Paracelsus confronts the saints: miracles, healing and the secularization of magic

The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries witnessed an erosion of the role played by the church in healing. Magical practices mediated by the church were replaced by the resources of medicine. This represented an important cultural development and it is often regarded as a manifestation of increasing secularization, the decline of magic and rise of science. This paper examines this issue with special reference to miraculous healing associated with saints, which constituted one of the most important facets of magic controlled by the church. It will be suggested that Paracelsus (Theophrast von Hohenheim, 1493-1541) played an important part in the argument concerning the miraculous powers of saints. Many works by Paracelsus produced at various points in his career were relevant to this issue, but De causis morborum invisibilium, the sequel to his important Opus Paraminum (1531), was especially significant. The question of miraculous healing was therefore important in the first, full presentation of the new system of medicine developed by Paracelsus. Modern commentators have understandably found De causis morborum invisibilium less intelligible and congenial than the more accessible Opus Paramirum. But the former was important to Paracelsus, and it addressed problems that were fundamental to his audience. This case-study shows how conclusions reached by Paracelsus about medical questions were integrally tied up with his theological standpoint and with his wider reaction to the acute crisis of confidence which affected the church and the established social order at the beginning of the sixteenth century. By eliminating the miraculous intervention of saints and promoting the secularization of magic, Paracelsus was contributing to one of the important cultural changes associated with the Reformation.

René Goupil: patron saint of anesthetists

René Goupil, the patron saint of anesthetists, is addressed mainly as a 17th century French surgeon who practiced his art in North America. He is also presented as a Jesuit martyr and saint. The article freely borrows from past writings of Jesuits on René Goupil.

[Apollonia, patron saint of dentistry]

Apollonia's short trajectory and her martyrdom in the times of Emperor Decius in the 3rd century, is here reported. The artists who painted the saint are quoted, offering a small biography about their trajectory and principals works. Bernardino Luini, painting is studied with more detail, mentioning the similar characteristics of his Saint Apollonia with those of some of the personages painted by Leonardo da Vinci.

"The moon" and "the blood": two emblematic symbols in headache and epilepsy according to scientific traditions of the Salerno Medical school and popular medicine in southern Italy

Before describing the state of knowledge on headache and epilepsy at the Salerno Medical School (SMS), we will briefly summarize in the first part its history through the centuries until the "golden period" of the 12th century when it reached its peak by outshining all others in teaching, studies and research. In the second part we will refer to Saint Donato, healer of epileptics in the south of Italy, whose worship is still alive today. The finding of common symbols in conceptions of headache and epilepsy, both in the scientific tradition of the School and in popular medicine, represents a link which is explicable by the wide dissemination of the school's doctrines.