. He agreed and received the habit of the primitive order. Along with two other friars in 1568, Saint John renewed his solemn vows and renounced the mitigations of the rule sanctioned by Pope Eugenius IV, promising both Our Lord and Our Lady that they would live under the primitive rule until death.

After nine years of his keeping the primitive fule, St. John was forcibly arrested by the Carmelite order which wished to suppress the primitive rule. St. John underwent severe punishment as a prisoner in a Carmelite monastery. There, the prior treated him with great irreverence, forbade him to say Mass, starved him, and refused to let him change his habit or bathe for the entire nine months of his imprisonment. The monks even employed mental abuse by whispering all kinds of untruths outside the door of his cell; for example, that the monasteries he helped found had been destroyed by ecclesial authorities. All of this suffering stemmed from his desire to keep greater penance in the primitive rule.

St. John was treated with the utmost contempt, but he welcomed it all in a spirit of penance and making reparation. He longed to suffer and was most docile and patient of suffering. According to the accounts that were written, the patient endurance of his unjust torture resembled the patience of Our Lord in His Passion. After nearly a year, he received a vision from Our Lady with the means to escape; and he did so.

He spent the remaining years of his life in constant prayer while working for the Order. He served as Vicar-Provincial, he performed miracles, and he continued to found monasteries that followed the primitive Rule. This lasted for many years, and then in 1587 Pope Sixtus V sanctioned the separation of the friars of the reform from the friars of the mitigation. At last, in 1588 the first General Chapter of the Reform was held where St. John of the Cross was made the first Consultor and Prior of Segovia.

Around this time, he was in deep prayer when Our Lord spoke to Him in a vision and asked, “John, what shall I give thee for all thou hast done and suffered for Me?” And after He asked three times, St. John responded, “To suffer and to be held in contempt for Thy sake.” And his prayer was granted.

In the ensuing years, he was relieved of all offices as superior, he spent his remaining years under a superior who was unkind and hateful towards him for having corrected a fault of his years before, and he died in humiliation. But St. John patiently bore it all and desired the physical and spiritual torment he endured all for the graces it brought and for the sake of God. At last, he died in December 1591 on a Saturday, the day dedicated to Our Lady, which was revealed to Him.

Miraculously, his body and his bandages gave forth a great perfume whose smell could not be contained. Great light filled his tomb just days after he died, and his body was incorrupt. It was determined that some of his limbs were to go to some of the houses of the order, so it was divided up. And the relics of his body brought many miracles to those who touched them. How much suffering would endure to try to please Our Lord even if it went above and beyond the minimum required by the Commandments or the Precepts of the Church?

St. Charles Borromeo

It was the saintly archbishop, St. Charles Borromeo (1538 – 1584), the hero of the Counter Reformation against the Protestants, who championed fasting and penance in northern Italy at a time when untold souls were lost to heresy.

Rogation Days have been observed for centuries even if the Catholic Church in our modern era has virtually forgotten them. A similar situation occurred before in the Diocese of Milan. It was St. Charles who restored them and enhanced them in that diocese. Interestingly, even though Rome never mandated fasting on the Rogation Days, since they occur during the Easter Season, St. Charles Borromeo mandated them in his own diocese.

Dom Guéranger in The Liturgical Year provides us with a holy example of the spirit of penance practiced by the archbishop:

St. Charles Borromeo, who restored in his diocese of Milan so many ancient practices of piety, was sure not to be indifferent about the Rogation days. He spared neither word nor example to reanimate this salutary devotion among his people. He ordered fasting to be observed during these three days; he fasted himself on bread and water. The procession, in which all the clergy of the city were obliged to join, and which began after the sprinkling of ashes, started from the cathedral at an early hour in the morning, and was not over till three or four o’clock in the afternoon. Thirteen churches were visited on the Monday; nine, on the Tuesday; and eleven, on the Wednesday. The saintly archbishop celebrated Mass and preached in one of these churches.

St. Charles Borromeo not only encouraged the Rogation Days. He also ministered personally to thousands of plague-stricken victims when the civil authorities had fled Milan. He offered Masses, administered the Sacraments, consistently led processions, and offered an authentic Catholic response to a pandemic. Again, fasting was joined to prayer and works of charity in his life.

In this same period, the fast of Advent, which had continued to decline, had taken the form of only Wednesday and Friday penance. To stir the people to observe the true spirit of penance, even beyond the letter of the law, St. Charles strongly urged those in Milan to fast on the Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of each week of Advent.  We can do the same this year.

Conclusion

The Rule of St. Benedict written in 516 AD states in part: “O Lord, I place myself in your hands and dedicate myself to you. I pledge myself to do your will in all things: To love the Lord God with all my heart, all my soul, all my strength. Not to kill. Not to steal… To chastise the body. Not to seek after pleasures. To love fasting…”

How can we love fasting? Fr. Adalbert de Vogue, OSB explains, “To love fasting one must experience it, but to experience it one must love it. The way to get out of this circle is easy: trust in the word of God, in the example of the saints, in the great voice of tradition, and trusting in this witness, try it.” 

To love fasting is our goal. And the saints can show us how. Fasting should never be performed without an increase in prayer or almsgiving. It should not be performed grudgingly and in anger. Likewise, it should not be performed for the vain purpose of losing weight or even for the natural good of improving one’s health. Fasting must have God as its end.

Fasting is more than just Lent, and abstinence is more than merely abstaining on even all Fridays year round. Our Catholic heritage is replete with nearly half of the year dedicated to abstinence and a third of the year committed to fasting. Join the Fellowship of St. Nicholas and commit to observe some of these forgotten periods. The Nativity Fast begins on November 12th and we would do well to honor our Lord’s Nativity by observing it. This hallowed practice of forty days of fasting leading up to Christmas used to be practiced by Roman Catholics with great devotion. Learn more and join the cause!

[1] Simi & Segreti, St. Francis of Paola (Rockford, IL: Tan Books, 1977), 26.

Pictured: The Miracles of Saint Francis of Paola by Peter Paul Rubens (about 1627–1628)