HEALERS
"This is an art
Which doth mend nature--but
The art itself is nature."--_Winter's Tale._
"Some are molested by Phantasie; so some, again, by
Fancy alone and a good conceit, are as easily
recovered.... All the world knows there is no virtue in
charms, &c., but a strong conceit and opinion alone, as
Pomponatius holds, which forceth a motion of the
humours, spirits, and blood, which takes away the cause
of the malady from the parts affected. The like we may
say of the magical effects, superstitious cures, and
such as are done by montebanks and wizards. As by wicked
incredulity many are hurt (so saith Wierus), we find, in
our experience, by the same means, many are relieved."
In discussing the subject of healers one must keep in mind the fact
that the healers of the first millennium of our era were almost wholly
exorcists, on account of the prevailing theory, and even after that
time exorcism, on the one hand, and the faith in relics and shrines on
the other, formed the principal means of cure. It is therefore
difficult to differentiate the other healers from the exorcists, and
to decide whether certain cures were performed by healers or by
relics.
Another difficulty confronts us. Many authentic cures have probably
been wrought by saints, but unfortunately most of those performed by
them have little contemporary evidence to support them, but rest on
the very shaky testimony of tradition. White,[57] in a keen analysis,
shows how the legends of miraculous cures have grown around great
benefactors of humanity, taking Francis Xavier as a pertinent example.
We must also remember, however, that what are called miracles formed
part of the evidence which led to the canonization of a saint, and a
large number of healing miracles was usually included in the list. The
procedure of the court connected with the canonization was conducted
with the greatest rigor. Sitting as examiners were learned and upright
men from all nations, and the witness must be irreproachable as far as
character was concerned. The two witnesses required for each miracle
must testify concerning the nature of the disease and the cure, and
sign the deposition after it had been read to them. Following that,
the examiners sifted the evidence in a hypercritical way and
emphasized the weak places. Benedict XIV justly said: "The degree of
proof required is the same as that required for a criminal case, since
the cause of religion and piety is that of the commonweal." Some
consideration must be thus given to this testimony, but the value of
it depends on the number of years elapsing after the cures were
performed and the direct connection of the witnesses with the cure in
question.
The craving for the miraculous in bodily cures prejudiced many
historians, especially when the desire to emphasize the importance of
the church was uppermost in the minds of the writers. We can consider,
though, the material at hand, always recognizing that marvellous cures
can be performed when the authority of the physician has all the
weight of an infallible church behind it and the patient is credulous.
We must notice in this connection that the healers up to the time of
the magnetizers depended on religious ceremonies for their efficiency,
with the exception of those who endorsed and propagated "sympathetic
cures."
As we well know, the first healing among Christians was done by Jesus
himself and the apostles; after this for two centuries the exorcists
performed most of the cures. We have accounts of one non-Christian
healer whose cures have probably been handed down to us on account of
his exalted position. Tacitus and Suetonius describe how Vespasian
(9-79) healed in at least two cases. The first was a blind man well
known in Alexandria. In the second case the historians disagree; one
says it was a leg and the other a hand which was diseased and cured.
According to the story, the god Serapis revealed to the patients that
they would be cured by the emperor. Tacitus says that Vespasian did
not believe in his own power and it was only after much persuasion
that he was induced to try the experiment.[58]
The Christians, however, were not to be outdone as healers. Irenaeus
(130-202) gives a long list of infirmities which were cured by the
representatives of the church, and in writing, about the year 180,
draws a comparison between them and the heretics. "For they [the
heretics] can neither confer sight on the blind nor hearing on the
deaf, nor chase away all sorts of demons (except those which are sent
into others by themselves--if they can ever do as much as this): nor
can they cure the weak, or the lame, or the paralytic; or those who
are distressed in any other part of the body, as has often been done
in regard to bodily infirmity. Nor can they furnish effective remedies
for those external accidents which may occur. And so far are they from
being able to raise the dead, as the Lord raised them (and the
Apostles did by means of prayer, as has been frequently done in the
brotherhood on account of some necessity--the entire church in that
particular locality entreating with much fasting and prayer, the
spirit of the dead man has returned, and he has been bestowed in
answer to the prayers of the saints--) that they do not even believe
that this could possibly be done." He further says: "Others again heal
the sick by laying their hands upon them, and they are made whole.
