Flu season is upon us, and I still need to get my flu shot. If the unfortunate happens and I do get sick, _The Distaff Gospels_ has some words of healing advice for me.
Readers of yesterday’s post will recall that the _Distaff Gospels_ is a book of women’s lore from the 15th century, and has oodles of information about curing illness. For fevers, for instance, you have to fast the first Sunday after being struck. Although the narrator writes that the “fever will disappear for sure,” should the attempt fail, you could also carry the holy names wrapped in a piece of silk around your neck. Also, for three days in a row you could write the words of the “Our Father” on a locally grown sage leaf and eat it in the morning. I hope that’s all helpful. The image you see here is from the Queen Mary Psalter of the early 1300’s, and it depicts a bird looking at a patient in the top picture, but looking away at the bottom. The bird was known as a “caladrius” – historians don’t agree about whether it corresponded with an actual bird or was merely mythological. But if the caladrius looked toward the patient, she would heal, and away from the patient, she would die.
Readers of yesterday’s post will recall that the _Distaff Gospels_ is a book of women’s lore from the 15th century, and has oodles of information about curing illness. For fevers, for instance, you have to fast the first Sunday after being struck. Although the narrator writes that the “fever will disappear for sure,” should the attempt fail, you could also carry the holy names wrapped in a piece of silk around your neck. Also, for three days in a row you could write the words of the “Our Father” on a locally grown sage leaf and eat it in the morning. I hope that’s all helpful. The image you see here is from the Queen Mary Psalter of the early 1300’s, and it depicts a bird looking at a patient in the top picture, but looking away at the bottom. The bird was known as a “caladrius” – historians don’t agree about whether it corresponded with an actual bird or was merely mythological. But if the caladrius looked toward the patient, she would heal, and away from the patient, she would die.
Source(s): Queen Mary Psalter, Royal MS 2 B VII, Perhaps London, England, ff.89v-90r. _The Distaff Gospels_, ed by Madeline Jeay and Kathleen Gray, Broadview, 2006. Medieval Manuscripts Blog from the British Library, “Not always bad news birds: the caladrius,” Sarah J Biggs, 12 April 2013. “Theodoric the Medieval Barber, Saturday Night Live ” and find a 14th century Steve Martin diagnosing and bloodletting and using a caladrius to fantastic effects.
