I was just reading a book review from the Arts & Letters Daily page about the female saints/anorexics link (http://www.lrb.co.uk/v26/n05/mant01_.html). Discussing holy mortification of the flesh, the reviewer says, “Saint Catherine of Siena drank pus from a cancerous sore. . . . Eustochia of Messina stretched her arms on a DIY rack she had constructed. St Margaret of Cortona bought herself a razor and was narrowly dissuaded from slicing through her nostrils and upper lip. St Angela of Foligno drank water contaminated by the putrefying flesh of a leper. And what St Francesca Romana did, I find I am not able to write down.”
If it’s worse than drinking pus from a cancerous sore, I’m probably going to regret asking this, but what did she do? From a cursory look on Google she seems a rather mild saint who did things like give away grain and kneel in a stream without getting wet. And she’s the patron saint of motorists and taxi drivers (which I suppose could be a pretty gruesome job, considering how Romans drive).
Add me to the list of people that are dying to know, though. I read an article on this (maybe even the same one) in The Guardian yesterday, and it piqued my curiosity, too.
I own a pop-history book of the lives of the Saints (Saints Preserve Us! by Sean Kelly and Rosemary Rogers) and it doesn’t mention anything gross about her. She got married in 1397, at thirteen, although she would have preferred to be a nun, “wax[ing] pale and sickly,” in the early days of her marriage. She had a vision of Saint Alexis after which she “resign[ed] herself” to marriage and had three children. She lost 2 children, her husband and their castle and fortune, and had another vision – this one of an Angel. The Angel’s visit allowed her to see in the dark, BTW – handy, the book points out, for a Patron Saint of Motorists. She ended her days in a convent, where she had “many entertainingly graphic visions of Hell.” Not much scope, frankly, for escapades grosser than those described in the OP.
My book, however, seems far from comprehensive – Eustochia isn’t mentioned at all, nor is Angela of Foligno. They may be under different names, I suppose – our Francesca is listed as “Frances of Rome.” Margaret is in there, and the threatening-to-cut-off-her-nose is mentioned, as is Catherine of Siena. However, the charming story about Catherine and the pus from cancerous sores isn’t mentioned, although Catherine is credited with stigmata, “fasting for long periods,” and the wearing of hair and chain-mail shirts.
A quick internet search turns up nothing really out there. The worst that’s mentioned is eating only bread and water and wearing a hair shirt - a pennance that her angel talked her out of (the argument was along the lines of 'God gave you this body, do you think He wanted you to abuse it?). So, colour me dubious about the idea she did anything worse than the other ladies mentioned.
Found one website that has a story abour St Francesca and references Bell’s book in the footnotes, so I guess this is what they are referring to - she burnt her own genitalia with pork fat
I haven’t find an extended discussion of the pork burning incident, but judging from this account, it sounds pretty much in keeping with her lifestyle:
Here is the saint in question. Incidentally, she’s the patron saint of cars and drivers (which may be useful, considering that St. Chrisopher was probably a legendary figure).
