From Disease to Holiness: Religious-based health remedies of Italian folk medicine (XIX-XX century)

To heal themselves from diseases, people entrusted The Holy Spirit, God, Jesus, Mary and the Saints with prayers or acts of devotion (Table 1). The Saint is invoked to heal a specific disease which was chosen because during its martyrdom they were inflicted in the same part of the body that the people have asked to heal [22]. Saint Valentino and Saint Donato, killed by decapitation, were considered the protectors of epileptics [23‐26]; Saint Lorenzo, burnt alive, was considered the curer of burns [27‐29]; Saint Apollonia to whom, during martyrdom, had her teeth extracted is prayed to by sufferers of toothache [23, 25, 27, 28, 30‐33]; Saint Agata who had her breasts cut off, is prayed to by breast feeding mothers [23‐25, 27, 28, 30], and so on. Another reason for the choice of the Saint was indicated by its name. The linguistic meaning of the name between the Saint and the disease, according to Italian folklore, was sufficient motivation to ask a Saint to heal a specific disease [34]. For example, Saint Liberata, whose name derives from Latin word “libero”, meaning to release, was invoked for the liberation from all diseases [29]. Similarly, Saint Lucia, from the Latin word “Lux”, meaning light, was considered the protector of the sufferers of eye diseases [25, 27‐32, 35‐37]. The special healing power was, after all, attributed based on what the Saint did during its life: Saint Biagio was invoked to heal throat ailments [25, 28‐32] because he saved a child from suffocation; Saint Anna and Mary were invoked by pregnant mothers because they represent Motherhood [25, 29‐32, 38] (Saint Anna being the mother of Mary and Mary being the mother of Jesus); while, Saint Cosma and Saint Damiano, that in their life were doctors, were invoked to heal all diseases [28].

Making a journey to a sacred place was, and still is, a widely used practice in Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism and Islam. In the Catholic tradition it was thought the disease was a temporal punishment and that healing came from the remission of sin. The pilgrimage was undertaken to obtain plenary indulgence to resolve, hence, more the moral problem than the medical problem [39]. Moreover, very often, the place of pilgrimage was chosen based on “thaumaturgic capacity” of the saint to cure a particular disease, and for this reason, in Italy there was a true network of sacred sites with the function of a “surgery”. The practices put in action when the person arrived at the sacred sites weren’t only religious rites (Table 1). Very often the sufferers used a rite of passage: to cure epilepsy they undressed from their old clothes that they left in the church and wore new ones [24]. Another rite was to weigh the sufferer and offer to the saint the identical weight in grain [24]. To heal Insanity, Hernia and Rabies, the pilgrim had to exit from another door and not the one they entered in [28, 40].

Holy Water and Blessed Oil are among the Sacramentals “instituted for the sanctification of certain ministries of the Church, certain states of life, a great variety of circumstances in Christian life, and the use of many things helpful to man” [41]. In Table 1 are described the remedies used by Italian folk medicine that considered Holy Water and Blessed Oil to be potent symbols of rebirth, capable of eliminating sins and driving away evil, often indicated as the cause of the illness. Humectations of Holy Water were made to cure Stomatitis and Eye Ailments [28, 30, 38, 42, 43]. Holy Water was drunk to treat Rabies and was considered useful to treat Hyperhidrosis submerging the hands in the stoup [28]. Finally, Blessed Oil was wiped to heal Sore Throats and to cure Arthritis [30, 37].

Even today, it is very common in the Roman Catholic Ritual to use various types of Blessings. Priests bless the sick, everyday objects, food, animals, homes, public buildings, etc. [44]. Italian folk medicine used blessings as therapy to heal many diseases (Table 1). For example, to bless the sick or the part of the body concerned, to cure Erysipelas, Typhus and to favour birth without complications [23, 32, 45]; eating blessed food was used to favour the secretion of maternal milk [30] and, even, to heal Sore Throats you needed to wear a blessed shirt [46].

A large range of objects, associated with healing saints, were used in Italian folk medicine: sacred images, Saint Vito’s rope, Saint Francesco’s stick, etc. Other objects, however, even if they weren’t associated with the saints, were used in its name in to fight certain illnesses (Table 1). The key of Saint Valentine or those of Saint Donato were put in the hand of an epileptic during paroxysm [23, 46, 47] giving the healing power of iron, which was capable of driving away the evil spirits in the sufferer [48]. Another example is the use of the Rose of Jericho, that in Italian folklore was known as the Rose of Mary or Saint Anna [27, 45, 47, 49]. This plant, common in North Africa, Asia Minor, the Middle East, represents the vital cycle that concludes at the start of the dry season, when it folds its branches in a compact spherical mass. In reality, when the rains start the plant rehydrates, the branches open and the growing cycle begins. This characteristic was interpreted by folklore as a magical event in as much as, once watered, was put near the expectant mother with the belief that it would open its branches this would in turn open the uterus ensuring a healthy and incident free birth [50].

