Three Thousand Years of Mental Healing Part 5

Hubert. This, though, was only to be used in the hands of those who could trace their genealogy to this n.o.ble saint. At the abbey of St.

Hubert, in the diocese of Liege, the intercession of the saint still continued to be sufficient to effect a cure, provided it was seconded by some religious ceremonies, and a diet which would rea.s.sure the patient.

After the discovery of the "true cross," portions of this relic were much used for aid in any emergency. In addition to sanitary and healing powers, fragments suspended to a tree manifested the proper location of sacred edifices. St. Magnus, who seems to have carried pieces around with him, completely vanquished demons who frequented a locality selected for a chapel. Eyesight was restored to a humble merchant seeking the blood-stained marks upon the chapel of this same St. Magnus. The blind man was feeling his uncertain way to the place, where these discolorations reappeared more distinctly after each washing with heavy layers of lime.

St. Louis, almost in the agonies of earthly dissolution, with rigid body, rigorous limbs, and fluctuating spirit, was brought to full health by the application to his moribund body of a piece of the true cross, about the year 1244; and later in the century miracles took place at his tomb. M. Littre, in his _Fragment de Medecine Retrospective_, describes seven miracles which occurred at his tomb, some of which cures, however, were very gradual. We are also told that when a humble hunchback bowed the knee in adoration at the tomb of St.

Andreas, his irresistible faith instantly released him from his unnatural rotundity. In 1243 a Ferrara writer was at Padua, and while attending vespers at the tomb where the sainted body of the Minorite Anthony reposed, he affirms that he saw a person who had been mute from his birth recover his voice and speak audibly.

Saintly remedies were used to cure hemorrhages, readjust luxations, unite fractures, remove calculi, moderate the agonizing pangs of parturition, restore vision to the blind, and hearing to the deaf--in fact, in an endeavor to perform cures which modern medicine and surgery are counting among their greatest and most recent triumphs.

Some things even more strange were attempted: paradoxical as it may seem, they were used to cover up crime. Fort tells us that among nuns and consecrated women in convents, some erring sisters applied the preventive talismanic influence of a sacred shirt or girdle to suppress the manifestation of conventual irregularities of a s.e.xual character. Animals as well as human beings were treated for sickness, and relics were used to free captive birds and animals. At a banquet, a costly urn was shattered by ecclesiastics, and through the power of Odilo it was restored to its original integrity. At the tombs of both St. Severin and St. Gall, when the light had been quenched, miraculous fire burst forth to renew the splendor.[35]

The allotment of certain diseases to certain saints did not end with the Middle Ages. I have in my hand a little manual ent.i.tled: _De l'Invocation miraculeuse des Saints dans les maladies et les besoins particuliers, par Mme. la Baronne d'Avout_, published in 1884. An invocation is given for every day in the year to some particular saint, who is thought to be especially efficacious in the cure of some specific disease. I shall quote but one for ill.u.s.tration.

"30 MAI S. HUBERT DE BReTIGNY Pres Noyons (Oise).

Honore au diocese de Beauvais.

"L'ill.u.s.tre saint Hubert, apotre des Ardennes, fut son protecteur et lui donna son nom. Il lui obtint les plus heureuses dispositions pour la vertu. Lui aussi herita du pouvoir de guerir de la rage.

"Les habitants de Noyon et des environs n'ont pas cesse de recourir a son intercession. Les personnes qui touchent ses reliques ou portent sur elles son nom beni esperent echapper pendant leur vie aux atteintes des demons, de la rage et du tonnerre.

"a Aire, diocese de Frejus, on invoque aussi sainte Quitere contre la rage.

INVOCATION

"Dieu tout-puissant, qui avez forme le coeur de vos saints avec une admirable bonte, afin qu'ils deviennent pour nous une source de bienfaits et de consolation; a.s.sistez-nous dans le pressant besoin ou nous nous trouvons et sauvez-nous de la mort, par les prieres at les merites de saint Hubert de Bretigny, afin que nous puissions vous louer et vous benir. Par N.-S. J.-C.

Ainsi soit-il.

"_Saint Hubert, qui preservez de la morsure des betes enragees, ou qui guerissez leur morsures mortelles, priez pour tous les affliges qui vous invoquent._"

While there was probably some advance when the saints of the church took the place of the zodiacal constellations in the government of the human body, the church prevented the development along scientific lines, although there were many ramifications of saintly influence.

