Asceticism is the practice of denial of physical or psychological desires in order to attain a spiritual ideal or goal, often self-inflicted.

Archaeologists in Jerusalem have uncovered a 1,500-year-old skeleton of a woman who was buried while still wearing iron shackles around her neck, hands, and feet. This rare and unsettling discovery ...

Not far from Jerusalem, archaeologists have discovered the fifth-century burial of a person wrapped in heavy metal chains. But the Byzantine-era grave held another surprise: The person who had ...

But until now, the only suggestion that early Byzantine women engaged in the practice ... who had also bound themselves with chains for 42 years. But until now there had been no hard evidence ...