IMC 2023: Sessions
Session 728: Cultures of Healing in Late Antiquity and the (Mostly) Early Middle Ages, III: Healing Substances, Holy Substances, and their Points of Intersection
Tuesday 4 July 2023, 14.15-15.45
| Sponsor: | ReMeDHe - Working Group for Religion, Medicine, Disability, Health & Healing in Late Antiquity / Beyond Beccaria Project |
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| Organisers: | Claire Burridge, Faculty of History, University of Cambridge Carine van Rhijn, Departement Geschiedenis en Kunstgeschiedenis, Universiteit Utrecht |
| Moderator/Chair: | Carine van Rhijn, Departement Geschiedenis en Kunstgeschiedenis, Universiteit Utrecht |
| Paper 728-a | Perfume among the Perishing: A Pharmacological Approach to Incense in Early Christian Ritual (Language: English) Index terms: Biblical Studies, Ecclesiastical History, Liturgy, Medicine |
| Paper 728-b | Healing and the Holy: Fontwater as Liturgical Material and Medical Cure in the Early Middle Ages (Language: English) Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Liturgy, Medicine |
| Paper 728-c | Sacred Substances: Materia medica in and of the Church (Language: English) Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Liturgy, Manuscripts and Palaeography, Medicine |
| Abstract | Building on the previous session, this session investigates the intersections between healing and holy substances as materia medica. That substances such as incense or water taken from the baptismal font had special curative power shows how Christian beliefs and ideas about healing cannot be separated in any useful way in the early Middle Ages. Since this is an underexplored aspect of the history of medieval medicine, this session contains three case-studies which, together, shed light on this widespread phenomenon and show how we cannot begin to understand early medieval healing without a solid understanding of Christian beliefs and rituals. |