What fasting laws was Br. Francis subject to?

Question

I have always wondered what Lenten fasting laws Brother Francis Gerard of Utah was actually supposed to be subject to, while he was in the wilderness at the beginning of A Canticle for Leibowitz seeking his vocation. It seems that he is not supposed to eat during the day, but what are the rules for feeding the novices after sundown? And why does his confessor seem no more perturbed by Francis actually eating a lizard than merely gazing hungrily at a lizard's hams?

Basically, I am asking: What do we know about—and, in particular, what is the real-world basis for—the Lenten fasting rules for the novices who are out seeking to find their vocations as monks?

Answer 1

The fasting rules are described:

Francis moistened his lips hungrily, but looked away. He had eaten nothing but cactus fruit and one handful of parched corn since Ash Wednesday; the rules of fast and abstinence were rather strict for vocational vigils.

And even when meager rations, reasonably suitable for fasting sustenance by the stranger, Francis still:

In spite of his dehydrated condition, caused by his meager water supply, the novice’s mouth flooded with saliva. His eyes refused to move from the hand that offered the food. The universe contracted; at its exact geometric center floated that sandy tidbit of dark bread and pale cheese. A demon commanded the muscles of his left leg to move his left foot half a yard forward. The demon then possessed his right leg to move the right foot ahead of the left, and it somehow forced his right pectorals and biceps to swing his arm until his hand touched the hand of the pilgrim. His fingers felt the food; they seemed even to taste the food. An involuntary shudder passed over his half-starved body. He closed his eyes and saw the Lord Abbot glaring at him and brandishing a bullwhip. Whenever the novice tried to visualize the Holy Trinity, the countenance of God the Father always became confused with the face of the abbot, which was normally, it seemed to Francis, very angry. Behind the abbot a bonfire raged, and from the midst of the flames the eyes of the Blessed Martyr Leibowitz gazed in death-agony upon his fasting prote´ge´, caught in the act of reaching for cheese. The novice shuddered again. ‘Apage Satanas!’ he hissed as he danced back and dropped the food.Without warning, he spattered the old man with holy water from a tiny phial sneaked from his sleeve. The pilgrim had become indistinguishable from the Archenemy, for a moment, in the somewhat sun-dazed mind of the novice... Ashamed of the odor of cheese that lingered on his fingertips, and repenting his irrational exorcism, the novice slunk back to his self-appointed labors in the old ruins, while the pilgrim cooled his feet and satisfied his wrath by flinging an occasional rock at the youth whenever the latter moved into view among the rubble mounds. When his arm at last grew weary, he flung more feints than stones, and merely grumbled over his bread and cheese when Francis ceased to dodge.

A side topic is that it wasn’t just food that was extreme; here is a pilgrim in a world fighting for human survival, and Francis can’t even communicate either because of his vow of silence. But, I’m getting off track.

Francis gives us a hint by tying his temptation of food to demonic spirits. This is of course, inspired by early religious asceticism which held the same beliefs — essentially food was a pathway to demonic possession.

Some early pre-Christian examples include Orphics or Pythagoreans were practitioners of these beliefs. Also some early Christian and Gnostic sects notably like Manichaeans practiced extreme fasting or fasting rooted on belief that food or types of food were dangerous to the soul.