Patron saint for epilepsy (I)

Saint Valentine with an epileptic child (late Gothic, Regensburg, St. Ulrich)

In the Christian Middle Ages, the treatment of illness and disability was not by any means exhausted with the administration of (usually herbal) remedies and other medical measures (e.g. dietetics) - on the contrary: The art of the physician was not held in high standing by the patients and their relatives. Other treatment strategies were generally acknowledged to rank higher than medical endeavours, especially the invocation of supernatural forces, which for mediaeval Christians signified asking for assistance from God.

The reader of the Bible was also able to find many references in the New Testament to the power of God over illness and adversity. Since the ill and suffering person did not however as a rule dare to approach God Himself in all His heavenly glory for help, he would turn to the saints of the Church, who, by means of their intervention with God, should obtain help for the patient.

Over the course of the centuries, needy believers considered various Christian saints to be responsible for various illnesses and disabilities –a certain degree of specialisation developed among the holy helpers. The more serious and dangerous an illness, the greater the number of patron saint that were responsible for it. For the "shaking divine punishment", epilepsy, about 40 saintly helpers were available. This number was only exceeded by the patron saints for plague, of whom there were more than 60 in the Christian Middle Ages!

Valentine of Rätien (Wood sculpture from the Valentinskirche in Meran-Obermais) 

The most important "epilepsy specialist" from this group of 40 patrons was (at least in German-speaking areas) Saint Valentine – probably (as has already been stated in the instalment "The motif of epilepsy in religious art" of this series – see there) on account of his name: 'Valentine – fall down completely!’

It is not very easy to identify the historical personage of this saint – there are several saints with the same name. The two most important - especially with respect to being a patron saint for epilepsy – were Saint Valentine of Terni, who as bishop of Interamna (the Terni of today)

was put to death as a martyr in Rome in 270 AD, and Saint Valentine of Rätien or Passau, who was a travelling bishop, moving between the Danube and the Alps, 200 years later. The legends of both Valentines became merged together from the 9th century and it is not always possible to clarify without doubt which of the two saints should be associated with a given picture or sculpture.

In the Rhine region in the Middle Ages, there were two important places of pilgrimage that were holy to Saint Valentine (of Terni) and that were visitied by innumerable epileptics and their relatives: Rufach in Ober-Elsass and Kiedrich im Rheingau.

The picture of the Rufach pilgrimage (a woodcut produced around 1480) shows Saint Valentine in the regalia of a bishop. He is making a sign of blessing over two individuals, who – it may be assumed – following the stopping or prevention of a seizure by St Valentine are lying exhausted on the ground (a boy and a girl, possibly siblings). In the background, an older couple approaches with gifts of thanksgiving – perhaps the parents of the two patients. The permanent success of the healing effected by Bishop Valentine is suggested by the representation of two animals (pig and cat [?]), into which – according to the biblically-based belief of the mediaeval Christians – the demons of the disease were driven following their expulsion from the humans.

A short text is added to the picture, which in today’s language reads as "Saint Valentine, pray to God for us in Rufach!"