Xerophagia (Ξηροφαγία)

XEROPHAGIA (Ξηροφαγία). - A diet consisting solely of dry food (ξηρός) and water alone. It is a variety of fasting, according to St. Isidore (Etymol. VI, 19, 70, ed. W. M. Lindsay, Oxford 1911): «X. dicunt, abstinentiam scil. ciborum humentium; unde nomen hoc datum, eo quod siccis quidam escis utantur».

Xerophagy was practiced among the ancient pagans (Athenaeus, Deipnosophia, III, 79). Therapeutae fasted on water, bread and hyssop (Eusebius, Hist. eccl., XVII, 22). Clement of Alexandria recommends it to the young (Paedag., II, 2) and to all, so that «the soul may be pure, dry, and luminous; the dry soul is most wise, most excellent, fit for contemplation (ἐποπτική)» (id., ibid.: PG 8, 413, 424 ff.). The Montanists imposed xerophagy on themselves, depriving themselves of meat, broths, succulent fruits and wine and abstaining from bathing, for two weeks a year, excluding Saturdays and Sundays (Tertullian, De ieiun. 15); by means of xerophagy («siccantes cibum ab omni carne et omni iurulentia et uvidioribus quibusque pomis, ne quid vinositatis vel edamus vel potemus» (id., ibid., 1), they procured «revelations» (id., ibid., 12). A reduced fast, xerophagy came to be identified (3rd cent.) with the fast on bread and water, which Christians already practiced in the 2nd cent. (Hermas, Pastor, sim. V, 3 and 7), and which St. Jerome (Ep. ad Nepotianum, 12) recommends as «fortissimum ieiunium». St. Epiphanius (Haer., 70, 12, and 75, 3) affirms that it was obligatory in the week before Easter; the diet there was limited to bread, water and salt (Didascalia, V, 18; the Constit. Apost. add legumes: ed. F. X. Funk, Paderborn 1935, pp. 288-89). The Synod of Laodicea (can. 50) prescribed xerophagy for the entire Lent; St. John Chrysostom (Hom. ad pop. Antioch., 4, 6: PG 49, 68) attests that several spent all of Lent on bread and water. Many ascetics of the 4th and 5th centuries practiced xerophagy (along with ὀδροποσία) throughout the year, limiting even bread to a minimum (Rufinus, Hist. mon., 27; Cassian, Collat., II, 19-21). Related was omophagy (ὠμοφαγία): the use of only uncooked herbs and legumes, sometimes with a little oil, and, especially in Palestine, with the exclusion of bread (Palladius, Hist. Laus., 11, 18, 38, 52, 57; Cassian, De inst. coenob., IV, 22). There were no lack of excesses (Cassian, Collat., V, 5). Today in the East xerophagy designates the use of Lenten foods.

Antonino Romeo