Yea, moreover, as I have said, the dead even have been raised up, and
remained among us for many years."
The great Origen (185-254), writing when he would be certain to have
his words most severely criticised, says, after referring to the
miracles of the apostles: "And there are still preserved among
Christians traces of that Holy Spirit which appeared in the form of a
dove. They expel evil spirits, and perform many cures, and foresee
certain events, according to the will of the Logos." In another of his
works we find the following: "For they [the Jews] have no longer
prophets or miracles, traces of which to a considerable extent are
still found among Christians, and some of them more remarkable than
ever have existed among the Jews; and these we ourselves have
witnessed."
As has already been seen, different methods were used by various
healers, and we must not omit a brief account of healing by unction.
The very definite instructions laid down in the Epistle of James were
evidently strictly carried out in the early church, but the first
definite mention of anointing after that made by Mark and James is
found in the writings of Tertullian (160-220). He speaks of the pagan
emperor Severus being graciously mindful of Christians: "For he sought
out the Christian Proculus, surnamed Torpacion, the steward of
Euhodias, and in gratitude for his having once cured him by
anointing, he kept him in his palace till the day of his death."[59]
If the Christians anointed pagans it is legitimate to suppose that
they also anointed fellow-Christians, and that if this was performed
without special mention about the end of the second century, it must
have been common from the time of James to that period. It is probable
that during the first seven centuries of our era the practice of
praying with the sick and anointing them with oil never ceased. There
may be some objection to our considering the subject of anointing with
oil as purely mental healing, but according to the instructions given
for its use there was scarcely enough oil employed to be of benefit
otherwise, and especially as food. Mental healing, then, is the
rationale of the cures.
Puller[60] gives us three of the earliest incidents of healing by
unction, the original accounts all being written by contemporaries and
friends. Some time between the years 335 and 355, St. Parthenius,
Bishop of Lampsacus, anointed a man who was described as "altogether
withered." The account says: "Then getting up, he gently and gradually
softened the man's body with the holy oil, and straightway made him to
rise up healed." Refinus, a well-known writer and an eye-witness to
this healing, tells of St. Macarius of Alexandria and four monks
restoring, about the year 375, "a man, withered in all his limbs and
especially in his feet." He says: "But when he had been anointed all
over by them with oil in the Name of the Lord, immediately the soles
of his feet were strengthened. And when they said to him, 'In the name
of Jesus Christ ... arise, and stand on thy feet, and return to thy
house,' immediately arising and leaping, he blessed God." Some years
later, Palladius, the friend of St. Chrysostom, writes of another of
St. Macarius's cures which he witnessed: "But at the time that we were
there, there was brought to him from Thessalonica a noble and wealthy
virgin, who during many years had been suffering from paralysis. And
when she had been presented to him, and had been thrown down before
the cell of the blessed man, he, being moved with compassion for her,
with his own hands anointed her during twenty days with holy oil,
pouring out prayers for her to the Lord, and so sent her back cured to
her own city."
The Sacramentary of Serapion, Bishop of Thmuis, Egypt, written about
350, provides for the consecration of bread and water, as well as oil,
for healing; and in a prayer concerning oil and water there contained,
the following words are used: "Grant healing power upon these
creatures, that every fever and every demon and every sickness may
depart through the drinking and the anointing, and that the partaking
of these creatures may be a healing medicine and a medicine of
complete soundness in the Name of the Only begotten, Jesus Christ,"
etc. The Apostolic Constitutions of about 375 contain a prayer of
consecration used over oil and water brought by members of the
congregation, as follows: "Do thou now sanctify this water and this
oil, through Christ, in the name of him that offered or of her that
offered, and give to these things a power of producing health and of
driving away diseases, of putting to flight demons, of dispersing
every snare through Christ our Hope," etc.
About 390, St. Jerome wrote a life of St. Hilarion (291-371) in which
the latter is thus set forth as a healer: "But lo! that parched and
sandy district, after the rain had fallen, unexpectedly produced such
vast numbers of serpents and poisonous animals that many, who were
bitten, would have died at once if they had not run to Hilarion. He
therefore blessed some oil, with which all the husbandmen and
shepherds touched their wounds and found an infallible cure."
