DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.63447#0182
166
THE HISTORICAL PAST OF ITALY.
for the relief of the leprous patients assembled under his
care.
We are told by St. Gregory Nazianzen,1 that this
hospital was so airy, vast, and commodious, as to re-
semble a “ small city.” Parted off into several sections,
it afforded relief to the needy, the sick, and the leprous,
who were thus “ removed from the sight, and contempt,
and loathing of the world,” for leprosy was long believed,
and especially in the Levant, to be a direct castigation
from the Deity, as a retribution for heinous crimes, and
was therefore considered, not as a malady we may all
share by the common laws of nature, but as a penance,
attesting the sufferer to have been guilty of enormous
wickedness.
It was due to the intelligence and humanity of St. Basil
that these unfortunates were recognised in their true
light of “ sufferers ” from a mysterious and awful
malady, and yet one within the competence of human
care and tenderness to soothe, and often to cure.
Other Eastern cities soon followed the enlightened
example initiated in Caesarea, and the asylums for the
leprous were placed under the titular protection of St.
Lazarus, whilst their attendants followed the rule of St.
Basil. Several important “ Lazar-houses ” and hospices
were found flourishing in Jerusalem when the city fell
into the hands of the Crusaders. Indeed it deserves to
be remarked, to the honour of the Saracens, and of almost
all Asiatic nations, that institutions of pure benevolence,
of whatever creed, command their approbation and re-
spect, and the person of the physician—“the healer”—
is almost sacred in their eyes.
A fine hospital for pilgrims had been established at
Jerusalem, near the Holy Sepulchre, by an enterprising
company of merchants from Amalfi, who carried on a
commercial intercourse between Italy and Syria, and had
obtained permission from the Caliph of Egypt to erect this
useful abode contiguous to a monastery.
This hospice received “pilgrims,” and gave refuge to
1 Gregor. Nazianzen. Orat. 20.
THE HISTORICAL PAST OF ITALY.
for the relief of the leprous patients assembled under his
care.
We are told by St. Gregory Nazianzen,1 that this
hospital was so airy, vast, and commodious, as to re-
semble a “ small city.” Parted off into several sections,
it afforded relief to the needy, the sick, and the leprous,
who were thus “ removed from the sight, and contempt,
and loathing of the world,” for leprosy was long believed,
and especially in the Levant, to be a direct castigation
from the Deity, as a retribution for heinous crimes, and
was therefore considered, not as a malady we may all
share by the common laws of nature, but as a penance,
attesting the sufferer to have been guilty of enormous
wickedness.
It was due to the intelligence and humanity of St. Basil
that these unfortunates were recognised in their true
light of “ sufferers ” from a mysterious and awful
malady, and yet one within the competence of human
care and tenderness to soothe, and often to cure.
Other Eastern cities soon followed the enlightened
example initiated in Caesarea, and the asylums for the
leprous were placed under the titular protection of St.
Lazarus, whilst their attendants followed the rule of St.
Basil. Several important “ Lazar-houses ” and hospices
were found flourishing in Jerusalem when the city fell
into the hands of the Crusaders. Indeed it deserves to
be remarked, to the honour of the Saracens, and of almost
all Asiatic nations, that institutions of pure benevolence,
of whatever creed, command their approbation and re-
spect, and the person of the physician—“the healer”—
is almost sacred in their eyes.
A fine hospital for pilgrims had been established at
Jerusalem, near the Holy Sepulchre, by an enterprising
company of merchants from Amalfi, who carried on a
commercial intercourse between Italy and Syria, and had
obtained permission from the Caliph of Egypt to erect this
useful abode contiguous to a monastery.
This hospice received “pilgrims,” and gave refuge to
1 Gregor. Nazianzen. Orat. 20.