Regarding fasting, the saints are not primarily theorists: they are witnesses. Before writing its definition, they lived it — in the desert, in the cloister, at the common table, in the slow conquest of their own hunger. This is what gives their words an authority that no abstract treatise can match: when Saint Basil calls fasting “as old as humanity,” he speaks as a man who emptied his table to fill that of the poor; when Saint Syncletica warns against asceticism “dictated by the Enemy,” she speaks from experience; when the Curé d’Ars teaches that every meal must bear its small mortification, he describes his own life.
This article gathers this voice of the saints: an organized anthology, from the Shepherd of Hermas to modern mystics, of what spiritual masters have said about fasting. One will see an astonishing agreement across centuries and schools — East and West, desert and scholasticism, mysticism and Divine Will all essentially say the same thing: fasting is not a religious diet but an act of love that is shared, the soul of prayer, the guardian of the heart. For the practical path — how to grow in it, what the Church asks today, by what means and avoiding which pitfalls — see the article How to Grow in Fasting; this article first listens to what the saints say about it.
Why Listen to the Saints on Fasting?
A Discipline Lived Before Being Defined
Fasting is perhaps the most misunderstood of the great Christian practices. It is often reduced to a sad deprivation, a remnant of medieval austerity, or even a religious form of dieting. The saints never speak of it this way. For them, fasting is not a performance nor a diet: it is an act of the heart, ordered to God and neighbor. Saint Thomas Aquinas sums it up by linking it to virtue: fasting is “a virtuous act” because it is “directed by reason toward a good,” and it belongs to abstinence, a part of temperance[1]. But before being thought out by the doctors, fasting was lived by the Fathers, preached by bishops, measured by monks — and it is this lived voice that this article wants to bring forth.
What Scripture Says First
Before the saints, there is the Word they meditated on. The Old Testament makes fasting the very gesture of returning to God:
“And now — declares the Lord — return to me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning!”
— Joel 2:12[2]
But Scripture immediately rejects any purely external fasting. The great text of Isaiah — which all the Fathers will reread — shifts fasting from the stomach toward justice and charity:
“Is not this the fast that pleases me: to loose the chains of injustice, to untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free, to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, to bring the homeless poor into your house, [...]?”
— Isaiah 58:6-7[3]
The New Testament takes up this double movement. Christ does not abolish fasting: He purifies it from all ostentation and hides it in the secret of the Father:
“[...] when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may not be seen by others but only by your Father who is in secret; [...]”
— Gospel according to Saint Matthew 6:17-18[4]
He inaugurates His mission with a fast of forty days in the desert (Mt 4:2)[5], and He announces that His disciples will fast, not out of sadness, but out of love for the absent Bridegroom: “[...] the days will come when the Bridegroom will be taken away from them; then they will fast” (Mt 9:15)[6]. The apostolic Church immediately obeys: it is “after fasting and praying” (Acts 13:3) that it sends Barnabas and Saul, and “after praying and fasting” (Acts 14:23) that it appoints Elders[7]. Everything the saints will say flows from these certainties: fasting is return, sharing, secrecy, and waiting for the Bridegroom.
The Consensus of the Saints Through the Centuries
One of the most striking signs of the Catholic tradition is the agreement of witnesses. On fasting, men separated by everything — a Christian prophet of the 2nd century, a Cappadocian bishop of the 4th, an Alexandrian nun, a scholastic doctor, a 20th-century mystic — converge on some certainties:
| Voice | Century | What They Say About Fasting |
|---|---|---|
| Shepherd of Hermas | 2nd | True fasting is shared: give the price of the meal to the poor[8] |
| Basil of Caesarea | 4th | A fast “as old as paradise,” “wing” of prayer[9] |
| Syncletica | 4th | Measure distinguishes divine fasting from the Enemy’s asceticism[10] |
| John Chrysostom | 4th-5th | That “all members” fast, not just the mouth[11] |
| Peter Chrysologus | 5th | Fasting is “the soul of prayer”[12] |
| Thomas Aquinas | 13th | An act of virtue with a threefold end[13] |
| Catherine of Siena | 14th | Fasting is a means, never the foundation[14] |
| Curé d’Ars | 19th | never a meal without a small mortification[15] |
| the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta | 20th | Mortification, “the soul’s air”[16] |
| This unity is not a coincidence: it is the Spirit who teaches everyone the same path. Let us follow its voice, era after era. |
The Voice of the Fathers and Desert Monks
It is in the early centuries, especially in the desert, that Christian fasting receives its first great school. Far from any theory, the Fathers experience it in its bare form—and immediately draw out the two safeguards that will run through the entire tradition: fasting is shared, and fasting is measured.