Oil was not always employed for anointing, but might be drunk by the
sick, and this use of it was made in healing a girl, by St. Martin of
Tours, about 395. St. Germain, Bishop of Auxerre (418-448), when the
physicians were powerless during a plague, blessed some oil and
anointed the swollen jaws of those who were sick, whereupon they
recovered; and St. Genevieve of Paris, who died about 502, used to
heal the sick with oil.
In Bede's biography of St. Cuthbert we find an instance of this saint
healing a girl about the year 687. A young woman was troubled for a
whole year with an intolerable pain in her head and side which the
physicians were unable to relieve. Cuthbert "in pity anointed the
wretched woman with oil. From that time she began to get better, and
was well in a few days."
At the beginning of the eighth century the anointing of the sick began
to decline, largely on account of the changed attitude of the church.
At this time this ceremony began to be used for spiritual ills rather
than for bodily diseases. Before long, anointing was monopolized by
the church for spiritual advantage, and is still so used by the Roman
Catholic Church in the ceremony of Extreme Unction.
In returning to the more direct methods of healing, we find that St.
Gregory of Nazianzus (329-390) confirmed the reports of the marvellous
cures wrought by the martyrs, Cosmo and Damian, who were beheaded in
303. During the life of Gregory of Tours (538-594), the healing
efficacy of the saints' relics was rivalled by the miraculous aid
rendered to the sick by St. Julian. The solitude of the holy anchorite
was interrupted by the persistent and despairing clamor of the sick to
whom he gave health. The great Turonese pontiff also tells us that
one day Aredius, traversing Paris, found Chilperic prostrate with a
grievous fever. The royal sufferer sought the saint's prayers as an
irresistible curative.
The daughter of a Teutonic nobleman was brought to St. Gall (556-640)
seriously ill with an incurable disorder, presenting the livid
appearance of an animated cadaver. The saint approached the
unconscious invalid as she reclined on her mother's knee, and assuming
the bended attitude of invocation by her side, made a fervent prayer
and evoked the demon producing the sickness to instantly depart. The
effort was all that was desired. Shortly after this, about the year
648, St. Vardrille, the founder of Fontanelle, exercised his remedial
potency in healing the palsied arm of a forester whose indiscreet zeal
had induced him to transfix the sainted abbot with a lance.
We have rather a strange case from the beginning of the seventh
century, where the moral and mental element seems to have been strong.
Abbe Eustasius returning from Rome, whither a mission of Clothair II
had called him, was urgently summoned by the sorrowful parent of a
Burgundian maiden, in the last agonies of a frightful malady, to
appear and cure the moribund daughter. On answering the call he found
that the child had in her youth been consecrated by the vows of
chastity, and on account of this shrunk from a marriage sanctioned by
her parents. Eustasius reproached the father for his efforts to
violate the solemn obligations of the virgin, and upon obtaining a
formal renunciation of further attempts to coerce her into matrimony,
the saint, by personal intercession, obtained a complete cure.
It was found that certain remedies in the hands of certain saints were
efficacious, but they did not have the same power if administered by
others. For instance, Franciscus de Paula succored an anchylosed joint
by the energetic surgery of three dried figs which he gave the
suffering patient to eat. Similarly, a maiden grieving under a
cancerous disease which surgical skill had frankly admitted was
incurable, was restored to robust vigor by the administering of some
mild herbs. This savored rather too much of medicine, and other holy
healers used more orthodox means. Hugo the Holy abstracted a serpent
from the infirm body of a woman by the use of holy water, and Coleta,
the saintess, awakened from the dreamless slumber of death more than
one hundred slain infants by the efficacy of a cross.
