As ardent Christians sought to establish a closer union with God, they sometimes

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Ardent Christians have practiced all of these extreme forms of asceticism as a way to seek a closer union with God. Flogging oneself was a common practice in the Middle Ages, and some Christian mystics would eat only herbs or engage in self-flagellation as a form of penance. Spiked corsets were also used to inflict physical pain as a way of atoning for sins. Finally, living for years atop a high column, known as stylites, was a practice of some Christian ascetics in the Byzantine Empire.

As Ardent Christians Sought to Establish a Closer Union with God