Not the least among these was the healing efficacy of holy wells, pools, and streams, which had been empowered in some way by the saints. In some cases the bones of holy men have been buried in different parts of the continent, and after a certain lapse of time, water was said to have oozed from them, which soon formed a spring and cured all the diseases of the faithful.

Perhaps the cure of leprous Naaman by bathing in the Jordan, and the restoration of the sight of the blind man by washing in the Pool of Siloam may have served as examples which the credulous were only too ready to follow. We must also note, however, as a reason for their use, that in cla.s.sical times the greater number of thermal waters, more frequently used then than in the present day, remained consecrated to the G.o.ds, to Apollo, to aesculapius, and, above all, to Hercules, who was named Iatricos, or the able physician. At any rate, many wells and fountains were dedicated to different saints, and various rites were performed there at Easter and other particular days, where offerings were also made to the saints.

In Ireland, many such sacred places have been visited by the sick for centuries, and England and Scotland have them also. Not only in the British Isles, but in all parts of Europe they were much frequented in the Middle Ages, and they are not without their visitors to-day. As late as 1805 the eminent Roman Catholic prelate, Dr. John Milner, gave a detailed account of a miraculous cure performed at a sacred well in Flintshire. Gregory of Tours was one of the first to notice the healing power of springs in connection with the saints. He a.s.serted that the diseases of the sick and infirm were banished upon the contact of a few drops of water drawn from a spring dug by St.

Martin's own hands.

From Fosbrooke's _British Monachism_ we learn that "on a spot called Nell's Point, is a fine well, to which great numbers of women resort on Holy Thursday, and, having washed their eyes in the spring, they drop a pin into it. Once a year, at St. Mardrin's well, also, lame persons went on Corpus Christi evening, to lay some small offering on the altar, there to lie on the ground all night, drink of the water there, and on the next morning to take a good draught more of it, and carry away some of the water each in a bottle at their departure. At Muswell Hill was formerly a chapel, called our Lady of Muswell, from a well there, near which was her image; this well was continually resorted to by way of pilgrimage. At Walsingham, a fine green road was made for the pilgrims, and there was a holy well and cross adjacent, at which pilgrims used to kneel while drinking the water. It is remarkable that the Anglo-Saxon laws had proscribed this as idolatrous. Such springs were consecrated upon the discovery of cures effected by them. In fact," Fosbrooke adds, "these consecrated wells merely imply a knowledge of the properties of mineral waters, but, through ignorance, a religious appropriation of their properties was made to supernatural causes."

"Holywell, in the county of Flint," we are informed by Salverte, "derives its name from the Holy Well of St. Winifred, over which a chapel was erected by the Stanley family, in the reign of Henry VII.

The well was formerly in high repute as a medicinal spring. Pennant says that, in his time, Lancashire pilgrims were to be seen in deep devotion, standing in the waters up to the chin for hours, sending up prayers, and making a prescribed number of turnings; and this excess of piety was carried so far, as in several instances to cost the devotees their lives."[36]

Pennant also tells us of a small spring outside the bathing well at Whiteford, which was once famed for the cure of weak eyes. The patient made an offering of a crooked pin, and at the same time repeated some words. The well still remains, but the efficacy of its waters is lost.

In recounting his tour of Wales, the same author describes the church of St. Tecla, virgin and martyr, at Llandegla. He says: "About two hundred yards from the church, in a Quillet called Gwern Degla, rises a small spring. The water is under the tutelage of the Saint, and to this day held to be extremely beneficial in the falling sickness. The patient washes his limbs in the well; makes an offering into it of four-pence; walks round it three times; and thrice repeats the Lord's Prayer. These ceremonies are never begun till after sun-set, in order to inspire the votaries with greater awe. If the afflicted be of the male s.e.x, like Socrates, he makes an offering of a c.o.c.k to his aesculapius, or rather to Tecla Hygeia; if of the fair s.e.x, a hen. The fowl is carried in a basket, first round the well; after that into the church-yard; when the same orisons and the same circ.u.m-ambulations are performed round the church. The votary then enters the church; gets under the communion table; lies down with the Bible under his or her head; is covered with the carpet or cloth, and rests there till break of day; departing after offering sixpence, and leaving the fowl in the church. If the bird dies, the cure is supposed to have been effected, and the disease transferred to the devoted victim."[37]

"At Withersden," says Hasted, "is a well, which was once famous, being called St. Eustache's well, taking its name from Eustachius, Abbot of Flai, who is mentioned by Matt. Paris, An. 1200, to have been a man of learning and sanct.i.ty, and to have come and preached at Wye, and to have blessed a fountain there, so that afterwards its waters were endowed by such miraculous power, that by it all diseases were cured."[38] Unfortunately, wells do not always benefit the bathers.