The Shepherd of Hermas: a fast that feeds the poor
As early as the 2nd century, one of the oldest Christian writings after the New Testament indissolubly links fasting and almsgiving. Fasting only makes sense if the portion withheld passes into the hand of the poor:
“On the day you fast, you shall take nothing but bread and water; then, having calculated the price of the dishes you would have eaten that day, you shall give it to a widow, an orphan, or some needy person.” — The Shepherd of Hermas (2nd century), Fifth Similitude, 3[17]
Hermas immediately sets forth the great rule that Isaiah, Leo, and Chrysologus will repeat: a fast that is not shared is merely an economy. And he warns that true fasting begins in the heart: “Do no harm in your life, and serve the Lord with a pure heart […], let no evil desire rise in your heart.”[18]
Saint Basil: fasting “as ancient as paradise”
Bishop of Caesarea, Basil preaches two Homilies on Fasting that will remain the great patristic charter of the practice. He traces its origin not to a late law, but to paradise itself: the first command given to man was an abstinence.
“This was the first command received by Adam: ‘Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat.’ By these words, ‘you shall not eat,’ the law of fasting and abstinence is established.” — Saint Basil of Caesarea (c. 330–379), First Homily on Fasting, 3[19]
For Basil, fasting is therefore not a mutilation: it is a return to Eden, to the original order where man received from God rather than seizing for himself. Hence all his praises: fasting “brings forth prophets and strengthens the mighty; it makes legislators wise”[20]; it is “a good guardian for the soul, a sure companion for the body, a weapon for the valiant, a gymnasium for athletes”[21]. Above all, it gives prayer something to rise on:
“Fasting lifts prayer to heaven, serving it, so to speak, as a wing for its ascent.” — Saint Basil of Caesarea, First Homily on Fasting, 7[22]
But Basil, like Isaiah, immediately rejects fasting of the belly alone: “True fasting is to remain alien to vice, to master one’s tongue, to abstain from anger, to avoid covetousness, slander, and lying.”[23]
Saint Syncletica: measure, the criterion of true fasting
In the Egyptian desert, the great amma (mother) Syncletica sets forth the decisive discernment that the whole tradition will take up: there is a diabolical asceticism, and only measure allows one to distinguish it from divine asceticism.
“There is an asceticism dictated by the Enemy, and his disciples practice it. How then to distinguish divine and royal asceticism from demonic tyranny? Clearly, by its quality of measure.” — Saint Syncletica of Alexandria (4th century), Sayings of the Fathers[24]
This teaching is crucial: an excessive, disorderly, prideful fast can come from the devil as much as gluttony. Syncletica draws a practical rule of constancy against fits and starts:
“Always keep to a single rule of fasting. Do not fast four or five days only to break the next day with any quantity of food. Truly, lack of measure always corrupts.” — Saint Syncletica of Alexandria, Sayings of the Fathers[25]
Saint John Cassian: fasting, a means and not an end
Cassian, who transmits to the West the wisdom of the Egyptian Fathers, establishes the hierarchy that will always prevent fasting from becoming an idol. Fasting is an instrument; the goal is purity of heart, that is, charity:
“One gains less by fasting than one loses by a movement of anger […]. It is fitting to relate secondary things—fasting, vigils, retreat, and meditation on the Scriptures—to our principal goal, which is purity of heart, that is charity.” — Saint John Cassian (c. 360–435), Conferences I[26]
A decisive reversal: one can perfectly fast and yet regress, if fasting feeds pride or bitterness. Fasting has value only through the love it serves—a lesson that Saint Catherine of Siena will bring to its summit.
The Voice of the Greek and Latin Fathers
The monks had lived fasting; the great bishops would preach it to the Christian people—and all, with one voice, link it to prayer and almsgiving.
Saint John Chrysostom: "Let all the members fast"
The Golden Mouth of Antioch gives fasting its broadest extension: it is not enough for the mouth to abstain from food if the rest of the person continues to sin. What good is it to fast from fish if one devours one’s neighbor?
