Moreover, Sebastian's martyrdom was one of the favourite subjects of depiction by famous, such as Pietro Perugino, Sandro Botticelli, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, and Andrea Mantegna, contributing to the rise in the spread of his cult, especially during plague epidemics. During the Middle Ages, when the cult of Saint Sebastian started to spreading, epidemics were often considered divine punishments, and the wounds of Saint Sebastian were symbolically viewed as the bubos of the plague. Indeed, since the time of western classical mythology, arrows have symbolised the divine punishment for various transgressions. He is the patron saint of archers and athletes, and was also venerated as a protector from the bubonic plague. Later, Sebastian presented himself before Diocletian and he was again condemned to death by beating. Based on the Catholic tradition, he was riddled with arrows but survived miraculously. Due to his subsequent conversion to Christianity, Saint Sebastian was persecuted and sentenced to death by the emperor Diocletian. Born in the actual French province of Languedoc (at that time known as Gallia Narbonensis) he went in Rome, where he started his military, becoming captain of the Praetorian Guards under the emperor Diocletian (244-312). 256-288) was one of the first Christian martyrs. Whereas it is believed that Saint Roch had actual contact with the plague, Saint Sebastian is associated with the plague only symbolically. A day, following the dog, a nobleman (who will became his acolyte) reached Roch's refuge and took care of him until his recovery. A dog discovered his refuge and brought him a bread every day to feed him. Roch took refuge into a wood, outside the city, avoiding any contact with other people. On the way back, Roch stopped to the city of Piacenza to assist the patients in the local hospital, but he himself contracted the plague, and was forced to leave the hospital and the city. He next visited other neighbouring cities and Rome, and everywhere the plague disappeared by his miraculous power. At that time, a plague's outbreak was spreading in Italy, and he stopped in Acquapendente, a little town sited about 150 km from Rome, where he helped the sick, and healed miraculously some people by the prayer and the sign of the cross. 1350-1378) distributed his family wealth among the poor people, and started a pilgrimage to Rome (Italy). Saint Roch and Sebastian were associated to the plague in the different ways, and their cult spread during Late middle Ages and Renaissance, when frequent plague epidemics occurred in several European Countries.Īfter his parents’ death, Saint Roch of Montpellier (France, ca. In second and third place, we find respectively St Roch and Saint Sebastian, who, based on Catholic tradition, are the two principal Saints considered protectors against the plague, whose epidemic pattern has been compared to that of Covid-19. We have also to consider that when we conducted the study, the vaccination campaign was far from starting. Image of Saint Rita depicted on her solemn coffin (1457). ![]() ![]() ![]() We therefore wanted to know, in the community targeted by this religious context, who were the saints and/or saints specialized in the Covid-19 pandemic. In addition to and/or substitute for medical and medicinal care, it remains possible for any people to turn to religion. All territories, and therefore all human cultures, are directly implanted by this infectious agent. Since the start of 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic has affected the entire planet. In particular, the Roman Catholic religion is rich in saints playing the role of intercessor between the omnipotence of the divinity and the demand for divine healing emanating from a mortal. ![]() So, in European countries, in Middle Ages, Saints’ invocation for the curing of diseases was an usual practice.ĭespite, the spiritual and religious dimensions have deviated from medicine after the Renaissance and the Late Enlightenment, the intercession to the Saints is today again a doctrine spread both in Catholic and Orthodox Churches. Medieval medicine was based on Hippocratic and Galenic doctrines, but it was also characterized by spiritual and divine influences. The relationship between religion and medicine is well known in human communities since antiquity.
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