On Medicine in the Byzantine Empire according to Christian Religious Texts and Church Documents

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Pages: 9-23
DOI: https://doi.org/10.54664/BIBR9321

Abstract:

In the following paper, different religious texts and church documents are being analysed. Some of them pose a dose of criticism towards Byzantine physicians, mostly concerning their capabilities (or lack of such) as well as their motivation for material gains from the ill, contrary to Christian understandings of charitable healing, set as an example by Christ himself and the healer saints. Fragments from saint’s lives tell us of healing methods of the medieval Byzantine medicine, mixed up with miracles and intervention by the saints. In those cases, medical success is combined with divine miracle, showing a symbiosis between medicine and religion. Such an example we find in the 12th century typikon of the Pantokrator monastery, describing a hospital, maintained by the monastery itself. The document emphasizes on the charitable functions of the hospital, as well as the highly trained medical staff. Judging by those medieval texts we can come to a conclusion that the Byzantine church and religious institutions mentioned supported the application and advancement of lay medicine as a tool for helping people.

Keywords:

Church, medicine, hospital, Byzantine, religion.

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