“Let not only the mouth fast, but also the eye, and the ear, and the feet, and the hands, and all the members of our body. Let the hands fast by remaining pure from robbery and greed. Let the feet fast by ceasing to run to illicit spectacles. Let the mouth fast from shameful words and insults. For what good is it to abstain from birds and fish if we bite and devour our brothers?”
— Saint John Chrysostom (c. 349–407), Homilies on the Statues, III[27]
This is the exact echo of Isaiah 58: a fast that leaves a malicious tongue or an unjust hand intact is a failed fast.
Saint Leo the Great: a "rich" fast of almsgiving
The great pope of the 5th century, who left a whole series of sermons on the fasting of Lent and the Ember Days, paradoxically formulates the law of Christian fasting in one stroke: it must be rich—not in dishes, but in alms. What I refuse for myself must pass onto the plate of the poor:
“In the distribution of alms and the care of the poor, let our Christian fasts be rich and abundant; let each give to the weak and needy the delicate foods he refuses himself.”
— Saint Leo the Great (pope, † 461), Sermon 49, on Lent[28]
Saint Peter Chrysologus: fasting, "the soul of prayer"
No one has expressed more precisely the unity of the three works of penance. In a sermon still read during Lent in the Liturgy of the Hours, the bishop of Ravenna shows that prayer, fasting, and mercy are never conceived separately: remove one, and the other two die.
“There are three things, my brothers, by which faith stands firm, devotion remains steadfast, and virtue perseveres: prayer, fasting, and mercy. […] Prayer strikes, fasting obtains, mercy receives. Prayer, fasting, and mercy are one and give life to each other: for fasting is the soul of prayer, and mercy the life of fasting. Let no one separate them: they do not know how to be divided.”
— Saint Peter Chrysologus (c. 380–450), Sermon 43[29]
This is undoubtedly the key phrase of this entire anthology: “fasting is the soul of prayer.” A fast without prayer is merely a diet; prayer without fasting remains bodiless; and both without mercy are lifeless.
Saint Augustine: the two wings of prayer
Augustine reprises, under a now classic image, the same intuition: to rise up to God, prayer needs two wings, fasting and almsgiving.
“Do you want your prayer to fly up to God? Give it two wings: fasting and almsgiving.”
— Saint Augustine (354–430), Enarrationes in Psalmos, on Psalm 42 (Vulgate; Hebrew Ps 43)[30]
Fasting therefore never goes alone: it is one of the two wings—the other being charity toward the poor. Cut one, and prayer falls.
Saint Jerome: sobriety, guardian of the heart
In Rome and then Bethlehem, Jerome guided a whole generation of fervent souls. In his famous letter to Eustochium, he defends a moderate but daily fast, and warns that satiety weighs down the spirit and awakens passions:
“When it is sated, the spirit immediately grows heavy, and the watered earth produces the thorns of lust.”
— Saint Jerome (c. 347–420), Letter 22 to Eustochium, 17[31]
He adds this maxim later taken up by Saint Thomas: sobriety is the safeguard of purity, for “wine and youth together kindle the fire of lust”[32]. Fasting here is not contempt for the body, but wisdom that keeps the heart free.
The Voice of Medieval Doctors and Mystics
The Fathers had preached fasting; the doctors will command it — without losing any of its fervor or measure.
Saint Thomas Aquinas: The Three Ends of Fasting
At the height of scholasticism, Thomas receives the entire heritage and puts it in order. Fasting, he says, is not an end in itself: it is “undertaken” for three specific goods, in a movement that goes from the body toward God, then from sin toward forgiveness.
“Fasting is practiced for a threefold purpose. First, to restrain the desires of the flesh. […] Second, so that the spirit may more freely rise to the contemplation of heavenly things. […] Third, to make satisfaction for sins, according to what is written: ‘Return to me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning’ (Joel 2:12).”
— Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), Summa Theologiae, II-II, q. 147, a. 1[33]
These three ends — mastering the flesh, elevating the soul, repairing sin — structure the entire spirituality of fasting; the practical article How to Grow in Fasting develops them in detail. Thomas classifies fasting among acts of abstinence, a part of temperance, and bases his doctrine on Jerome: through abstinence from food and drink, desire is cooled[34].
Saint Bernard: Fasting Without Discretion Becomes a Vice
Reformer of all monastic Western Europe, Bernard of Clairvaux gives Syncletica’s measure its sharpest formulation. Discretion — the right measure — is not just another virtue: it is the moderator of all others, without which virtue itself is overturned.
