Canada and the World

        Current Events with a Canadian Perspective

Last update

19 November 2010

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DEFINITION

Inedia is the claimed ability to live without food or drink for long periods of time.

In Roman Catholic tradition several saints are said to have displayed inedia; one such being Saint Mary Ann de Paredes.

The Ecuadorian women lived from 1618 to 1645 and, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia she devoted her life to Divine will and lived as a hermit in her sister’s home.

She fasted so strictly “that she took scarcely an ounce of dry bread every eight or ten days. The food which miraculously sustained her life… was, according to the sworn testimony of many witnesses, the Eucharistic Bread alone which she received every morning in Holy Communion.”

More recently, an 82-year-old Indian holy man has claimed to have lived for 70 years without food or water. According to ABC News (June 1, 2010) Prahlad Jani “has baffled doctors who studied him and did not see him eat or drink anything for more than two weeks.”