1 - Miraculous Cures in Context: Twelfth-Century Medicine and the Saints

Summary

Working one Sunday, a certain man suffered from divine vengeance while pulling up brambles. His finger was pierced by a thorn which caused his hand and arm to swell. His life was despaired of and doctors gave him ‘medicamenta’ (medication) to reduce the inflammation, but this only increased the swelling. Eventually, he was brought to the statue of Swithun at Sherborne where he was healed by the saintly bishop. Clarica, the wife of Gaufridus de Marc, came to William of Norwich’s shrine having suffered for some years with kidney pain. Prior to this she had ‘multum expenderit’ (‘spent much’) on doctors who had been unable to assist her. The moment her knees touched William’s tomb, however, she found herself to be cured. These accounts are reflective of the attitude towards medici (doctors) found within the miracle accounts. The trope shows the biblical legacy within this genre of writing. However, it is also indicative of the fact that cure-seekers had access to other avenues of medicinal, or at least therapeutic, aid than the miracles of the saints. Those with the means might look to medici although, as in the above cases, this could result in great expenditure or, reportedly, the worsening of symptoms. Others might turn to more simple medicines, including ‘uires herbarum’ (‘the power of herbs’). Although the miracles portray these alternatives as less successful, and even resulting in greater suffering, these references also reveal the presence of other healthcare avenues and show that some cure-seekers may have looked to these channels before requesting saintly aid.

Cure-seekers could look to various potential sources of healing, but miracle accounts portray the saint’s aid, unsurprisingly, as superior to any earthly options. Nevertheless the twelfth century was a period of immense change in secular medical knowledge. Monastic institutions, such as those that housed our seven case-study cults, were key in the initial transmission of this medical knowledge and showed increasing interest in collecting and producing medical texts, including the works of Constantine the African who had translated a number of important medical works into Latin resulting in their reintroduction into Western medicine.