“Discretion indeed puts order into every virtue; order gives measure and beauty, and even duration. […] Discretion is therefore not so much a virtue as a moderator of virtues. Remove it, and virtue becomes vice.”
— Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153), Sermons on the Song of Songs, 49[35]
Applied to fasting, the lesson is clear: fasting without discretion — excessive, stubborn, disobedient — ceases to be a virtue and becomes a vice. This is exactly what Saint Catherine of Siena would teach, at her own expense.
Saint Catherine of Siena: Fasting Is a Means, Never the Foundation
Catherine fasted to the extreme; and it is she, precisely, who most firmly teaches not to place one’s trust in fasting. In the Dialogue, the Eternal Father reveals to her that bodily penance is only an instrument, and that the soul must know how to leave it by obedience:
“I therefore want the works of penance and other bodily exercises to be observed simply as means, and not as the fundamental affection of the soul.”
— The Eternal Father to Saint Catherine of Siena (1347–1380), Dialogue, Treatise on Discretion[36]
Even more: to continue fasting against obedience would be a fault, not a merit:
“When the soul omits its penances out of necessity, or — as often happens — out of obedience to the order of its director, this is good; for if it were to continue doing them then, not only would it receive no merit, but it would offend me.”
— The Eternal Father to Saint Catherine of Siena, Dialogue, Treatise on Discretion[37]
The greatest faster of her century thus teaches the freedom of fasting: a fast that one does not know how to interrupt out of charity or obedience has become an idol.
The Imitation of Christ: Few Companions of Fasting
The most widely read book of Catholic spirituality after the Bible measures in one word the rarity of true fasting. Many want the consolation of Christ; few want to share his abstinence:
“Jesus has many lovers of his heavenly kingdom, but few who carry his cross. He finds many companions at his table, but few of his abstinence.”
— Thomas à Kempis (c. 1380–1471), The Imitation of Christ, II, 11[38]
Fasting thus reveals the truth of love: it separates those who seek God’s gifts from those who seek God Himself.
The Voice of the Modern School
The modern age, far from abandoning fasting, refines its discretion and makes it practicable in the heart of the world: fewer feats, more small and joyful fidelity.
Saint Francis de Sales: Fasting Without Ruining Health
Master of devotion accessible to the laity, Francis de Sales teaches a measured fast, subject to discernment and never harmful to charity or health. If the duties of one’s state require strength, it is better to preserve it than to fast:
“If the work you will do is necessary for you, or very useful for the glory of God, I prefer that you suffer the hardship of the work rather than that of fasting. […] It is better to keep more bodily strength than is required than to ruin more than necessary; for one can always reduce strength when one wishes, but one cannot always restore it when one wishes.”
— Saint Francis de Sales (1567-1622), Introduction to the Devout Life, III, 23[39]
In a Ash Wednesday sermon, however, he broadens fasting—as Chrysostom did—to all the senses: “It is required that our fast be general and entire, that is to say, that we make all the members of our body fast: if we have offended God through the eyes, the ears, the tongue, and our other senses, why should we not make them fast?”[40] Thus, true Salesian fasting is both moderate in quantity and total in intention.
Saint Vincent de Paul: Mortifying Taste in Small Things
Apostle of the poor, Vincent de Paul brings fasting down to the most humble daily level. No need for feats: it suffices to have small repeated mortifications, almost invisible, at every meal — taking, in substance, the piece that pleases least, going to table without displaying one’s appetite, abstaining from eating outside meals, leaving what pleases most[41].
This is fasting made accessible to all: not the heroism of the desert, but the small fidelity of a heart that restrains itself, bite after bite.
Saint John Vianney: Never a Meal Without a Mortification
The holy Curé of Ars, who lived on a few potatoes, does not preach extremism; he preaches constancy. Let every meal bear its little cross: not eating out of gluttony nor beyond what is necessary, never outside meals without necessity, and always with some small mortification — such is, in substance, his teaching in the Sermon on Penance[42].
The rule of Ars aligns with that of Vincent de Paul and Syncletica: better a small and daily mortification than a great fast without follow-through.
Saint John Paul II: Fasting, a Weapon Against the Idol of Money
Closer to us, John Paul II restores to fasting its social edge: to deprive oneself not only of the superfluous but of a little more, to give it away—this is the Christian’s weapon against attachment to money.
