The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1917-01-27

Wall in the Catholic Parish Magazine.
The pagans of ancient Greece and
Rome had nothing of the kind In the
earliest centuries of Christianity,
when the Church was struggling for
her life against the power of hostile
state, it was of course impossible for
her to found hospitals. But as soon
as the dreaded days of persecution
were over we find evidence of her
charitable activity in this respect.
The Emperor Julian the Apostate,
who came to the throne in the year
361, wrote to the high priest of Gala
tia, directing him to establish a hos
pital in each city, to be supported out
of the public revenues. He gives as
his reason that he wished to do it out
of rivalry to the philanthropic work
Of the Christians, who cared for the
pagans as well as for their own. At
the very time of which we are speak
ing, st. Basil, Bishop of Caesarea, in
Cappadocia, established on an enor-
nous scale hospital in that city. 1t
had buildings for different classes of
patients, dwellings for doctors and
nurses, workshops and industrial
schools, all arranged in regular streets.
After this hospitals multiplied every
where in the East. In the single city
of Constantinople there were no few
er than thirty-five of these establish
ments. They took charge not only of
the sick, but also of the poor who were
unable to work, of foundlings, of or
phans, of the aged, and of poor and
inf1rm pilgrims.
The first foundation of the kind in
the West was at Rome, where Fabiola
established hospital to gather in
the sick from the streets and to nurse
the wretched sufferers wasted with
poverty and disease" as st. Jerome
tells us. These institutions increased
till in the fifteenth century Rome pos
sessed thirty of them Some of these
were on magnificent scale. The
Santo Spirito, founded about the year
1900, had for it's principal ward
room 400 feet long and forty feet
wide. In the Middle Ages it was very
largely the monasteries which estab-
lished and supported hospitals. The
famous Benedictine Abbey of Cluny,
in France, set the example. This was
in the tenth century. 1t was not long
before France and Germany were COW
cred with hospitals founded by Bene-
dictine and other religious houses.
The Work of the Monks.
Besides this, special religious or
ders and confraternities arose whose
object was the care of the sick. The
first establishment of this kind was
the hospital of Santa Maria della
Scala at Sienna, founded in the ninth
century 1t was adorned in the four
teenth century with splendid set~of
frescoes. The Order of the Holy Ghost
was established in the twelfth century
and spread so widely that in course of
time nearly every city in Europe had
hospital of the Holy Ghost. These
institutions were often built on a mag
nificent scale, as may be seen from the
following description by DR.. Gill Wylie
of the one at Milan: "In 1855 the
Grand Hospital of Milan was opened.
This remarkable building is still in
use as hospital, and contains usually
more than 1000 patients. The build
ings stand around square yards, the
principal one being much larger than
the others, and separating the hospi-
tai into two parts. The main wards
on either side Of this large court form
a cross, in the center of which is a
cupola, with an altar beneath it, where
divine service is performed daily in
sight Of the patients. The CELL
ings are thirty or forty feet high, and
the floors are covered with red bricks
or flags. The outside wards are moth
ing but spacious corridors. The wards
are first warmed by open charcoal
brasiers. -. This hospital, built at
the time when the Church of Rome
was at the height Of her power, and
but short time before the Reforma-
ton, Is a good example of what had
oh oir wi