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Attitudes towards Fasting in Constantinopolitan Monasticism (Fifth to Eleventh Centuries)

    Dirk Krausmüller

Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik 69, pp. 199-232, 2020/05/28

doi: 10.1553/joeb69s199

doi: 10.1553/joeb69s199

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doi:10.1553/joeb69s199



doi:10.1553/joeb69s199

Abstract

This article seeks to identify changes in attitudes towards fasting in Constantinopolitan monastic milieus. Exhaustive analysis of the surviving evidence shows that two frameworks existed side by side: fasting that went well beyond what ordinary human beings would undertake and led to competition between practitioners, and fasting that was moderate and did not allow a practitioner to stand out. Agonistic and competitive asceticism was prevalent in the fifth century and in the post-Iconoclastic era. By contrast, the alternative lifestyle of moderate asceticism was promoted in the sixth century, during Iconoclasm, and in the 11th and 12th centuries.

Keywords: Byzantine monks, Constantinople, Asceticism