Lilly[39] relates that in 1635 Sir George Peckham died in St.

Winifred's Well, "having continued so long mumbling his pater nosters and Sancta Winifreda ora pro me, that the cold struck into his body, and after his coming forth of that well he never spoke more."

The people of the Highlands of Scotland regarded fountains with particular veneration. According to the Statistical Account of Scotland, the minister of Kirkmichael, Banffshire, said: "The sick who resort to them for health, address their vows to the presiding powers, and offer presents to conciliate their favor. These presents generally consist of a small piece of money, or a few fragrant flowers. The same reverence in ancient times seems to have been entertained by every people in Europe." Near Kirkmichael there was a fountain dedicated to St. Michael, and once celebrated for its cures. "Many a patient have its waters restored to health, and many more have attested the efficacy of their virtues. But, as the presiding power is sometimes capricious, and apt to desert his charge, it now lies neglected, choked with weeds, unhonored and unfrequented."[40]

The most noted well in Perthshire is in Trinity Gask. Again from the Statistical Account we quote: "Superst.i.tion, aided by the interested artifices of Popish Priests, raised, in times of ignorance and bigotry, this well to no small degree of celebrity. It was affirmed that every person who was baptized with the water of this well would never be seized with the plague. The extraordinary virtue of Trinity Gask well has perished with the downfall of superst.i.tion."[41]

Pinkerton, in speaking of the river Fillan in Scotland, says: "In this river is a pool consecrated by the ancient superst.i.tion of the inhabitants of this country. The pool is formed by the eddying of the stream round a rock. Its waves were many years since consecrated by Fillan, one of the saints who converted the ancient inhabitants of Caledonia from paganism to the belief of Christianity. It has ever since been distinguished by his name, and esteemed of sovereign virtue in curing madness. About two hundred persons afflicted in this way are annually brought to try the benefits of its salutary influence. These patients are conducted by their friends, who first perform the ceremony of pa.s.sing with them thrice through a neighbouring cairn: on this cairn they then deposit a simple offering of clothes, or perhaps a small bunch of heath. More precious offerings used once to be brought. The patient is then thrice immerged in the sacred pool. After the immersion, he is bound hand and foot, and left for the night in a chapel which stands near. If the maniac is found loose in the morning, good hopes are conceived of his full recovery. If he is still bound, his cure remains doubtful. It sometimes happens that death relieves him, during his confinement, from the troubles of life."

Mrs. Macaulay,[42] speaking of a consecrated well in St. Kilda, called Tobirnimbuadh, or the spring of diverse virtues, says that "near the fountain stood an altar, on which the distressed votaries laid down their oblations. Before they could touch sacred water with any prospect of success, it was their constant practice to address the genius of the place with supplication and prayer. No one approached him with empty hands.... Sh.e.l.ls and pebbles, rags of linen or stuffs worn out, pins, needles, or rusty nails were generally all the tribute that was paid."

Collinson[43] mentions a well in the parish Wembton, called St. John's Well, to which in 1464 "an immense concourse of people resorted: and ... many who had for years labored under various bodily diseases, and had found no benefit from physick and physicians, were, by the use of these waters (after paying their due offerings), restored to their primitive health."

Brome, in his _Travels_, 1700, observes: "In Lothien, two miles from Edinburg southward, is a spring called St. Katherine's Well, flowing continually with a kind of black fatness, or oil, above the water, proceeding (as it is thought) from the parret coal, which is frequent in these parts; 'tis of a marvellous nature, for as the coal, whereof it proceeds, is very apt quickly to kindle into a flame, so is the oil of a sudden operation to heal all scabs and tumors that trouble the outward skin, and the head and hands are speedily healed by virtue of this oil, which retains a very sweet smell; and at Aberdeen is another well very efficacious to dissolve the stone, to expel sand from the reins and bladder, being good for the collick and drunk in July and August, not inferiour, they report, to the Spaw in Germany."[44]