Italian folk medicine recognised the power of thaumaturgic and all that came from contact with a sacred place or object (Table 2). For example, oil was used in a votive lamp to treat Stomachache [30]; you dragged your sides along the walls of a church to heal Kidney pains [38]; you carried the glass of a church lamp to avoid Abortion [37]; spread the grease of a church bell to cure Haemorrhoids [30]; for Toothache you needed to attach and ring a church bell using your teeth [30, 38]; you carried with you earth collected from a sacred place to combat a Fever [30].

Marking on the body of a sick person, was common practice for several illnesses and was done in different ways, sometimes praying or saying mysterious words (Table 2). For example, to heal Mumps, it was drawn directly on the affected part of the body, a cross or the sign of Solomon [23, 24, 51, 52], a symbol with its roots in paganism and in magical symbolism [53], or to write sacred words, for example Jesus, Joseph and Mary [24]. To heal malaria the sign of the cross was mimed on the spleen using the wedding ring or holding a knife or an axe in a clenched fist [28, 30]; to cure Headaches or Epistaxis, the signs were reproduced on the sufferer using a cross made of the stems of certain plants [23, 30, 32, 36, 38, 42, 45]; finally, you needed to trace three times using oil, the sign of the cross into the affected part of the body to treat Sciatica [31].

Using the recital of certain formulas, often accompanied with massage, symbols on the body, the use of ritualistic objects and medicinal herbs or animal parts, religious folklore puts into use a ritual useful for healing (Table 2). The formulas that De Martino defined “historiole” [54] presented a largely homogenous form. The patient began by reciting an episode in the Saint or Jesus or Mary’s life, and finished by begging the disease to disappear.

Santa Lucia ‘n campa stavia, oru tagliava e argientu facia. Passa Gesù, Giuseppe e Maria, Chi hadi Lucia, chi lacrime jia? Và allu miu ortu e trovi zìpari e finocchi; Cu li lie piedi li chiantai, Cu le mie mani li zappuliai, Esci purvera, esci purata, Esci vena ‘nsanguinentata [55] (Saint Lucy was in a field, cutting gold and making silver. Jesus, Saint Joseph and Mary passed and asked her? What’s the matter? Why are you crying? Go to my orchard and find figs and fennels; I planted them with my feet, and I hoed them with my hands. Go away dust, go away puss, go away bleeding vein).

In other formulas, more simply the healer invited the illness to leave the sufferer in the name of God, Jesus, Mary, the Holy Spirit or in the name of a saint or even in the name of Christmas or Holy Week.

Sciuvidia santu/Venerdia santu/Sabatu santu/Pasca santa/Via li vermi/de sta panza [56] (Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Saturday, Easter Sunday. Go away worms from this stomach).

In Table 2, are described the remedies of Italian folk medicine used on certain days of the year dedicated to important Catholic festivals, like Christmas (25th of December), the day of Annunciation (25th of March), Easter (the Sunday following the first full moon after spring equinox), Ascension (40 days after Easter), Pentecost (50 days after Easter), the day of Holy Cross (celebrated on 3rd of May before the reform of the religious calendar in 1970), the day of Saint John the Baptist (24th of June) and that of Saint Lawrence (10th of August). The theory of Frazer suggested that Christianism has integrated, inside its rites many pagan rites that are celebrated based on agricultural and natural cycles. For example, Christmas and the feast day of the birth of Saint John the Baptist can be traced back to pagan festivals that celebrated the time of year in which the daylight began to progressively lengthen (winter solstice) and the period of maximum daylight (summer solstice) that represent the myth of death-rebirth of vegetation making nature fertile (man included) [57]. In this context we can interpret therapies used by folklore medicine for healing various diseases. During Christmas night, for example, people bathed in the sea to fight Skin diseases [55], water taken from public fountains was used to treat Milk Crust in children [58], spreading oil, fat or butter to heal Wounds, Bruises and Arthritis [31, 36]. Similarly during the night of Saint John, sufferers of Leprosy rolled in fields [59], collecting dew to heal Alopecia [23, 24, 30, 36], diving in the sea to cure Scabies [28], medicinal herbs were picked [23, 28, 30, 45, 49, 59‐62] because, it was thought their healing virtues grew in these occasions. Finally, a remedy practiced on Annunciation, Easter Saturday, Saint John the Baptist, the Holy Cross to heal hernias in children, consisted of passing the sufferer three times across a split tree or in a circle created by a branch split in two for the occasion [37, 40, 55, 63‐66].