The miracle of the black leg: E astern neglect of Western addition to the hagiography of Saints Cosmas and Damian

The Christian miracle tales strongly support the identification of Sts. Cosmas and Damian as doctors. The most famous of the saints' posthumous miracles, is that of the Black Leg. The main source of this story is the Golden Legend by Jacobus da Varagine, collection of fanciful hagiographies compiled in the 13th century. Saints Cosmas and Damian miraculously transplanted the black leg of the Ethiopian man onto the white body of the verger with "cancerous" leg. Saints appeared to the patient in a dream, amputated his diseased leg and replaced it with the leg of a recently died man. This dramatic cure was attractive for many western artists. The iconography of this miracle was depicted for the first time in a Florentine panel of ca.1370. The color of the leg later attracted special attention. Since the 1990's the Miracle of the Black Leg, presented in a (neo) Byzantine style, appeared in Greece. The miracle of Holy Unmercenaries has no proper historical foundation in the Books of the lives of the Saints in the Orthodox Churches. Action focused on replacement of the affected leg with one from cadaveric donor was unknown to the eastern Christianity. Exploration of available orthodox hagiographical sources related to the healing powers of Sts. Cosmas and Damian showed remarkable neglect of that miracle. Some contemporary Greek authors find appropriate to disregard it.

Illness narrative, depression, and sainthood: an analysis of the writings of Mother Teresa

In 2007, the letters of The Blessed Mother Teresa to her confessors were published for the public in a book entitled Come Be My Light. What surprised many readers was that Mother Teresa felt very distant from God and described feeling great "darkness" for many years. This paper draws parallels between the writings of Mother Teresa and those of writers' illness narratives describing the psychiatric condition of Depression. The author provides this textual analysis to explore Mother Teresa's experience within a psychiatric paradigm (Major Depressive Disorder), in comparison with and contrast to the spiritual paradigm of a "Dark Night of the Soul."

Demonic possessions and mental illness: discussion of selected cases in late medieval hagiographical literature

During the Middle Ages, demonic possession constituted an explanation for an erratic behavior in society. Exorcism was the treatment generally applied to demoniacs and seems to have caused some alleviation in the suffering of mentally distressed people. We have selected and analyzed some cases of demonic possession from thirteenth-century hagiographical literature. In the description of demoniacs we have been able to find traits of psychotic, mood, neurotic, personality disorders and epilepsy. The exorcisms analyzed in our article are the result of literary invention more than the description of a contemporary event. Nevertheless, the writers were witnesses of their time, transferred their knowledge about exorcism and possession in their narrative and presumably incorporated their actual experience with demoniacs.

[The relic in the Panels of São Vicente de Fora]

The Panels of São Vicente de Fora, a polyptych dated from 1470 to 1480, are a work composed of 6 panels, authored by Nuno Gonçalves, a painter of King Afonso V. This work reveals one of the most remarkable collective portraits of European painting, making this polyptych an inexhaustible source of readings and interpretations, fueling a secular controversy. The present work aims analyzing precise an iconographic anatomical image repainted in the 6th panel, or the panel of the Relic. This consists of a central image within a structure shown by a red figure with special reverence. The investigation conducted and justification was based on direct observation and comparative analysis of iconographic data collected in the Museum of Antique Art. The bone pieces were selected at the Museum of Anatomy, Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medical Sciences, New University of Lisbon, and the comparative analyses performed by two observers, with further analysis of the images obtained in the National Museum of Ancient Art using specific software. After watching these, it was concluded that this representation of a relic in the Panels of São Vicente is an iconic representation of an Occipital bone, fractured at its lower edge, being evident, almost complete, its vertical portion or scale.

[Canonic recognitions and scientific investigations on the Mummies of Saints]

The Mummies of Saints represent a peculiar category in Italian scene; they are very different for each type of mummification, suffer from numerous environmental interference and rituals,from conservation work or handling repeated over time. An analytical and critical review of all known cases and an inventory is presented. In the present work the topics of canonic recognitions is briefly considered. The study of the bodies of the Saints is characterized by particular techniques and by very close bonds that first puts the conservation of the venerable rest to analytical study of them. However, these investigations are of particular interest not only in the anthropological, paleopathological and biological profile but also from an historical, cultural, religious, literary and artistic point of view.

