by banned » Tue Oct 25, 2005 1:38 am
I just don't know why people give it so much attention, as I've said before the Jesuits wore them for years without anyone commenting on it.<br><br>Self mortification even to the point of flagellation was, if not common, an accepted monastic practice.<br><br>"Mortificatio" may not be your cup of java, or mine, but it doesn't make them sinister.<br><br>Growing up Catholic pre-Vatican II, I read a lot of "Lives of the Saints" that seemed, OK, IS extreme. Self flagellation, wearing hair shirts, I can't remember now if it was St. Teresa of Avila or St. Catherine who used to drink the water she washed lepers in. (Being a very squicky child--I thought if you sat on a toilet seat you DIED--that one's stuck with me <!--EZCODE EMOTICON START :x --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/sick.gif ALT=":x"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> ).<br><br>The Stylite hermits (remember St. Simon Stylites, my elderly RC brethren?) lived on top of columns. Anchorites lived inside walled enclosures. The Discalced Carmelites went barefoot which, in the winter, cannot have been fun.<br><br>Sure, we can say all those folks were clinical masochists, or (the column/wall dudes) a good half bubble off plumb, but in their time, nobody called the paramedics to run them over to the nearest bughouse.<br><br>There's a lot of icky stuff about The Penguins of God, but the cilice isn't anything to...er...beat them up over <!--EZCODE EMOTICON START :lol --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/laugh.gif ALT=":lol"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> <p></p><i></i>