MEDICAL MATTERS: f you suffer from epileptic seizures, St Patrick's your only man, writes MUIRIS HOUSTON
THE INTERNATIONAL image of St Patrick’s Day is more about leprechauns, green beer and cabbage and corn beef than early Irish Christianity. And while the myths associated with St Patrick do not have a particularly medical flavour, in general saints have been linked with diseases and cures through the centuries.
St Patrick has been mentioned as someone to pray to if you have epilepsy.
Tradition has it that a person with epilepsy who slept on “leaba Pharaic” on Caher Island off the Mayo coast could be cured. According to folklore, St Patrick died on March 17th, 460 AD and his jawbone was preserved in a silver shrine. The relic was reported to be a source of solace for those experiencing difficulties with childbirth and epileptic seizures.
Our patron saint features strongly in references to Ireland’s holy wells. The book Fishstonewater – Holy Wells of Ireland describes and illustrates some 50 wells; St Patrick is the saint most commonly associated with these locations.
According to authors Anna Rickard and Liam O’Callaghan, the water from St Patrick’s well in Rathvilly, Co Carlow was traditionally used as a “cure” for toothache and earache.
Another well at the foot of the Ox Mountains in Dromard, Co Sligo also venerates St Patrick. Water from this well is said to cure eye and skin ailments.
Writing about the Dromard site, the authors say: “A rock on top of the hill overlooking the well is said to cure backache. According to folklore, St Patrick rested his back against this rock while he was building the wall around the well. Bark from a tree over the well was used to relieve backache and water from the well was believed to cure blindness, deafness and lameness.”
Angela Bourke of the Department of Modern Irish at University College Dublin notes that ancient trees overhang many holy wells and their branches were traditionally decked with red rags.
“Pilgrims would use a piece of cloth to mark the afflicted body part, then tie the cloth to the tree leaving the illness behind. Nowadays, rags are any colour, and among the tokens left behind are written pleas: brief notes about the troubles people suffer.”
St Patrick supposedly used the shamrock (a three-leafed clover) to emphasise his teachings about the Holy Trinity. Although it does not feature as a traditional cure, the shamrock is full of protein and can be made into a tea by steeping dried flowerheads in hot water. But a related plant, red clover, was used as a traditional remedy for so-called “toxic build-up” in the body.
Reputed to be a blood purifier, red clover was used as a cure for venereal disease and whooping cough.
Some saints are specialists when it comes to combating disease, while others are generalists. St Lucy looks after eye disease, dysentery and “haemorrhages in general”, while St Benedict is a true all rounder who helps those with fever, kidney disease and “temptations of the devil”.
Then there are the saints after whom specific diseases have been named: St Anthony and St Vitus. St Anthony’s Fire was the traditional name for erysipelas, a condition marked by redness and swelling of the skin brought on by streptococcal infection. A 3rd century Egyptian ascetic, St Anthony’s bones were enshrined in Vienne, France, where they reportedly helped heal pilgrims during an epidemic of erysipelas in the 11th century. And “St Vitus Dance” refers to convulsive twitchings and movements that suggest a grotesque dance. St Vitus was an Italian boy who was martyred by the Emperor Diocletian. During the 15th and 16th centuries children seeking good health danced around statues of St Vitus. The dancing was somewhat frenzied and the St Vitus name was then applied to the writhing movements of chorea, a condition brought on by acute rheumatic fever.
Meanwhile, the closest scientific cure associated with St Patrick is “wetting the shamrock”. Drinking moderate amounts of dark stout such as Guinness may have the equivalent clot-busting effect of aspirin, due to high levels of anti-oxidants in the brew. On that note, sláinte agus bain taitneamh as an lá.
Dr Muiris Houston is pleased to hear from readers at mhouston@irishtimes.com, but regrets he cannot answer individual medical queries