Medicine in the Middle Ages, P5

Shidonna Raven
3 hours ago
3 min read

The Art of History

January 1, 2012

Photo Source: Unsplash,

Sufferers from St. Anthony’s fire were afflicted with burning extremities. As the disease, caused by the ingestion of tainted rye, progressed, the bright red extremities—hands, feet. and whole limbs—could become gangrenous and fall off. There were many Antonine hospitals to which patients flocked (1990.283a,b). These hospitals, dedicated to Saint Anthony Abbot (1988.159), gave patients a mixture called Saint Vinage. and cooling herbs such as verbena and sage were applied to soothe the burning heat. Amputations of the affected limbs were also performed.

Many people died of much less dramatic diseases. Women often died in childbirth or succumbed to postpartum infections. Children frequently did not live into adulthood. Laborers must have had multiple problems, such as accidents, osteoarthritis, and fractures. Kidney disease, dental problems, hemorrhoids, and heart disease would have been common. Battle-related injuries were frequent and often fatal.

The most important exemplar for any healer was Jesus himself. The Gospels recount that Jesus healed the blind, caused the paralyzed to walk, cast out devils from the possessed, healed a woman with an issue of blood, and even raised the dead. The healing touch was appropriated by English and French kings, and many miraculous cures were attributed to the royal laying-on of hands. In England, for example, the King’s Touch was believed to heal scrofula, a form of tuberculosis. Prayers to Christ, the Virgin, and saints were always considered the most efficacious form of help. Saint Margaret was invoked for help in childbirth (47.101.65) ; Saint Fiacre (25.120.227); (17.190.353) for relief from hemorrhoids. Pilgrimage to a shrine might also lead to miraculous healing. Often these sites and the relics they displayed were related to specific diseases and to specific saints.

Objects associated with the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket attest to the importance of Canterbury as a pilgrimage site where many sick people received miraculous cures. Becket was described as “the best physician of virtuous sick people” and the thirteenth-century windows at Canterbury provide a vivid record of miraculous cures of blindness, leprosy, drowning, madness, and the plague. At Canterbury, the saint’s blood was believed to be particularly beneficial—ampullae containing blood mixed with water were distributed at the shrine (2001.310). Canterbury seems to have been a particularly important pilgrimage destination for people suffering from bleeding disorders—perhaps because of the blood shed by Thomas at his martyrdom (17.190.520).

Pilgrims arriving at their destination would be able to touch the relics and even carry home with them secondary relics—perhaps a piece of cloth that had been applied to a reliquary, or an ampulla of liquid that had been poured over a tomb (17.194.2291). These secondary relics could then be used to heal those who were too ill to make the journey. Ultimately, the power of faith was potent medicine for the sick in the Middle Ages.