In the remote grassy highlands of northern Ireland is the Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church. There, three disprate landmarks – a cross, a grave, and some special dirt – tell a story about hope for an end to suffering.
From the Medieval past, the tenth-century Boho High Cross depicts scenes from the Biblical Book of Genesis and baptism of Christ. Crosses like these from the Middle Ages dot the landscape of Ireland, providing windows into beliefs that inhabitants thought important. The second photo shows the Fall of Man, with a snake weaving upwards, separating Adam and Eve. Christian viewers would have recognized the story that told of how this event was the precursor to all of human suffering, but also of how the pain would one day end, after the death and rebirth of Christ. I think that the snake resembles the healing Rod of Asclepius of the Greek mythology — and this is a relevant connection.
The grave of Father James McGirr is the second landmark, and comes from current Irish folklore. McGirr, who died in 1815, was considered holy enough to bring about medical cures for local parishioners. On his deathbed he was said to have pronounced “After I die, the clay that covers me will cure anything that I was able to cure when I was with you while I was alive.” Ever since, people have taken little spoonfuls of soil from his grave, slept with the soil under their pillows, and returned the soil after four days hoping to heal small illnesses like flesh wounds and sore throats.
And the third part of the story pertains to scientific studies of the future. Gerry Quinn, a local microbiologist, decided to test out some of the dirt from McGirr’s grave. The Irish soils from these parts come from unusual alkaline grasslands. At Swansea University, Quinn and other molecular biologists examined the soil and found it contained an unknown species of Streptomyces bacteria — one that scientists have since found to be resistant to four out of six superbugs immune to most antibiotics. Scientists have named the new species “myrophorea,” a Greek term referring to the the myrrh-carrying women in the New Testament who found Jesus’ tomb empty after the Resurrection.
Source(s): Image wiki commons. _Smithsonian Magazine_, “Soil from a northern Ireland graveyard may lead scientists to a powerful new antibiotic,” Franz Lidz, Jan 2020. _ScienceDaily_, “Bacteria found in ancient Irish soil halts growth if suoerbugs: new hope for tackling antibiotic resistance,” Dec 27, 2018, Swansea University.