Even such a serious disorder as leprosy was said to have been healed
by saintly care. St. Martin, who gave special attention to sufferers
with this disease, cured a leper by kissing him, we are told. Toward
the middle of the sixth century, St. Radegonde displayed her faith by
first washing the repulsive sores and afterward applying her pure lips
to them. On one occasion an insolent leper asserted that unless his
putrefying limbs were kissed by this candidate for canonical honors he
could not be cured.[61]
Bede (673-735), the great English historian, in his careful way tells
us of cures performed by St. John of Beverly during the first part of
the eighth century. According to this record, St. John cured a dumb
youth, who had never spoken a word, by the sign of the cross on his
tongue, and he afterward had "ready utterance." He used holy water on
a woman so that, like Peter's wife's mother, she arose and ministered
to them, healed a friend who was injured by being thrown from a horse,
cured a nun of a grievous complaint, and restored a servant, an
account of which I shall give in Bede's words:
"The bishop went in and saw him in a dying condition,
and the coffin by his side, whilst all present were in
tears. He said a prayer, blessed him, and on going out,
as is the usual expression of comforters, said, 'May you
soon recover.' Afterwards when they were sitting at
table, the lad sent to his lord, to desire he would let
him have a cup of wine, because he was thirsty. The
earl, rejoicing that he could drink, sent him a cup of
wine, blessed by the bishop; which, as soon as he had
drunk, he immediately got up, and shaking off his late
infirmity, dressed himself, and going in to the bishop,
saluted him and the other guests, saying, 'He would also
eat and be merry with them.' They ordered him to sit
down with them at the entertainment, rejoicing at his
recovery. He sat down, ate and drank merrily, and
behaved himself like the rest of the company; and living
many years after, continued in the same state of
health."[62]
Skipping a few centuries, we find that Bernard of Clairvaux
(1091-1153), the most prominent figure of the twelfth century,
performed an abundance of cures, as his biographers testify. "The
cures were so many that the witnesses themselves were unable to detail
them all. At Doningen, near Rheinfeld, where the first Sunday of
Advent was spent, Bernard cured, in one day, nine blind persons, ten
who were deaf or dumb, and eighteen lame or paralytic. On the
following Wednesday, at Schaffhausen, the number of miracles
increased."[63] Concerning these cures Morison says: "Thirty-six
miraculous cures in one day would seem to have been the largest
stretch of supernatural power which Bernard permitted to himself. The
halt, the blind, the deaf, and the dumb were brought from all parts to
be touched by Bernard. The patient was presented to him, whereupon he
made the sign of the cross over the part affected, and the cure was
perfect."[64]
The following case in which details are more fully given is of much
interest: "At Toulouse, in the church of St. Saturninus, in which we
were lodged, was a certain regular canon, named John. John had kept
his bed for seven months, and was so reduced that his death was
expected daily. His legs were so shrunken that they were scarcely
larger than a child's arms. He was quite unable to rise to satisfy the
wants of nature. At last his brother canons refused to tolerate his
presence any longer among them, and thrust him out into the
neighbouring village. When the poor creature heard of Bernard's
proximity, he implored to be taken to him. Six men, therefore,
carrying him as he lay in bed, brought him into a room close to that
in which he was lodged. The abbot heard him confess his sins, and
listened to his entreaties to be restored to health. Bernard mentally
prayed to God: 'Behold, O Lord, they seek for a sign, and our words
avail nothing, unless they be confirmed with signs following.' He then
blessed him and left the chamber, and so did we all. In that very hour
the sick man arose from his couch, and running after Bernard, kissed
his feet with a devotion which cannot be imagined by any one who did
not see it. One of the canons, meeting him, nearly fainted with
fright, thinking he saw his ghost."
