Ascetics
a name given in ancient times to those Christians who devoted themselves to severe exercises of piety and strove to distinguish themselves from the world by abstinence from sensual enjoyments and by voluntary penances. They, therefore, abstained from wine, flesh, matrimony, and worldly business; and, moreover, emaciated their bodies by long vigils, fasting, toil, and hunger. Both men and women embraced this austere mode of life. ASCHAM