“He offers us the practical and effective weapons of fasting and almsgiving to fight against excessive attachment to money. To deprive oneself not only of the superfluous but also of something more, to give it to those in need, contributes to renunciation without which there is no authentic practice of the Christian life.”
— Saint John Paul II (1920-2005), Message for Lent 2003, 4[43]
Fifteen centuries after Leo the Great, fasting remains “rich in almsgiving”: it never closes in on itself, it always opens toward the poor.
The Voice of the Divine Will: the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta
In the writings of the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta (1865-1947) — which belong to private revelation received by the Church (Nulla Osta of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, June 2024), not to the magisterium —, she who for decades lived on practically nothing but the daily Eucharist, Jesus takes up and brings to its summit all the teaching of the saints on mortification and fasting. He first makes it a matter of the breath of the soul:
“Mortification must be the air of the soul. By the air the soul breathes, one recognizes whether it is healthy or sick. If a person breathes the air of mortification, everything will be purified in her; all her senses will sound with the same harmonious tone.”
— Jesus to the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven, volume 3, February 16, 1900[44]
But the unique contribution of the Divine Will goes further. Where all the saints describe a battle—fasting to subdue the flesh—Jesus reveals to Luisa a state where the light of the Divine Will gently soothes appetites at their root, so that mortification ceases to be a struggle and becomes a peace:
“When one lives in my holy Will, the passions die gently, without struggle and without noise. They lose life by themselves. For before the holiness of my Will, the passions do not dare to show themselves.”
— Jesus to the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven, volume 4, December 23, 1900[45]
This is the fulfillment of the Fathers’ promises: the perfect fast is no longer primarily a wrested deprivation, but a heart so filled with God that disordered hunger finds no place there.
What the Saints Teach Us, in Summary
Beyond the diversity of voices, four certainties return like a refrain.
True fasting is shared
From Isaiah to the Shepherd of Hermas, from Leo the Great to John Paul II, the same law: fasting that does not feed the poor is mere economy. What I remove from my table must pass into the hand of the needy. “Let our fasts be rich and abundant” in almsgiving (Leo).
Fasting is the soul of prayer
Basil (fasting, the “wing” of prayer), Augustine (the “two wings”), Peter Chrysologus (“fasting is the soul of prayer”) all say one thing: fasting, prayer, and almsgiving are never separated. A fast without prayer is a body without a soul; a prayer without fasting, a soul without wings.
Fasting is measured
Syncletica (asceticism “of the Enemy”), Cassian (fasting “secondary” to charity), Bernard (“remove discretion, and virtue becomes vice”), Catherine of Siena (fasting as a “means”, abandoned by obedience), Francis de Sales (not ruining one’s health): all warn against excessive fasting. The criterion of true fasting is not quantity, but measure and obedience.
Fasting is received
From Basil (“the first commandment received by Adam”) to the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta (passions that “die without combat”), perfect fasting is not primarily a conquest of a clenched will, but a gift: a heart so turned toward God that disordered hunger quiets itself. One fasts less by force than by love.
Christ and Mary, Masters of Fasting
All the saints point to a single Master. Christ inaugurates His mission by a sovereign fast of forty days in the desert; to the tempter who proposes turning stones into bread, He replies: “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Mt 4:4)[46]. His life will be this perfect measure: neither the repellent austerity of John the Baptist, of whom it was said he “had a demon”, nor complacency — a man who “eats and drinks” with sinners without ever ceasing to be master of himself.
It is also to Him that the famous saying about fasting that drives out demons refers. It must be quoted precisely: in the official liturgical translation, Jesus answers “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer” (Mk 9:29), the mention “and fasting” being absent from the best manuscripts — likewise Matthew 17:21 (“by prayer and fasting”) does not appear in the critical text[47]. Nevertheless, the spiritual tradition is right to link fasting and combat: fasting remains, according to Saint Basil’s word, “a weapon for the valiant”.
Mary, finally, is the perfect model of this measure: a heart so fully turned toward God that nothing disordered found a place there. The saints of the Divine Will see in her the creature where passions never dared “to show themselves”. Toward Christ and Mary converge all the voices gathered in this article: fasting is not a sad morality, but the face of Christ gradually forming in the baptized — a heart free, praying, and sharing, who “does not live by bread alone”.
For Further Reading
- How to Grow in Fasting — the practical path: what Christian fasting is, the three ends according to Saint Thomas, what the Church asks today, concrete steps, the two ways to fail fasting, and its fruits.
