For a year now, the new coronavirus pandemic has been plaguing the entire planet, contributing to these times of fear, pain, anguish, and many uncertainties, such as how to celebrate Christmas this year, amidst various methods proposed as a form of protection against the spread of COVID-19, such as social isolation.
In view of these factors, it is innate and supposed that every human being should seek a path that will bring encouragement, relief, confidence, and somehow, the feeling of peace.
Health, both physical and mental, is a fundamental condition for our existence, is intrinsic to human life and is associated with happiness and autonomy.
Faced with situations like epidemics, crises, illnesses or other fatalities, people’s lives are changed in countless ways, such as the suffering that can torment us continuously, causing emotional and behavioural changes and loss of hope for a better future.
In view of these circumstances, it is absolutely necessary and inevitable to seek help in order to find a way that provides a balance and a meaning for life, confronting the very existence that afflicts us. It is important to search for meaning, a way to satisfy our needs, while seeking relief from suffering, comfort, well-being, tranquillity and quality of life, not only in the physical domain but also psychologically, in order to eliminate the cause or at least deal with the situation.
One way to find this balance is the path of spirituality that can help a person overcome a moment of crisis or suffering. It is something that gives meaning to life. It is a crucial, invisible and living force within us, bringing a sense of continuity and meaning to our existence. All human beings seek authenticity vis-à-vis themselves, others and life. Some authors claim that spirituality is the profound meaning of the events of personal life, the lives of others and history.
Some people in extreme situations in search of answers and consolation, seek refuge in the church, in religion and faith, while others choose music, the environment, family members or friends.
Usually, human beings tend to associate spirituality with the divine reflected in the figure of God, through religion or faith. However, it is not essential that it is linked to doctrine. Although there may be some overlapping concepts, spirituality cannot be confused with religion, as they are not the same thing.
In situations of crisis, illness, limit or pandemic, faith and spirituality unite within the human beings, influencing them to have the ability to cope and adapt to their life condition. However, spirituality reveals itself in a unique way in each person.
It is through faith (the inner strength of an influential belief and absolute certainty that exists in each of us) regarding a person, an ideology, science or even an inanimate object, that we hope for a better tomorrow or for words of comfort for those who want to achieve something superior.
Some people seek hope and belief in better days through prayer, which represents trust in God, which is a path between waiting and hope.
Requests for religious pleas go back to the beginning of the Christian era. One of the characteristics of Christianity is the preservation and veneration of body remains (reliquiae, in Latin), martyrs and, later, saints. This practice started at the beginning of the 2nd century in Rome’s Catacombs, where there were many Christian graves of the first Apostles and Popes who had been persecuted by the Roman army. From the 4th century on, the cult of the martyrs (in the grave itself) began and extended to other saints.
With the expansion of Christianity in various regions, the construction of churches and the dispersion of the bones of the martyrs, small parcels of bones, garments, objects belonging to them or objects of torture started to be venerated. Objects related to the Passion of Christ were also revered, such as the wood of the cross and the crown of thorns.
In medieval times, death and life were closely linked at a time when medicine and drugs were still underdeveloped. The great fears of the people in the Middle Ages were hunger, plague and war. Sudden death was constant, as well as several diseases that spread throughout Europe, such as the Justinian pandemic that occurred between the years 542-610, the Black Death between 1347-1352 and the everyday life aggressions and hostilities.
In those days, people lived in fear of dying suddenly and appearing before God without having had time to receive the holy sacraments (Confession, Holy Anointing and the Holy Communion), also risking the fate of their souls. In view of these facts, people asked several saints for protection and assistance.
At a time when the roads were winding and very dangerous, travellers and hikers prayed or simply looked at an image of Saint Christopher asking him for protection and luck before leaving.
Several dozen saints were asked for assistance, but the most requested were Saint Michael the Archangel, Saint Adrian, Saint Onuphrius, Saint Anton, Saint Barbara and Saint Christopher.
From the beginning of the 7th century until the end of the 14th century, Saint Sebastian had a prominent place in the protection of the faithful, followed by S. Roch. Many of these saints were invoked against the plague because many of them were infected with this disease and later cured.
In the middle of the 16th century these saints went into decline due to the miracles performed by Saint Charles Borromeo in 1576, during the great plague in Milan.
The concept and practice of quarantine is due to Saint Charles Borromeo, archbishop of the Milanese diocese (term of Italian origin meaning quaranta giorni, or, forty days).
In 1576, when Milan was being afflicted by the plague, Saint Charles Borromeo proposed a general quarantine whereby all citizens were to remain indoors for forty days, which was accepted on 18 October of that year. All merchants ships that docked at the port of Venice were also inspected, and if a single person was suspected of being ill, the entire crew would stay there for 40 days.
The inhabitants who were quarantined in the city of Milan could not go to church to pray or participate in mass. Saint Charles ordered that crosses and altars be placed on the corners of the city for the celebration of masses, so that everyone could participate from afar, through the windows.