Grose tells us of a well dedicated to St. Oswald, between the towns of Alton and Newton. The neighbors have the opinion that a sick person's shirt thrown into the well will prognosticate the outcome of the disease; if it floats the sick one will recover, if it sinks he will die. To reward the saint for the information, they tear a rag off the shirt and hang it on the briers near by; "where," says the writer, "I have seen such numbers as might have made a fayre rheme in a paper-myll." Similar practices are related by other authors. Ireland formerly had a sanctified well in nearly every parish. They were marked by rude crosses and surrounded by fragments of cloth left as memorials. St. Ronague's Well, near Cork, was very popular at one time. Near Carrick-on-Suir is the holy well of Tubber Quan, the waters of which are reputed to have performed many miraculous cures. The well was dedicated to two patron saints, St. Quan and St. Brogawn.

These saints are supposed to exert a special influence the last three Sundays in June. "It is firmly believed," says Brand, "that at this period the two saints appear in the well in the shape of two small fishes, of the trout kind; and if they do not so appear, that no cure will take place. The penitents attending on these occasions ascend the hill barefoot, kneel by the stream and repeat a number of paters and aves, then enter it, go through the stream three times, at a slow pace, reciting their prayers. They then go on the gravel walk, and traverse it round three times on their bare knees, often till the blood starts in the operation, repeat their prayers, then traverse three times round a tree on their bare knees, but upon the gra.s.s.

Having performed these exercises they cut off locks of their hair and tie them on the branches of the tree as specifics against headache."

After being three times admonished in a dream, a man washed in St.

Madern's Well in Cornwall and was miraculously cured, so say Bishop Hall and Father Francis. Ranulf Higden, in his _Polychronicon_, relates the wonderful cures performed at the holy well at Basingwerk.

The red streaks in the stones surrounding it were symbols of the blood of St. Wenefride, martyred by Carodoc.

The Scotch considered certain wells to have healing properties in the month of May. In the Sessions Records (June 12, 1628) it is reported that a number of persons were brought before the Kirk Sessions of Falkirk, accused of going to Christ's Well on the Sundays of May to seek their health, and the whole being found guilty were sentenced to repent "in linens" three several sabbaths. "In 1657 a number of persons were publicly rebuked for visiting the well at Airth. The custom was to leave a piece of money and a napkin at the well, from which they took a can of water, and were not to speak a word either in going or returning, nor on any account to spill a drop of the water.

Notwithstanding these proceedings, many are known to have lately travelled many miles into the Highlands, there to obtain water for the cure of their sick cattle."[45]

To-day, probably the most efficacious waters are to be found at the sacred fountain at La Salette and at the holy spring at Lourdes.

We have another specific form of healing which should be noticed. It was especially common in Eastern churches, and was found to some extent in the West. I refer to Incubation, or "Temple-sleep." This practice came down through early civilizations and was an adopted practice among Christians. The patient went to some church well known for its cures, which was provided with mattresses or low couches, and attended by priests and a.s.sistants. Devotions being finished he lay down to sleep. Sometimes he slept immediately, at other times sleep must be wooed by fast and vigil. At any rate, during the sleep he dreamed that the saint touched him, or prescribed some remedy, and in the first case he awoke cured, and in the second the prescribed medicine brought about the relief.

Sophronius, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, wrote about 640 as follows: "Cyrus appeared to the sick man in the form of a monk, not in a dream, as he appears to many; but in a waking vision, just as he was and is represented. He told the patient to rise and to plunge into the warm water. Zosimos said it was impossible for him to move, but when the order was repeated, he slid like a snake into the bath. When he got into the water, he saw the saint at his side, but when he came out, the vision had vanished." Beside the cure of this paralytic at the church of Cyrus and John, he mentions the cure of many other diseases by this method of incubation. Among them are dumbness, blindness, barrenness, possession, scrofula, dyspepsia, a broken leg, deformities of limbs, lameness, gout, diseases of the eyes, cataract, ulcer, and dropsy.

Among the churches of Greece and southern Italy incubation is still common. The climate may have some effect in limiting the area of this practice. Miss M. Hamilton furnishes us with some modern examples. In speaking of a new picture of St. George in the church at Arachova, she says: "It is a votive offering of a Russian, who came a paralytic to Arachova in July, 1905. He spent several weeks praying and sleeping in the church, and departed completely cured. The festival of St. George is held on April 23rd. They have three days of dancing and feasting, and at night all suppliants bring their rugs and sleep round the shrines in the church. Every year many of the sick are found to be cured when morning comes."