- What the Saints Say About the Fight Against Gluttony — the vice fasting combats at the table, its five faces, and the saints’ weapons.
- What the Saints Say About Temperance — the cardinal virtue of right measure, of which fasting is a privileged application.
- What the Saints Say About Detachment — cutting at the root attachment to created goods, a radical path of which fasting is the bodily exercise.
- What the Saints Say About Penance and What the Saints Say About Reparation — the third end of fasting: to satisfy and repair for sin.
Notes and References
Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), Summa Theologiae, II-II, q. 147, a. 1: “Fasting is taken principally for three things. First, to restrain the concupiscences of the flesh […]. Secondly, it is taken so that the mind may be more freely raised to contemplate sublime things […]. Thirdly, to make satisfaction for sins.” Fasting is defined here as a virtuous act belonging to abstinence, part of temperance. Latin reference text: Summa Theologiae, IIª-IIae q. 147 a. 1.
1 13 33Joel 2:12, official liturgical translation (AELF). Opening verse of the Ash Wednesday liturgy.
2Isaiah 58:6-7, official liturgical translation (AELF). The great prophetic text on “true fasting,” constantly cited by the Fathers to link fasting, justice, and almsgiving.
3Gospel according to Saint Matthew 6:16-18, official liturgical translation (AELF). Christ’s teaching on fasting “in secret,” read on Ash Wednesday.
4Gospel according to Saint Matthew 4:2, official liturgical translation (AELF): “After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.” Cf. parallel in Luke 4:1-2: “He ate nothing during those days.”
5Gospel according to Saint Matthew 9:15, official liturgical translation (AELF): “The days will come when the Bridegroom will be taken away from them; then they will fast.” Cf. parallel in Mark 2:20. New Testament foundation of Christian fasting as awaiting the Bridegroom.
6Acts of the Apostles 13:2-3 (sending of Barnabas and Saul “while they were worshiping the Lord and fasting”) and 14:23 (institution of Elders “after praying and fasting”), official liturgical translation (AELF). Fasting accompanies, from the apostolic Church, major decisions and ordinations.
7The Shepherd of Hermas (2nd century), Fifth Similitude, 3: “In the day on which you fast you will taste nothing but bread and water; and having reckoned up the price of the dishes of that day which you intended to have eaten, you will give it to a widow, or an orphan, or to some person in want.” French translation based on the text established on New Advent (The Shepherd of Hermas, Book III, Similitude V, 3). One of the oldest Christian writings, sometimes read in the early Church following Scripture.
8 17Saint Basil of Caesarea (c. 330-379), First Homily on Fasting (De jejunio I), 3; PG 31, 168: “It was the first commandment that Adam received: ‘Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil ye shall not eat.’ […] Through the words ‘ye shall not eat’ the law of fasting and abstinence is laid down.” Formula confirmed by Benedict XVI, Message for Lent 2009, §1: “Cette défense – “tu ne mangeras pas” – est une loi de jeûne et d’abstinence” (Homélie sur le jeûne: PG 31, 163, 98). French translation based on the established English text; critical French edition: Sources Chrétiennes.
9 19Saint Syncletica of Alexandria (4th century), Sayings of the Desert Fathers, alphabetical collection, Syncletica series, saying 15: “There is an asceticism which is determined by the enemy and his disciples practise it. So how are we to distinguish between the divine and royal asceticism and the demonic tyranny? Clearly through its quality of balance.” Verified reference: Benedicta Ward, The Sayings of the Desert Fathers: The Alphabetical Collection, Cistercian Publications, 1975 (repr. 1984); Greek text: PG 65, col. 425-428 (Syncletica series), “Ἔστι καὶ ἐκ τοῦ ἐχθροῦ ἐπιτεταμένη ἄσκησις… δῆλον ὡς ἀπὸ τῆς συμμετρίας”.
10 24Saint John Chrysostom (c. 349-407), Homilies on the Statues (Ad populum Antiochenum), Homily III, 11; PG 49; NPNF translation, 1st series, vol. 9: “Let not the mouth only fast, but also the eye, and the ear, and the feet, and the hands, and all the members of our bodies. Let the hands fast, by being pure from rapine and avarice. […] For what doth it profit if we abstain from birds and fishes, and yet bite and devour our brethren?” This famous exhortation comes from the 3rd homily On the Statues, and not — as is often mistakenly read — from a “homily on fasting.” French translation based on the established English text.