St. Francis of Assisi (1182-1226), the great founder of the Franciscan
Order, was not less famed for his miracles of healing than for his
Christ-like life and his stigmata. Among those cured were epileptics,
paralytics, and the blind. A typical case of cure by this humble saint
is given to show his method and its results: "Once when Francis the
Saint of God was making a long circuit through various regions to
preach the gospel of God's kingdom he came to a city called
Toscanella. Here ... he was entertained by a knight of that same city
whose only son was a cripple and weak in all his body. Though the
child was of tender years he had passed the age of weaning; but he
still remained in a cradle. The boy's father, seeing the man of God to
be endued with such holiness, humbly fell at his feet and besought him
to heal his son. Francis, deeming himself to be unprofitable and
unworthy of such power and grace, for a long time refused to do it. At
last, conquered by the urgency of the knight's entreaties, after
offering up prayer, he laid his hand on the boy, blessed him, and
lifted him up. And in the sight of all, the boy straightway arose
whole in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and began to walk hither
and thither about the house."[65]
St. Thomas of Hereford (1222-1282) was the last Englishman to be
officially canonized. The extant documents of his canonization record
no less than four hundred and twenty-nine miracles alleged to have
been performed by him. The following case of resurrection from the
dead occurred, however, twenty-one years after his death. I quote the
account in full:
"On the 6th of September, 1303, Roger, aged two years
and three months, the son of Gervase, one of the warders
of Conway Castle, managed to crawl out of bed in the
night and tumble off a bridge, a distance of
twenty-eight feet; he was not discovered till the next
morning, when his mother found him half naked and quite
dead upon a hard stone at the bottom of the ditch, where
there was no water or earth, but simply the rock, which
had been quarried to build the castle. Simon Waterford,
the vicar, who had christened the child, John de Bois,
John Guffe, all sworn witnesses, took their oaths on the
Gospel that they saw and handled the child dead. The
King's Crowners (Stephen Ganny and William Nottingham)
were presently called and went down into the moat. They
found the child's body cold and stiff, and white with
hoar-frost, stark dead, indeed. While the Crowners, as
their office requires, began to write what they had
seen, one John Syward, a near neighbour, came down and
gently handled the child's body all over, and finding it
as dead as ever any, made the sign of the cross upon its
forehead, and earnestly prayed after this manner:
'Blessed St. Thomas Cantelope, you by whom God has
wrought innumerable miracles, show mercy unto this
little infant, and obtain he may return to life again.
If this grace be granted he shall visit your holy
sepulchre and render humble thanks to God and you for
the favor.' No sooner had Syward spoken these words,
than the child began to move his head and right arm a
little, and forthwith life and vigor came back again
into every part of his body. The Crowners, and many
others who were standing by, saw the miracle, and in
that very place, with great admiration, returned humble
thanks to God and St. Thomas for what they had seen. The
mother, now overjoyed, took the child in her arms, and
went that day to hear mass in a church not far off,
where, upon her knees, she recognized with a grateful
heart that she owed the life of her infant to God and
St. Thomas. Her devotion ended, she returned home, and
the child, feeling no pain at all, walked as he was wont
to do up and down the house, though a little scar still
continued in one cheek, which after a few days, quite
vanished away."[66]
St. Catharine of Siena (1347-1380) obtained considerable reputation as
a healer, principally, however, in the line of exorcism; this, though,
meant the cure of any disease. Like St. Paul, she was one of a large
number of saints who healed others but did not cure herself; she died
at the age of thirty-three. A woman was presented to the immaculate
saintess for prompt remedy; by the virtue of divine magic a demon was
forced from each part of her body where he had taken refuge, but
resisting absolute ejectment from this carnal abode, made a desperate
conflict in the throat, where by uninterrupted scratches he reproduced
himself in the form of an abscess.
On another occasion the saint was more successful. Laurentia, a maiden
of youthful years, placed by her father within the sheltering walls of
a cloister, to assume ultimately monastic vows, was quickly captured
by an errant demon. As an irrefutable demonstration of the impure
origin of her infirmity, an annalist asserts, this spirit promptly
answered in elegant Latinity all questions propounded; but the
strongest confirmation of this belief was the miraculous ability which
enabled her to disclose the most secret thoughts of others, and
divulge the mysterious affairs of her associates. St. Catharine at
length liberated the suffering female from her diabolical tenant. More
extraordinary claims are made for her. It is said that she stayed a
plague at Varazze, and healed a throng at Pisa.[67]
Raimondo da Capua, her faithful friend and constant companion, wrote
her biography and gives us different instances of remarkable cures
performed by her. For example, he tells us that Father Matthew of
Cenni, the director of the Hospital of la Misericordia, was stricken
when the plague was raging in Siena in 1373, and of his marvellous
cure.
