XEROPhAGY (ξηροφαγία). — A diet consisting solely of dry food (ξηροός) and water. It is a variety of fasting, according to St. Isidore (Etymol. VI, 19, 70, ed. W. M. Lindsay, Oxford 1911): “They call x., abstinence, namely, from moist foods; hence it is not given to me, because some use dry foods.”
Xerophagy was practiced among the ancient pagans (Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae, III, 79). The Therapeutae fasted on water, bread, and hyssop (Eusebius, Hist. eccl., VII, 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 wisest, best, and suited to contemplation (ἐποπτικὴ)” (ibid.: PG 8, 413, 424 sq.). The Montanists imposed xerophagy on themselves, abstaining from meat, broths, juicy fruits, and wine, and refraining from bathing for two weeks each year, excluding Saturdays and Sundays (Tertullian, De ieiun. 15); through xerophagy (“drying food of all meat and all broths and all juicier fruits, so that we may eat or drink nothing that has the quality of wine” (ibid., 1)), they procured “revelations” (ibid., 12).
Reduced fasting, xerophagy came to be identified (3rd century) with fasting on bread and water, which Christians had already practiced in the 2nd century (Hermas, Pastor, sim. V, 3 and 7), and which St. Jerome (Ep. ad Nepotianum, 12) recommends as “the strongest fasting.” St. Epiphanius (Haer., 70, 12, and 75) states that xerophagy was obligatory during the week before Easter; the diet was limited to bread, water, and salt (Didascalia, V, 18; the Apostolic Constitutions add legumes: ed. F. X. Funk, Paderborn 1925, 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 many spent the entire Lent on bread and water. Many ascetics of the 4th and 5th centuries practiced xerophagy (with ὀδορνοσχία) throughout the year, even limiting bread itself to a minimum (Rufinus, Hist. mon., 27; Cassian, Collat., II, 19–21). Related was homophagy (ὀμορφαγία): the use of only raw herbs and legumes, sometimes with a little oil, and, especially in Palestine, excluding bread (Palladius, Hist. Laus., 11, 38, 52, 57; Cassian, De inst. coenob., IV, 22). Excesses were not lacking (Cassian, Collat., V, 5). Today in the East, xerophagy designates the use of Lenten foods.