In the second half of December, they found that the spread of the disease had slowed, and decided to extend the quarantine. Despite agreeing with the decision, Saint Charles regretted that "the people could not go to church, not even on the celebration of Holy Christmas". That year, the Christmas Mass was different.
Quarantine was the method adopted in several port cities and considered as one of the most effective in controlling the spread of the plague.
The dissemination of the services of Saint Sebastian and Saint Roch took place at the end of the 14th century, but mainly in the 15th century, initially due to the availability of the Legenda Aurea Sanctorum (Golden Legend) by Jacobus de Varagine (1230-1290), which, although containing errors and legends, described in a simple, graceful and curious way, the lives of the saints, becoming the first and only hagiography available to the people for a few hundred years.
With the invention of the press, between 1470 and 1500, more than a hundred different print runs were made, some illustrated, others not, some of which with additions in relation to the original work, which allowed more people to have access to it.
For people in the Middle Ages, who were normally illiterate, listening to the texts of the Golden Legend made them understand better the paintings, the stained glass windows and the sculptures that represented episodes of the life of the saints found in the churches, cathedrals and monasteries.
At the beginning of the 14th century, there was greater increase in the paper industry and at a lower cost. The woodblocks that until then were used to print fabrics were used for the first woodcuts.
The use of paper in Europe became customary, giving rise to a greater reproduction of images and letters. Now, common individuals could have the images that featured religious scenes from Varagine and the saints they venerated in their homes. Until then, those privileges were only intended for the lords who could own paintings, sculptures and miniatures from the Books of Hours. These prints, in addition to being inexpensive, also had the advantage of having the protection of the saints against various dangers, including the plague, at home. This gave rise to much demand and the images were multiplied in unimaginable quantities. These prints traveled throughout Europe during the 15th century in the form of “flyers”, and were sold in places of pilgrimage, outside churches and monasteries and at fairs and markets.
According to some texts and paintings that have survived until now, these prints were usually nailed inside houses, behind doors, on furniture and inside chests and safes, which served as oratories when traveling. As a form of protection for the owners, they were often sewn in their clothing or hats.
Due to their vulgarization, low cost and because they went hand in hand, the first woodcuts are very rare. Those that have survived until now are in private collections, museums and libraries.
Saint Roch, the French saint whose birth is believed to have occurred in 1295 and his death in 1327, 1376 or 1379, in Montpellier (France), quickly gained fame shortly after his death and was considered a protector against plagues.
For several centuries, Europe was afflicted by several waves of plague. Portugal was also affected by some of these epidemics that generated terror in the population. During the reign of King Manuel I (1495-1521), Lisbon was hit by a wave of plague. Both the king and his predecessor João II were already aware of the fame and miraculous deeds of Saint Roch (the saint himself had been infected by the plague and had been miraculously cured), and in 1505, Manuel I asked the Republic of Venice for a relic of that saint to protect Lisbon from this terrible disease. His remains were in Venice and are currently in the Church of Saint Roch in the same city. The Portuguese king's request was accepted by the Doge of Venice, but the relic of the saint took almost ten years to reach Portugal, although in 1506 the construction of a small chapel was started in an open area in the countryside surrounded by olive trees, to receive the relic and start the cult of Saint Roch itself. Subsequently, in 1553, the construction of the Church of Saint Roch (in Bairro Alto) began in the same place as the former chapel.
In addition to Venice and Lisbon, there are only two more cities that have relics of Saint Roch. With the relic coming despite being “… a little thing that we still don't know what it is…”, Saint Roch became Lisbon saint and the belief that was deposited in him still lives today. Every year in October, a mass is celebrated where the relic is exposed and a procession is held in his honour through the streets of Bairro Alto.
Later, the Church of S. Roch became the great sanctuary of relics in Portugal.
References:
- Epidemias, quarentenas, igrejas vazias: precedentes na história. Acedido em 10/12/2020
https://www.vaticannews.va/pt/vaticano/news/2020-04/epidemias-quaretenas-peste-precedentes.html
- Ribeiro, Patrícia Cruz Pontífice Sousa Valente. A espiritualidade no doente crónico como uma estratégia de coping: uma narrativa de história de vida. Acedido em 10/12/2020 http://www.index-f.com/referencia/2008pdf/7-2131.pdf
- Roque, Mário da Costa. As pestes medievais europeias e o “regimento prouytoso contra há pestenença”: Lisboa, Valentim Fernandes (1495-1496): tentativa de interpretação à luz dos conhecimentos pestológicos actuais. Paris: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, 1979
- São Roque protegeu-nos da “peste”. Conheça esta deslumbrante igreja de Lisboa. Acedido em 11/12/2020 https://viagens.sapo.pt/viajar/viajar-portugal/artigos/sao-roque-protegeu-nos-da-peste-conheca-esta-deslumbrante-igreja-de-lisboa
Lurdes Barata
Library and Information Centre
Editorial Team
