Bynum

This story takes place in and revolves around the spirituality of the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. When talking about sacrifice in the church, now a day they talk mostly about sex and money since it is so prevalent and important in out culture and important power symbols and signs of status. Modern scholars have ignored symbols that were very important to the lives of medieval Christians; food and fasting. Examples of such importance are that fasting was seen as one of the most important renunciations, the symbol of food in the story of Adam and eve and the forbidden fruit. Food may have been so important because it was at this time that famine was on the increase and food and giving it away was seen as that done by only the rich. Food was very prevalent in the medieval folk lore as in such stories where there are vessels overflowing with food and drink. Feasting and fasting were the heart of the Christian tradition. There were numerous examples of food in Christian theology. Christians thought that they were actually eating and drinking the body of Christ when they took the sacrament. The story also focuses on the primary involvement of food in the Christian life of women rather than men. From 1200 to 1500, food was more involved in the piety of women then of men. Such an example is that food was more associated with that of female saints. They also gave many statistics to show that women were more involved with food. The evidence collected demonstrates two things: 1. food practices were more centrally involved in women’s piety than in men’s. 2. Both men and women associate food and the Eucharist with women. It then talks about a story of a girl named Lidwinda from the town of Schliedan in the Netherlands. She became renowned for her fasting and at sometimes surviving only on the Eucharist it’s self. There were many miracles and miraculous events related to her such as body parts that fell off and the sweet smell from them would heal others. She could also take upon the pain of others. Her body would cause many food miracles and at times her breasts although virgin would excrete milk which she used to feed and heal others. She as also able to tell the sins of others and detect when a Eucharist was unblessed. There were also many other stories in which food were central to miracles and involved women. It was also seen at this time that women posed a danger as they controlled the serving and cooking of food. Some saw this as a threat and resented them for it. Women also had not much power at this time and would use the self starvation to control otherwise uncontrollable aspects of their lives such as arranged marriages and sex. The article then goes on to talk about how men symbolize the spiritual nature of man and women the corporeal, and gives examples form the bible indicating that Jesus came form the flesh of Mary and this shows that women comprise the corporeal nature etc. The article closes by summarizing a women’s role in Christianity at the time and the involvement of food.