McDonough, SusanCunningham, David Robert2021-01-292021-01-292019-01-0112060http://hdl.handle.net/11603/20884This theses tracks the development of monastic thought in the western Mediterranean by examining Saint Jerome and Saint John Cassian's competing approaches to fasting. First this work places each man into his historical context, including the audience he was writing for, a mostly female mixed audience for Jerome, or the male audience of Cassian. Ultimately Cassian's more practical and moderate approach that centered on communion with god proved to be more influential than Jerome's approach that focused on preserving sexual purity, through extreme mortification of the flesh. Finally, this theses asks a question, given the prevailing attitudes of the period would St. John Cassian been as moderate, had he written for women?application:pdfFastingJeromeJohn CassianMonasticismPatristic EraText