Religious masochists

"Reading the lives of fourteenth- and fifteenth-century women saints greatly expands one's knowledge of Latin synonyms for whip, thong, flail, chain, etc. ...Among the more bizarre female behaviours were rolling in broken glass, jumping into ovens, hanging from a gibbet, and praying upside down (as well as) thrusting needles into one's breasts, and praying barefoot in winter." (Caroline Walker Bynum, Holy Feast and Holy Fast the religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women, Berkeley 1987, pp, 209f)