11 27Saint Peter Chrysologus (c. 380-450), Sermon 43; PL 52, 320 and 322: “There are three things, brothers, by which faith stands firm, devotion remains, and virtue endures: prayer, fasting, mercy. […] Prayer knocks, fasting obtains, mercy receives. […] fasting is the soul of prayer, mercy the life of fasting.” Passage read at the Office of Readings (Liturgy of the Hours, Tuesday of the 3rd week of Lent). Misericordia is understood here as almsgiving as much as mercy.
12 29The Eternal Father to Saint Catherine of Siena (1347-1380), The Dialogue, treatise on Discretion; translation based on Algar Thorold’s edition: “I wish therefore that the works of penance, and of other corporal exercises, should be observed merely as means, and not as the fundamental affection of the soul.” Catherine, who fasted to the extreme, teaches the subordination of penance to charity.
14 36Saint John Vianney (1786-1859), Sermon on Penance (Sermons of the Curé d’Ars, vol. 1, cited from the online transcription at livres-mystiques.com): teaching summarized above in paraphrase, the verbatim not having been checked against the printed edition.
15 42Jesus to the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta (1865-1947), The Book of Heaven, volume 3, February 16, 1900: “Mortification must be the air of the soul. By the air the soul breathes, one recognizes whether it is healthy or sick. If a person breathes the air of mortification, everything will be purified in her; all her senses will sound with the same harmonious tone.” French trans. Lumen Luminis (GE – La Volonté Divine); dictation verified word for word against the full text of that edition (volume 3, dictation of 16 February 1900).
16 44The Shepherd of Hermas, Fifth Similitude, 1: “Do no evil in your life, and serve the Lord with a pure heart: keep His commandments […] and let no evil desire arise in your heart.” True fasting is first abstention from evil and guarding the heart. New Advent, The Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude V, 1.
18Saint Basil of Caesarea, First Homily on Fasting, 6; PG 31, 164-184: “Fasting gives birth to prophets and strengthens the powerful; fasting makes lawgivers wise.”
20Saint Basil of Caesarea, First Homily on Fasting, 6: “Fasting is a good safeguard for the soul, a steadfast companion for the body, a weapon for the valiant, and a gymnasium for athletes.”
21Saint Basil of Caesarea, First Homily on Fasting, 7: “Fasting sends up prayer to Heaven, becoming, as it were, a wing for it on its upward journey.”
22Saint Basil of Caesarea, Second Homily on Fasting (De jejunio II); PG 31, 185-197: “True fasting is being a stranger to vice, controlling the tongue, abstaining from anger, distancing oneself from lust, evil speech, lying, perjury.” Direct echo of Isaiah 58.
23Saint Syncletica of Alexandria, Sayings of the Desert Fathers (Syncletica series), saying 15 (continuation of the same text): “Always use a single rule of fasting. Do not fast four or five days and break it the following day with any amount of food. In truth lack of proportion always corrupts.” Same verified reference as the previous note (Ward; PG 65, col. 425-428).
25Saint John Cassian (c. 360-435), Conferences I (of Abbot Moses), Sources Chrétiennes 42 bis, Cerf, 2008, p. 101: “One gains less by fasting than one loses by a movement of anger […]. It is therefore fitting to relate secondary things, fasts, vigils, retreat and meditation on Scripture, to our main goal, that is, purity of heart, which is charity.”
26Saint Leo the Great (Pope, † 461), Sermon 49 (on Lent), VI; PL 54; NPNF translation, 2nd series, vol. 12: “in the distribution of alms and care of the poor, let our Christian fast-times be fat and abound; and let each bestow on the weak and destitute those dainties which he denies himself.” French translation based on the established English text.
28Saint Augustine (354-430), Enarrationes in Psalmos, Enarratio in Psalmum XLII (Vulgate numbering; Hebrew Ps 43, Judica me Deus), §7 (last paragraph): “Vis orationem tuam volare ad Deum? Fac illi duas alas, jejunium et eleemosynam.” (“Do you want your prayer to fly up to God? Give it two wings: fasting and almsgiving.”) Latin text verified in the Migne edition (PL 36); English trans. NPNF: “Would you have your prayer fly upward to God? Make for it those two wings of alms and fasting.”
