Sentence:  The involuntary poor lived, day in and day out, with circumstnaces that might make a zealous monk green with envy: ready-made rags, stench, starvation, fiscal penury, and unbounded physical and social suffering. Yet this population has received less attention in religious history and scholarship than those who chose their <WSD>asceses</WSD>, and ancient sermons about the poor have often been neglected in favor of more "theological" themes. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  (Rigorous) self-discipline, particularly as a religious observance; asceticism.