The Church of the Evangelestria, our Lady of the Annunciation, is visited by about forty-five thousand pilgrims every year. It is situated at Tenos, and Miss Hamilton tells us what she saw during her visit there in 1906:

"On the morning before Annunciation Day this year, the pilgrims could be seen making their way to the church.

Among them were cripples, armless, and legless, half-rolling up the street; blind people groping their way along; men and women with deformities of every kind; one or two showing the pallor of death on their faces were being carried up on litters. These evidently were coming to Tenos as a last resource, when doctors were of no avail. Other pilgrims were ascending after their own fashion, according to vows they had made. One woman toiled laboriously along on her knees, kissing the stones of the way, and clasping a silver Madonna and Child. Last year her daughter had been seized with epilepsy, and she vowed to carry in this way this offering to the Madonna of Tenos if she would cure her daughter. The girl recovered and the other now with thankful heart was fulfilling her part of the bargain.

"The eve of Annunciation Day is the time when the Panagia is believed to descend among the sick and work miraculous cures among them. Then all the patients are gathered together in the crypt or in the upper church.

The Chapel of the Well is the popular place for incubation. There is more chance for miraculous cure there than in the church. The little crypt can accommodate only a comparatively small number, but they are packed together as tightly as possible. From the entrance up to the altar, they lie in two lines of three or four deep, with a pa.s.sage down the middle large enough for only one person. Down the narrow way two streams of people press the whole evening. They worship at the shrines along the wall, purchase holy earth from the spot where the picture was discovered, drink at the sacred well, and are blessed by the priest at the altar.

The cripples and the sick desiring healing have been engaged all day in such acts of worship; they have received bread and water from the priests in the upper church, paid homage to the all-powerful picture, offered their candles to the Madonna, and all the time sought to endue themselves with her presence. Now at night, still fixing their thoughts upon her, and permeated by this spirit of worship, they settle down to sleep in order that she may appear to them in a dream.

"Disappointment, of course, awaits the vast majority, but on the evening of the vigil all are filled with hope. They know the precedents of former years, how such things have happened to some unfortunate people among the pilgrims every year. Usually eight or nine miracles take place, and lists of them are published for distribution....

"The church records contain accounts of the miracles which now amount to many hundreds. They are practically all of the type I have described--cure during a vision while incubation was being practised. For example, the case of a man from Moldavia is on record. He had become paralyzed during a night-watch, and the doctor could effect no relief. He was taken to the Chapel of the Well, and when asleep he thought he heard a voice telling him to arise. He awoke, thought it was a dream, and fell asleep again. A second time he heard a voice, and saw a white-robed woman of great beauty entering the church. In his fear he rose and walked about. His recovery was so complete that he could walk in the procession round the town the following day."[46]

The medicinal power imputed to the sainted relics and shrines would naturally be considered very valuable. So it proved. Wealth flowed to a conventual treasury or a cathedral chapter where were deposited fragments of the martyred dead endowed with miraculous puissance. When the Frankish forces sacked Constantinople at the beginning of the thirteenth century, the princ.i.p.al object of their ferocious cruelties and vigilant searches was the acquisition of precious relics.

Concerning these relics Fort gives the following account:

"These relics, captured in Constantinople, were divided by the troops under Marquis de Montfort, with the same justice as prevailed in the division of other booty. In this way the Venetians were enabled to enrich their metropolis with a piece of the sainted cross, an arm of St. George, part of the head of St. John the Baptist, the entire skeleton of St. Luke, that of the prophet St.

Simeon, and a small bottle of Jesus Christ's blood. The Greek capital from the remotest times appears to have monopolized this traffic in sacred wares, claiming to possess a fragment of the stone on which Jacob slept, and the staff transformed into a serpent by Moses.

"Here also were guarded the Holy Virgin's vestments, her spindle, drops of her milk, the cradle in which the Saviour had lain, a tooth from his adolescent jaw, a hair of his beard, a particle of the bread used in the Last Supper, and a portion of the royal purple worn by him before Pilate. Naturally clerical adventurers among the occidental Crusaders, pending the sacking of the Byzantine city, sought out most zealously these valuable remnants of pristine glory, and in obtaining them were by no means scrupulous with menaces and violence. When scattered through Western Europe, in the monasteries and other religious places, their curative properties increased the pilgrimages thither of the sick and diseased."[47]