Perhaps we had better allow him to tell of Catharine's power in his
own words:
"One day on entering, I saw some of the brothers carrying Father
Matthew like a corpse from the chapel to his room; his face was
livid, and his strength was so far gone that he could not answer me
when I spoke to him. 'Last night,' the brothers said, 'about seven
o'clock, while ministering to a dying person, he perceived himself
stricken, and fell at once into extreme weakness.' I helped to put
him on his bed; ... he spoke afterwards, and said that he felt as if
his head was separated into four parts. I sent for Dr. Senso, his
physician; Dr. Senso declared to me that my friend had the plague,
and that every symptom announced the approach of death. 'I fear,'
he said, 'that the House of Mercy (Misericordia) is about to be
deprived of its good director.' I asked if medical art could not
save him. 'We shall see,' replied Senso, 'but I have only a very
faint hope; his blood is too much poisoned.' I withdrew, praying God
to save the life of this good man. Catharine, however, had heard of
the illness of Father Matthew, whom she loved sincerely, and she
lost no time in repairing to him. The moment she entered the room,
she cried, with a cheerful voice, 'Get up, Father Matthew, get up!
This is not a time to be lying idly in bed.' Father Matthew roused
himself, sat up on his bed, and finally stood on his feet. Catharine
retired; and the moment she was leaving the house, I entered it, and
ignorant of what had happened, and believing my friend to be still
at the point of death, my grief urged me to say, 'Will you allow a
person so dear to us, and so useful to others, to die?' She appeared
annoyed at my words, and replied, 'In what terms do you address me?
Am I like God, to deliver a man from death?' But I, beside myself
with sorrow, pleaded, 'Speak in that way to others if you will, but
not to me; for I know your secrets; and I know you obtain from God
whatever you ask in faith.' Then Catharine bowed her head, and
smiled just a little; after a few minutes she lifted up her head and
looked at me full in the face, her countenance radiant with joy, and
said, 'Well, let us take courage; he will not die this time,' and
she passed on. At these words I banished all fear, for I understood
that she had obtained some favor from heaven. I went straight to my
sick friend, whom I found sitting on the side of his bed. 'Do you
know,' he cried, 'what she has done for me?' He then stood up and
narrated joyfully what I have here written. To make the matter more
sure, the table was laid, and Father Matthew seated himself at it
with us; they served him with vegetables and other light food, and
he, who an hour before could not open his mouth, ate with us,
chatting and laughing gaily."
None of Catharine's biographers fail to relate wonderful instances of
her healing power.[68]
Martin Luther (1483-1546), the great leader of the Reformation, and
St. Francis Xavier (1506-1552), the leader of the Counter-Reformation,
were both healers, so it is said. Luther's cure of his friend and
helper, Melanchthon, by prayer for and encouragement of the patient,
is well known. Xavier's miracles were legion, but have been somewhat
discredited by a recent author.[69] I add but one example. "A certain
Tome Paninguem, a fencing-master, says, I knew Antonio de Miranda, who
was a servant of the Father Francis, and assisted him when saying
Mass. He told me that when going one night on business to Combature,
he was bitten by a venomous serpent. He immediately fell down as
though paralyzed and became speechless. He was found thus lying
unconscious. Informed of the fact, Father Francis ordered Antonio to
be carried to him: and when he was laid down speechless and senseless,
the Father prayed with all those present. The prayer finished, he put
a little saliva with his finger on the bitten place on Antonio's foot,
and at the same moment, Antonio recovered his senses, his memory and
his speech, and felt himself healed. I have since heard details of
this occurrence from the mouths of several eye-witnesses."[70]
If we accept Goerres's account,[71] the most remarkable instance of
curative power possessed by a saint is that afforded by St. Sauveur of
Horta (1520-1567). Outside of this one work I have been unable to find
any reference to this saint, so I will give a sketch of his apparently
remarkable life. He was born in Catalonia, and received the first part
of his name from a presentiment of his sponsors that he was to be a
savior of men, and the second part because he entered the monastery at
Horta. A short time after he finished his novitiate, people in some
way got the idea that he had a wonderful gift of healing, and soon
patients came to him in crowds from all parts of the country. He
continued healing for several years. At one time during the feast of
the Annunciation he cured six thousand persons, and at another time he
found ten thousand patients, from viceroy to laborer, waiting for him
at Valencia before the convent of St. Marie de Jesus. Notwithstanding
his apparently great success, his brother monks complained to the
bishop concerning the dirt and disorder caused by the crowds, and
after a reprimand he was sent at midnight to the monastery at Reus,
where he was known as Alphonse and assigned to the kitchen. In spite
of this, crowds continued to come and he was transferred from
monastery to monastery, but always with the same result--the crowd
sought him to be healed. He was known as simple, open, and obedient in
his relations with men, and austere toward himself. He was patient and
resigned, compassionate toward the poor and sick, and full of zeal for
their conversion. The number of patients he is said to have cured is
incredible, and it is even said that he resuscitated three dead
persons. After his death miracles were performed at his tomb. Why he
was not in favor with his superiors and his brother monks is unknown;
his friends say they were jealous; his enemies, that his cures were
not genuine.
