Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1880-01-23
Gam people Live without rOod2

the subject TO which attention was at
tracted last year by the case of Molly
Fancher and in which renewed interest
will now be taken because of the pro-
posal already noticed in these columns
of a physician in Minnesota to abstain
not only from medicine, which would
be less surprising, but from food for
long period under conditions favor
able TO the detection of any imposture.
OF medieval cases, DIR. Hammond cites
several. There was Lidulne, of Schie-
dam, who fell i'll in 1895 and remained
an invalid till her death, thirty-three
years later, and who, after living for
nineteen years on piece of apple no
bigger than q holy wafer, every day
washed down with little water, a
swallow of beer or little sweet milk,
wound up finally by taking nothing
whatever in the shape of nutriment for
fourteen years. There was st. Joseph,
of Copertino, who kept seven forty-day
fasts every year, during which seasons
he ate only on Thursdays and Sun
days, his food even then being bitter
herbs and dried fruits. There was st.
Nicolas, of Flue (not to he confounded
with st. Nicholas of the New York
chimney who, as he had embraced the
monastic life, abandoned all food what
ever save the Holy Eucharist, which,
according to the pious CORES, so as
simulated his grosser being to itself
that, introduced into a superior sphere,
he lived exclusively by grace and by
heaven. There was the nun of Leices-
ter, in the thirteenth century, who also
lived on the Eucharist for seven years;
and there were those other holy
persons-Saint Peter of Alcantara,
| Saint Rose of Lima, Saint Catherine
of Sienna, and Saint Collete-who
also acquired the power of liv-
ing on the sacramental bread. Fast
ing girls, says DR.. Hammond, came
in with modern times, the pious absti-
nents having vanished with the Ages of
Faith. Margaret Weiss, girl of ten,
living near Spires, was accredited with
living for three years without food or
drink. She succeeded in deceiving the
parish priest and DIR. Geraldus Bucol-
dianus, who watched her, and the good
doctor made conundrum out of her in
his book narrating her case: "Why
does the body grow when nothing goes
into itP'' "Appotonia Schreira, a vir-
gin in Berne," after being examined
and watched by the Bernese magis-
trates, was declaredto live without eat
ing; Gin the first year of her fasting
she scarcely slept, and in the second
year never once closed her eyes in
sleep" Katherine Binder of the Palati-
nate was said to have taken nothing
but air during nine years, and Eva
Fliegen, of Meurs, according to the
magistrates and ministers, "took no
kind of sustenance for the space of four
teen years together" Cardinal Richie
lieu's physician, Franciscus Citesius,
tells of Joan Balaam, of Constance,
who after an attack of fever took a
loathing to food, and for nearly three
years abstained from it altogether, her
appetite subsequently returning. In
1895 there was brought to Cologne q
girl of eleven who, it was affirmed, had
lived without food or drink of any kind
for three years. In this case, accord.
ing to DR.. Hammond, organic disease
seems to hive been complicated with
not cite the works of John Heydon, an
enthusiast Of the Rosie Cross, who held
that men could easily fast all their lives
should tie same even extend to SOC
years, Ind who fairly smacks his
lips as it were, like very glutton,
over, "the fine foreign fatness" in
the air which ought to be sufficient
. for all moderate folk. He admits
that people of enormous appetiteS
might from time to time indulge in the
additional stimulus of plaster o.
. cooked meat applied to the epigastri
um. Chambers, however, prints grea
many cases of alleged abstinence ex
tending over protracted periods
Among these may be mentioned that o
Cecilia Rygeway, whom Edward III
pardoned April 25, 1857, moved by
pietyland for the glory of God and thu
Blessed Virgin" who had wrought ;
miracle in enabling her to live forty
days in Nottingham Jail without fooC
or drink, when accused of her hus
bands murder, and John Scott, tht
Faster, a man of Teviotdale, who il
1881 took sanctuary in the Abbey o
: Holyrood House, where he remained
thirty or forty days without food, ant
then by order of the King was shut VI
in the castle for thirty-two days, at th'
end of which period the bread ant
water left in the cell with him wer,
, found to be untouched. Scott after
, ward went to Rome, where Clemen
{ VII. certified to the honesty of his alb
, stinence, an exhibition of which he CAV,
also at Venice; after his return, as h,
claimed, from the Holy land, Scot
, went to London, where, for preaching
against Henry Wills detection from
: the church and his divorce from Katha
, rine of Arragon, he was cast into prisol
, where he remained for fifty days, littl
disconnected and still fasting. Alber
gait of Bonoma investigated Scott
! case at his own house, and Sept. l
: 1882, after trial of eleven days, at
, tested his belief that the man live,
: without eating. The case of Mar
Waughton, of Wigginton, in Stafford
} shire, is also given, who lived on
spoonful of milk and water day, wit
J piece of bread as large as a hall
: crown or bit of meat the size of a pig
? cons egg. "Being of the Church Q
/ England" says the orthodox DR.. Rober
Plot, "she is the less likely to put
trick upon the world" Then ther
t are the cases of Christina Michelot
: of France, a girl of eleven, who frOT
v November, 1751, to May, 1755, live
: upon water, afterwards displaying he
g normal appetite; of Ann Walsh, c
: Harrowgate, girl of twelve, who fo
j, eighteen months, beginning in 1762
r subsisted solely on daily allowance c
: a third of pint of wine and water; {
c the sick boy at Chateaurous, in France
: who ate nothing for whole year, yC
# had strength enough to labor with tn
n men on his fathers farm; of the ma
Q of Stamford, who, in 1771, for Fl
!, wager abstained for fifty-two days froi
o solid food or milk; of Pennants fas
|, ing woman of Rossfire, katherine MI
o Leod-in Plates book she is Gale
# " Janet'-who, after an attack of feve
o lived for twenty-one months withoI
n nourishment, suffocating constrictio