Tajemnica skóry (cz. I ). Święte uleczanie
wobec chorób zakaźnych, dermatologicznych i wenerycznych. (Sylwetki patronów, ikonografia i obecność w kulturze)

Tajemnica skóry (cz. I ). Święte uleczanie
wobec chorób zakaźnych, dermatologicznych i wenerycznych. (Sylwetki patronów, ikonografia i obecność w kulturze)

Mystery of the skin (part I). Sacred healing towards to plague-like, dermatological and veneral diseases. (Figures of patron saints, iconography and presence in culture)

Jowita Jagla

The plague-like, dermatological and veneral diseases expose their presence in the ancient art mainly through the iconography of the healing saints. Skin infi ltrations, dermal naevus of bubonic tumours, skin covered with ulcers, feverish and fl ushing skin are the principal stigmas of the ill, constituting the attribute of the divine doctors. Simultaneously, there was a group of „wounded healers” granted with so called symbolic wound, determining the direction of the curing patronage. The skin of an average man and the skin of a saint were not of the same quality. The fi rst one usually expressed the hallmark of sin, deserved God’s punishment, was forcing the conversion, where the skin of the saint, being the material area of a corporal experience, confi rmed the salutary dimension of suffering. Among the diseases stated in the medieval annals and iconography you can fi nd ergotism (secale cornutum) called the “holy fi re” or the “Saint Anthony’s Fire”. The main patron of this disease is Saint Anthony the Anchorite, who in the iconography was pictured with the attribute of an ill man with burning palm or a hand in fl ames. Another, also frequently mentioned and represented disease was the leprosy, observed in the St. Minus iconography, Saint Martin of Tours iconography (the scene with a sick beggar endowed with the cloak), in Job iconography (Job becomes the „wounded healer” touched by a disease, over which he has the patronage). Job’s syndrome was, and still is, discussed by the medical historians, who wish to believe it was not leprosy, but syphilis or diphtheria.

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