Caring For The Sick

Quin potius omnem censum, quem habere poterat (erat autem amplissimus, et respondens generi eius) dilapidavit, ac vendidit: et in pecuniam congregatum, usibus pauperum praeparavit; et prima omnium νοσοκομεῖον instituit, in quo aegrotantes colligeret de plateis, et consumpta languoribus atque inedia miserorum membra foveret. Describam ego nunc diversas hominum calamitates, truncas nares, effossos oculos, semiustos pedes, luridas manus, tumentes alvos, exile femur, crura turgentia, et de exesis ac putridis carnibus vermiculos bullientes? Quoties morbo regio, et pedore confectos humeris suis ipsa portavit? quoties lavit purulentam vulnerum saniem quam alius aspicere non valebat? Praebebat cibos propria manu, et spirans cadaver sorbitiunculis irrigabat. Scio multos divites et religiosos ob stomachi angustiam exercere hujusmodi misericoridam per aliena minsteria, et clementes esse pecunia, non manu. Quos equidem non reprobo, et teneritudinem animi nequaquam interpretor infidelitatem: sed sicut imbecillitati stomachi veniam tribuo, sic perfectae mentis ardorem in coelum laudibus fero. Magna fides ista contemnit. Scio quid in Lazaro dives purpuratus aliquando non fecerit, quali superba mens retributione damnata sit. Ille quem despicimus, quem videre non possumus, ad cujus intuitum nobis vomitus erumpit, nostri simili est, de eodem nobiscum formatus est luto, iisdem compactus elementis. Quidquid patitur, et nos pati possumus. Vulnera ejus existimemus propria; et omnis animi in alterum duritia, clementi in nosmetipsos cogitatione frangetur. 'Non mihi si linguae centum sint, oraque centum, ferra vox, omnia morborum percurre nomina possim.' quae Fabiola in tanta miserorum refrigria commutavit, ut multi pauperum sani languentibus inviderent. Sanctus Hieronymus, Epistola LXXVII, Ad Oceanum Source: Migne PL 22 694

Indeed Fabiola broke up and sold all that she could of her estate (which certainly was most substantial and appropriate to her station), and turning it into money she made it available to the poor. She was the first to establish a house of the sick, into which she might gather the diseased out of the streets, and where she could care for those devoured by illnesses and the emaciated limbs of the wretched. Shall I now recount the various calamities of men? Split noses, eyes put out, feet burnt, leprous hands, swollen bellies, withered bones, bloated legs, and worms writhing in putrid flesh? How many times did she carry on her own shoulders persons infected or those covered with filth? How many times did she wash pus from wounds which others would not have the strength to look at? She gave food with her own hand and moistened breathing corpses with drops of liquid. I know of many wealthy and religious folk who troubled by a churning stomach perform this work of mercy by the ministry of others, whose pity is coin not work of their own hands. I do not reprove them and I would not interpret softness as infidelity, but as I give pardon to a weak stomach, so I praise to the skies the zeal of a perfect mind. Great faith scorns such things. I know what the rich man clothed in purple did not do for Lazarus and the retribution by which a proud mind was damned. 1 He whom we despise, he whom we cannot look at, he whom the mere thought of brings on nausea, is like ourselves, fashioned from the same clay, formed out of the same elements. Whatever he suffers, we too may suffer. Let us consider his wounds to be our own, and so all hardness of heart will be shattered by the thought of the pity we would have for ourselves. As Virgil says, 'Not if there were given to me a hundred tongues and a hundred mouths, and an iron voice, could I tell the names of all the diseases.' 2 Those ailments which Fabiola assuaged in shivering wretches, so that many of the healthy envied the sicknesses of the poor. Saint Jerome, from Letter 77, To Oceanus 1 Lk 1. 19-31 2 Aeneid 6.625