St. Philip Neri (1551-1595), the founder of the Oratorians, was
renowned as a healer. He cured Clement VIII of gout by touching and
prayer, a woman of cancer of the breast by the mere touch and
assurance, a man of grievous symptoms such as loss of speech and
internal pain by simply laying on of hands, and many similar and
equally serious cases. The following case was counted nearly equal to
a resurrection: "In 1560 Pietro Vittrici of Parma, being in the
service of Cardinal Boncompagni, afterward Pope Gregory XIII, fell
dangerously ill. He was given up by the physicians, and was supposed
to be as good as dead. In this extremity he was visited by Philip who,
as soon as he entered the sick man's room, began, as was his wont, to
pray for him. He then put his hand on Pietro's forehead, and at the
touch he instantly revived. In two days' time he was out of the house
perfectly well and strong and went about telling people how he had
been cured by Father Philip."[72]
George Fox (1624-1691), the founder of the Quakers, performed some
simple cures of which he himself tells us. The most famous case was
that of the cure of a lame arm by command, the account of which we
take from his pen. He thus records it: "After some time I went to the
meeting at Arnside where Richard Meyer was. Now he had been long lame
of one of his arms; and I was moved by the Lord to say unto him, among
all the people, 'Prophet Meyer stand up upon thy legs' (for he was
sitting down) and he stood up and stretched out his arm that had been
lame a long time, and said: 'Be it known unto all you people that this
day I am healed.' But his parents could hardly believe it, but after
the meeting was done, had him aside and took off his doublet; and then
they saw it was true. He soon after came to Swarthmore meeting, and
there declared how the Lord had healed him. But after this the Lord
commanded him to go to York with a message from him; and he disobeyed
the Lord; and the Lord struck him again, so that he died about
three-quarters of a year after."[73] The cure evidently was not
permanent.
Valentine Greatrakes (1628-1683) was born in Affane, Ireland. He was
the son of an Irish gentleman, had a good education, and was a
Protestant. In 1641, at the outbreak of the Irish rebellion, he fled
to England, and from 1649-1656 he served under Cromwell. In 1661,
after a period of melancholy derangement, he believed that God had
given him power of curing "king's evil" by touching or stroking and
prayer. After some success with this disease, he added to his list
ague, epilepsy, convulsions, paralysis, deafness, ulcers, aches, and
lameness, and for a number of years he devoted three days in every
week, from 6 A. M. to 6 P. M., to the exercise of his healing gifts.
The crowds which thronged around him were so great that the
neighboring towns were not able to accommodate them. He thereupon left
his house in the country and went to Youghal, where sick people, not
only from all parts of Ireland but from England, continued to
congregate in such great numbers that the magistrates were afraid they
would infect the place with their diseases.
In some instances he exorcised demons; in fact, he claimed that all
diseases were caused by evil spirits, and every infirmity was, with
him, a case of diabolic possession. The church endeavored to prohibit
his operations but without avail. He was invited to London, and,
notwithstanding that an exhibition before the nobility failed,
thousands flocked to his house in Lincoln's Inn Fields. In the
"Miscellanies" of St. Evremond a graphic sketch is given of his work.
The results of his healing are there summed up as follows:
"So great was the confidence in him, that the blind
fancied they saw the light which they did not see--the
deaf imagined that they heard--the lame that they
walked straight, and the paralytic that they had
recovered the use of their limbs. An idea of health
made the sick forget for a while their maladies; and
imagination, which was not less active in those merely
drawn by curiosity than in the sick, gave a false view
to the one class, from the desire of seeing, as it
operated a false cure on the other from the strong
desire of being healed. Such was the power of the
Irishman over the mind, and such was the influence of
the mind over the body. Nothing was spoken of in London
but his prodigies; and these prodigies were supported
by such great authorities that the bewildered multitude
believed them almost without examination, while more
enlightened people did not dare to reject them from
their own knowledge."