Mummified saints of the Northern Croatian Littoral

The Istrian town of Vodnjan hosts a collection of mummified bodies and relics. Three mummies are completely preserved and belong to Blessed Leon Bembo, St Giovanni Olini, and St Nicolosa Bursa, while the other three are mummified remains of St Barbara, St Sebastian, and St Mary of Egypt. This article gives an overview of the three completely preserved bodies, including their external condition, hagiographic data, statements and hypotheses that need verification by future targeted scientific research. Although local populations attribute divine properties to the remains and treat their continued preservation as a mystery, their origin is probably similar to that of other mummified saints. A scientific study performed on the mummies will probably help to reveal the true origin and type of mummification of the bodies. Additional paleopathological research could also determine the cause of death, if the saints died by natural causes, or attest to any mutilation or sign of torture suffered in life and confirm them as the cause of death. Proper bioarchaeological research could bring useful osteobiographical updates to the existing records about these saints.

[Agueda of Catania: the patron saint of patients with breast diseases]

For those suffering from breast cancer, Agatha is their patron saint. She was a beautiful Christian maiden, from Catania, Sicily, who dedicated her life to God. As she rejected the love proposals of consul Quintiliano, she suffered cruel tortures. One of the tortures she suffered was to have her breast cut off, with iron shears, a detail that furnished to the Christian medieval iconography, the peculiar characteristic of Agatha. Catania honors Agatha as her patron saint and throughout the region around Mt. Etna. Saint Agatha's feast day is February 5. All of those dedicated to the treatment and prevention of breast cancer are known as "the soldiers of Saint Agatha".

[Saint Francis and his brethren: aids to the ill and guardians against diseases]

This article takes a look at the guardian role of saints in Christian tradition against particular diseases, focusing on the life of St Francis of Assisi and his 13 follower saints who were remembered for their care for the ill and who became patron saints for particular diseases, including Anthony of Padua, Clare of Assisi, Ottone of Pola, Elizabeth of Hungary, Rose of Viterbo, Bernardine of Siena, Didacus, Mark of Montegallo, Joseph of Leonessa, John Joseph of the Cross, Giles Mary of Saint Joseph, Francis Mary of Camporosso, and Leopold Mandić. For each of them the article presents a brief hagiography and explains the relationship with a specific disease and how these saints became patrons.

[The stigmata of St Franics and other Saints charismatics: between miracle and scientific answer]

Departing from the definition of the stigmata as the wounds which, temporarely or permanently, manifest in some cases of extasy following a selected model of suffering (Jesus, Mohammed etc.), the present paper analyzes the phenomenology of stigmatization on several most famous historical and actual examples: Francis of Assisi, as the first stigmatized at all; Catherine of Siena, the only one beside Francis whose stigmata have been recognized by the Church as supernatural; Rita of Cascia (14th c.); Marie de Mörl (1812-1868) from Tirol; the Belgian Louise Lateau (1850-1883); Izabele Hendricks (1844-1874), who died from bleeding; Gemma Galgani (1878-1903), who presented stigmata and the traces of flagellation; the Bavarian Therese Neumann (1898-1962), of whom probabely the most has been written; the popular mendicant father Pio from Pietrelcina (1887-1968); Giulio Massa (b. 1970) from Montecorvino near Salerno, already known as the "Father Pio of the 21st century," who speeks out in Aramaic during extasy; and the first Croatian stigmatized, Zlatko Sudac (b. 1971). Considering some older and more recent interpretations of the stigmata, a more precise definition of that phenomenon is suggested. Acording to it, the stigmata might be considered spontaneous, isolated cases of the localized deautonomization of influence upon superficial blood vessels, mediated by altered consciousness. Pointed out are the potential enormous benefits which medicine might provide by finding out the regularity and methods by which that phenomenon would be initiated in a controlled way, at full consciousness, without external help and at any place on the body.

The tomboyism of faith: spiritual tomboyism in the cult of Sainte Foy

This article offers a reading of premodern, spiritual tomboyism as evident in the cult of Sainte Foy in France during the ninth to eleventh centuries. It draws attention to the signs of differently gendered and aged masculinities in the female child saint. Martyred at the cusp of puberty, Sainte Foy remains forever suspended in her gender development. Bernard of Angers, in the Liber miraculorum, portrays Foy as a trickster tomboy whose miracles are known as her "jokes." But beyond the historical Foy and the textual Foy, there is a third Foy who is embodied in a reliquary statue with an adult male head. In times of social upheaval, Sainte Foy, whose earthly presence is manifest in her relics and reliquary statue, functions as a local patronus who protects her monastery, properties, and devotees. Her male-headed reliquary further affirms her identity as a holy warrior of Christ who fights to uphold the Peace of God. As trickster-tomboy and warrior-patronus, Sainte Foy hovers at and crosses over the boundaries of both gender- and age-based identities and practices.