Mediaeval Healing
Verrall, F. M.
December 29, I926 THE COMMONWEAL 2Ii ness may, no doubt, recapture something of the spirit of Saint Francis amid the buzz of limousines; the weaker spirit will find it easier to attune himself by...
...remembrance and association do their work unaided, and exalt the spirit as few other sanc- tuaries in the world can do...
...The range soon disappears from view as one continues the journey along the plain, and is not seen again until good progress has been made with the ascent...
...with prayer to the Lord, take mynt and rub it into wine---let a man take it at night, fasting...
...Or in other cases, the Creed, Paternoster, or certain psalms were ordered to be recited at the time that the patient took his appointed draught...
...Many recipes required Masses to be said over the herbs...
...At length the little village of La Beccia is reached...
...Finally, the simple but infinitely moving Chapel of the Stigmata is reached, marking the spot where the Saint, during his last visit to La Verna, on the morning of September I4, vigil of the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, standing on the rock with his face turned to the East, felt the mountain enveloped with an angelic presence which descended and left on his body the marks of his Lord Whom thus he was able to imitate down to the last...
...In those un-sophisticated days, there was no clear line between physical maladies and those that were supposed to be caused by magic agencies...
...Below, the wonderful panorama of the Casentino stretches out---once a battlefield for Guelps and Ghibellines, and associated with Dante's service as a soldier and other episodes in his life...
...The traveler, before a journey, must pull artemesia at sunrise, sign it with the sign of the Cross, and call on the four evangelists and on the "Seraphim, guardian of the ways, to pray to the good God for a good departure...
...must sing Masses over the fennel, feverfew, menyanthes, and waybroad (plan-tain) first...
...but among the remedies for healing ague and fevers, we find unfamiliar ones, intended to ward off the attacks of elves or malicious sprites...
...This was deemed a reliable safeguard...
...The monastery and its buildings can hardly be distinguished from the solid wall of rock...
...Today it is a remarkably fertile plain, with a ring of picturesque mountains enclosing it--on another one of which there is another famous sanctuary, the hermitage of Camaldoli...
...December 29, I926 THE COMMONWEAL 2Ii ness may, no doubt, recapture something of the spirit of Saint Francis amid the buzz of limousines...
...Cattle, horses, and land were not forgotten...
...Then, if any elf-tempting occur to a man, or night goblins, smear his forehead with salve, and sign him with the sign of the Cross...
...An "elfshot" horse could have Christ's mark written on forehead and limbs...
...One comes upon but very few of the customary "aids to devotion" at La Verna...
...A good drink against the devil" was to put bishopsroot, agrimony, and alexanders into holy water, and drink it with ale...
...From Florence or Rome, you go by train or car to Arezzo, also associated with the Saint and containing, in his church, some of Hero della Franresca's finest frescoes...
...A salve against the elfin rare and goblin visitors" called for wormwood, bishopsweed, lupin, henbane, and viper's bug- loss---all wild plants--to be put into a vessel, placed under the altar, so that nine Masses could be said over them...
...here is the precipitous path round the mountain, with sides dropping sheer away a hundred feet below, where the devil met Saint Francis who east him down, and pressing back into the rock, left the mark of his body...
...The actual entrance to the monastery enclosure reminds us of the stigmata, and claims that in all the world there is no more sacred height...
...Holy water, holy oil, and holy salt were required in many herbal decoctions...
...One or two guide-book remarks may not be out of place...
...Franciscus alter Chrisms...
...MEDIAEVAL HEALING By F. M. VERRALL p RACTICALLY all drugs and medicines in Anglo-Saxon days were prepared from native herbs, for of the 400 plants mentioned in an early vernacular manuscript, most are well-known wild plants, which were transplanted, as required, into the physic plots of monasteries...
...the weaker spirit will find it easier to attune himself by a few hundred yards of exceedingly difficult passage through sheer thirteenth-century primitiveness...
...From Arezzo, another train, or the road, takes you on to Bibbiena, and on issuing from the gate of that city the range of hills on which the sanctuary is situated comes into view...
...Every circumstance makes it easy for the visitor to recon-struct the part played by La Verna in the spiritual biography of the Saint...
...Here, example of that mingling of the childlike and gracious with the grim and ascetic which made up the whole Saint Francis, is the Chapel of the Birds--scene of one Mass a year in honor of a familiar episode repeated more than once in the Saint's life...
...Little by little, the vineyards and olive-orchards give place to cereals--then these yield to pasture, from which gaunt masses of bare rock emerge more and more frequently...
...There were prayer formulae to recover stolen or strayed animals--there were amazing remedies to heal them when sick...
...Thus, before the salve for flying venom (epidemics) is made, "one Mass must be sung over the worts...
...it looks as if only birds could find their home in that friendless height...
...Prayer and psalm were interwoven with simple remedies...
...It is clear that our Saxon forefathers valued the Mass so highly that they required even medicinal herbs to be hallowed by it, before they could be worked into salve or drink...
...Here is the cavern whose roof is an enormous rock, detached from the main mountain and looking as if suspended in air--another of Saint Francis's places of retreat...
...afterward they were to be boiled in butter and fat, holy salt added, and strained through running water...
...Many of the diseases given in the Anglo-Saxon manuscript are familiar to us now...
...the carriage halts, and you end the journey on foot, coming first to the outer portal, which briefly tells the story of Count Orlando's gift of this remote spot, so well suited to prayer and meditation in solitude, to the Saint in the year I213...
...To keep the body in health...
...Sing over thy cattle every evening to be a help to them, the Tersane- tus...
...But the pilgrim soon turns away from this prospect of nature to contemplate the miracle of sanctity...
...Here is the bed where he used to lie--a bare rock in a dark, damp cave underground...
...Then they were soused in ale, holy water added, and the infusion boiled thoroughly...
...The patient was to drink cupfuls, hot, saying the names of the four evangelists and a prayer...
...Sometimes a prayer, a holy name (Emmanuel or Veronica being popular) a psalm, or a text was written on the paten or housel dish--then the writing was carefully washed off with water which was added to the herbs...
...Or for the "lent-addle," (graphic name for typhus) a man (priest...
...Blessing oneself was often recommended...
...If a man hath sudden ailments, make three Crosses on his head, three on his breast, and he will soon be well...
Vol. 5 • December 1926 • No. 8