That there were real cures, however, seems most probable. The Bishop
of Dromore testifies thus from his own observation: "I have seen pains
strangely fly before his hands till he had chased them out of the
body; dimness cleared, and deafness cured by his touch. Twenty persons
at several times, in fits of the falling sickness, were in two or
three minutes brought to themselves.... Running sores of the 'King's
evil' were dried up; grievous sores of many months' date in a few days
healed, cancerous knots dissolved, etc." [74]
The celebrated Flamstead, the astronomer, when a lad of nineteen,
went into Ireland to be touched by Greatrakes, and he testifies that
he was an eyewitness of several cures, although he himself was not
benefited. In a letter to Lord Conway, Greatrakes says: "The King's
doctors, this day (for the confirmation of their majesties' belief),
sent three out of the hospital to me, who came on crutches; but,
blessed be God! they all went home well, to the admiration of all
people, as well as the doctors."[75]
Several pamphlets were issued by medical men and others criticising
his work, and in 1666 he published a vindication of himself entitled
"A Brief Account." This contained numerous testimonials by Bishop
Wilkins, Bishop Patrick, Dr. Cudworth, Dr. Whichcote, and others of
distinction and intelligence. After the retirement of Greatrakes, John
Leverett, a gardener, succeeded to the "manual exercise," and declared
that after touching thirty or forty a day, he felt so much goodness go
out of him that he was fatigued as if he had been digging eight roods
of ground.
About the same time that Greatrakes was working among the people of
London, an Italian enthusiast, named Francisco Bagnone, was operating
in Italy with equal success. He had only to touch the sick with his
hands, or sometimes with a relic, to accomplish cures which astonished
the people.
Hardly less famous than Greatrakes was Johann Jacob Gassner
(1727-1779). He was born at Bratz, near Bludenz, and became Roman
Catholic priest at Kloesterle. He believed that most diseases were
caused by evil spirits which could be exorcised by conjuration and
prayer. He began practising and soon attracted attention. In 1774 he
received a call from the bishop at Ratisbon to Ellwangen, where by the
mere word of command, "Cesset" (Give over), he cured the lame and
blind, but especially those who were afflicted with epilepsy and
convulsions, and who were thereby supposed to be obsessed. His cures
were not permanent in some cases, and before he died he lost power and
respect.
[57] A. D. White, _History of the Warfare of Science
with Theology_, II, pp. 5-22.
[58] W. E. H. Lecky, _History of European Morals_, I,
pp. 347 f.
[59] P. Dearmer, _Body and Soul_, pp. 252 f. I am
indebted to this excellent book for my material on the
subject of Unction, as well as for many other quotations
in this chapter.
[60] F. W. Puller, _Anointing of the Sick_, pp. 155-158.
[61] G. F. Fort, _History of Medical Economy During the
Middle Ages_, gives this and the other incidents just
quoted. See pp. 155, 160, 272, 275, 327.
[62] Bede, _Ecclesiastical History_, bk. V, chap. V.
[63] Quoted by P. Dearmer, _Body and Soul_, p. 359.
[64] J. Cotter Morison, _Life and Times of St. Bernard_,
pp. 422 and 460, for this and the following incident.
[65] Thomas of Celano, _Lives of St. Francis of Assisi_
(trans. A. G. F. Howell).
[66] _Dublin Review_, January, 1876, pp. 8-10.
[67] G. F. Fort, _History of Medical Economy During the
Middle Ages_, pp. 278 f.
[68] See J. Butler, _Life of St. Catharine of Siena_,
for many examples.
[69] See A. D. White, _History of the Warfare of Science
with Theology_, already referred to.
[70] Jos. Marie Cros, _St. Francois de Xavier, Sa vie et
ses lettres_, II, p. 392.
[71] Goerres, _La mystique divine naturelle et
diabolique_ (trans. Sainte-foi), I, pp. 470-473.
[72] P. J. Bacci, _Life of St. Philip Neri_ (trans.
Antrobus), II, p. 168.
[73] G. Fox, _Journal_, I, p. 103.
[74] J. Moses, _Pathological Aspects of Religions_, p.
188.
[75] E. Salverte, _The Philosophy of Magic_ (trans.
Thompson), II, p. 81.