Paper short abstract:

Naturalistic doctors of the 19th and 20th centuries tried to deal with Catholic claims of miraculous food abstinence using the technical methods at their disposal. They were looking for objectifiable evidence and were driven by the belief in progress cultivated in their scientific networks.

Paper long abstract:

Bodily devotional practices of Catholic women have been closely monitored and controlled since the Enlightenment, both by the clergy, but also by state authorities and of course by medical professionals. Food abstinence was usually integrated into a cluster of other bodily piety practices (stigmata, ecstasies, revelations) and mostly linked to discourses of "holiness" and "miracles". The religious self-understanding of food abstainers has rarely been simply accepted, let alone taken serious. On the contrary, it was regularly challenged by medical experts of different specialization. The paper presents cases that show different types of medical examinations and categorizations: What knowledge constituted medical perspectives? What techniques and methods were used to produce scientific evidence for or against miracles? Furthermore, academically educated physicians became more and more powerful agents in assessing "healthy" and "sick" religiosity as well as authentic and deceptive behavior. Some of these scientists performed as self-confident progressive positivists, while others had difficulties to put their scientific standards into practice as their prior expectations were irritated when encountering their patients in real life and not just through medical case reports. The mass investigation of "exotic" religious practices by experts of various specializations was part of the history of the professionalization of "naturalistic" medicine and technological optimism was a driving force for many of the protagonists involved.