30Saint Jerome (c. 347-420), Letter 22 to Eustochium, 17; translation based on the established text on New Advent (Letter 22): “When cloyed the mind immediately grows sluggish, and when the ground is watered it puts forth the thorns of lust.” Reference French edition: J. Labourt, Saint Jerome, Letters, vol. I, Les Belles Lettres (Budé).
31Saint Jerome, Letter 22 to Eustochium, 8: “Wine and youth between them kindle the fire of sensual pleasure. Why do we throw oil on the flame…?” Wine is named here “the first weapon demons use against the young.” Neighbouring theme of the maxim Saint Thomas takes up from Jerome (Adversus Jovinianum, II: “sine Cerere et Baccho friget Venus”; cf. II-II, q. 147, a. 1).
32Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, II-II, q. 147, a. 1: Thomas cites Jerome (Adversus Jovinianum, II) — “sine Cerere et Baccho friget Venus” (“without Ceres and Bacchus, Venus grows cold”) — to show that abstinence from food and drink cools desire. The triad of three ends is Thomas’s own, not Augustine’s.
34Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), Sermons on the Song of Songs, Sermon 49: “Discretion indeed puts order to every virtue; order gives measure and decorum, even perpetuity. […] discretion is therefore not so much a virtue as a certain moderator […]. Remove this, and virtue becomes vice.” (Latin text on Wikisource, Sermones in Canticum Canticorum, Sermon 49.) The phrase concerns discretio in general, moderator of every virtue; its application to fasting is a classical extension.
35The Eternal Father to Saint Catherine of Siena, The Dialogue, treatise on Discretion: “…through obedience at the order of her director, it is well; since, if she continued then to do them, she not only would receive no merit, but would offend Me.” Bodily penance must yield before obedience and necessity.
37Thomas à Kempis (c. 1380-1471), The Imitation of Christ, book II, ch. 11: “Jesus has many lovers of His heavenly kingdom, but few bearers of His cross. […] He finds many companions at the table, but few of abstinence.”
38Saint Francis de Sales (1567-1622), Introduction to the Devout Life, Part III, ch. 23 (“On the Exercises of External Mortification”): “If the work you do is necessary or very useful to the glory of God, I prefer that you suffer the pain of the work rather than that of fasting. […] It is better to keep more bodily strength than is required than to ruin more than necessary.” Boulenger edition (1909) based on the 1619 text.
39Saint Francis de Sales, Sermon for Ash Wednesday (February 9, 1622), Complete Works, Annecy edition, vol. IX (Sermons): “It is required that our fast be general and entire, that is, that we make all the members of our body fast.” This passage on fasting of the senses belongs to the 1622 sermon, not the Introduction to the Devout Life.
40Saint Vincent de Paul (1581-1660), Conference of 19 July 1640 to the Daughters of Charity, “On the vocation of a Daughter of Charity” (development on the mortification of the senses), in Correspondence, Conferences, Documents, vol. IX, ed. Pierre Coste, C.M., Paris, 1923, p. 24: teaching summarized above in paraphrase from the cited edition, the verbatim not having been rechecked against the printed text.
41Saint John Paul II (1920-2005), Message for Lent 2003, §4: “He offers us the practical and effective weapons of fasting and almsgiving to fight against excessive attachment to money. To deprive oneself not only of the superfluous but also of something more, to give it to those in need, contributes to renunciation without which there is no authentic practice of Christian life.” URL re-verified on 4 October 2026 (HTTP 200, text of §4 matching): https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/fr/messages/lent/documents/hf_jp-ii_mes_20030206_lent-2003.html
43Jesus to the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta, The Book of Heaven, volume 4, December 23, 1900: “When one lives in my holy Will, the passions die gently, without combat and without noise. They lose life by themselves. For, before the holiness of my Will, the passions do not dare to show themselves.” French trans. Lumen Luminis (GE – La Volonté Divine); dictation verified word for word against the full text of that edition (volume 4, dictation of 23 December 1900).
45Gospel according to Saint Matthew 4:4, official liturgical translation (AELF): “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Christ’s response to the tempter, after forty days of fasting.
46Mark 9:29, official liturgical translation (AELF): “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.” The mention “and fasting” is absent from the best ancient manuscripts and the AELF; likewise, Matthew 17:21 (“by prayer and fasting”) does not appear in the critical text (AELF jumps from 17:20 to 17:22). The tradition linking fasting and spiritual combat remains legitimate, but it should not rely on this late variant as a guaranteed verbatim.
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