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“In the nineteenth century a truly Christian president will come, a man of character to whom God Our Lord will grant the palm of martyrdom in this very square where my convent is. He will consecrate the republic to the Sacred Heart of my beloved Son, and this consecration will sustain the Catholic religion throughout the following years. During those years, which will be ominous for the Church, the accursed sect of Freemasonry will take over the civil government. A cruel persecution will rage against all religious communities and will descend upon this convent with special fury.“

The man prophesied by Our Lady of Good Success of the Purification on the 16th January 1599 during one of her approved apparitions to Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres, a nun of the Conceptionist order in Quito, Ecuador, was Gabriel Garcia Moreno (1821-1875), and all these prophecies came true.

Having just finished reading a biography about this man written by the German Jesuit priest Adolf von Berlichingen (1840-1915), first published in 1884, I’d like to walk with you through the different elements of this prophecy come true – and of history never taught in school.

“a truly Christian president“

Gabriel Garcia Moreno was born in the year 1821 in Guayaquil, a port in the western part of Ecuador, into a Catholic family of Spanish descent. He had three siblings, one of his sisters being a devout lady who remained single all her life and whom Don Gabriel loved very much, attributing to her fervent prayer life the graces and successes of his political career.

“Ecuador was marked by revolutions, anarchy, and instability from the time Garcia Moreno was very young. Heavy-handed dictators looking out for their own gain at the expense of the people, anti-Catholic radicals trying to suppress the Church, corruption and graft – stealing a portion of the revenues – created a series of storms and chaos.“

James Valois: Our Lady‘s Prophecies. God‘s Messages for Our Time, Sophia Institute Press 2024, p. 46

The sixth president of the republic of Ecuador, independent from Spain since 1821, was the Freemasonic liberal José María Urbina who ruled the country from 1852 to 1856. He immediately expelled the Jesuits.

Moreno, already a member of the Congress on behalf of the city of Quito, publicly defended the Jesuits who were defamed in all kinds of ways by the liberal factions. This made him a sharer in the destiny of the Jesuits as he, too, was banned from the country and had to live in exile – first in Lima, then in Paris – for a while.

During his exile in Paris his practice of the Catholic religion became more fervent. He began to receive the sacrament of Holy Confession frequently and to participate several times a week in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

He returned to Ecuador in the year 1856 when the new and more moderate president Francisco Robles allowed him to re-enter his native land. Some years later he ascended to the presidency himself.

All in all, Gabriel Garcia Moreno ruled Ecuador as president in the years 1859-1865 and 1869-1875 with great success. His various undertakings and reforms in all areas of public life brought prosperity, peace, and stability to Ecuador. From reforming the broken judicial system, introducing respect for law and order in a country torn apart by frequent violent upheavals and injustices, fighting corruption and waste of money among public officials all the way to fostering education imbued with the Christian spirit and of good scientific quality, opening many hospitals, especially for the poor, and modernizing the infrastructure of the entire country by building roads and bridges for connecting the towns and cities, the records of his political influence are truly impressive. Moreno‘s political motto was “Liberty for everyone and everything except for evil and evildoers“.

Don Gabriel supported the mission of the Church in every way he could. He promoted the religious orders – Jesuits, Lazarists, Redemptorists, and others – running the schools, hospitals, and opening missions, evangelizing also the native Americans of Ecuador, a very successful endeavor.

“The concordat (with the Holy See) ensured that education was based on Catholic principles, and the bishops alone would decide on all books for the human sciences, religion, and morals.“

James Valois: Our Lady‘s Prophecies. God‘s Messages for Our Time, Sophia Institute Press 2024, p. 53

When the robbery of the papal states was committed against the Church and Blessed Pius IX (1792-1878), Vicar of Christ from 1846 to 1878, this “truly Christian president“ was the only statesman in the whole wide world who protested against the injustice, supported Blessed Pius IX, and publicly defended the rights of the Church. After the proclamation of the dogma of papal infallibility in the summer of 1870 a national celebration was held in all of Ecuador.

“a man of character“

In one of the last chapters of his biography on Moreno, Adolf von Berlichingen tries to give the readers an impression concerning the president‘s personality traits and character.

Gabriel Garcia Moreno was, first of all, a devout and humble man. He prayed the Rosary daily, piously participated in the liturgical worship of the Church, and revered priests and the Holy Father. At the back of his copy of the spiritual classic The Imitation of Christ he had written down his rule of life which contained, among other notes, the following admonitions:

“Every morning, before beginning my work, I will write down what I have to do, being very careful to distribute my time well, to give myself only to useful and necessary business and to continue it with zeal and perseverance. I will scrupulously observe the laws of justice and truth, and have no intention in all my actions save the greater glory of God. I will make a particular examination twice a day on my exercise of different virtues, and a general examination every evening. I will go to confession every week.“

Gabriel Garcia Moreno‘s Rule of Life

He was happily married with two children, a son and a daughter, yet the girl died at a young age while Moreno was still alive. He practiced all kinds of acts of mercy towards the poor and sick which included a daily visit in one of the hospitals.

Adolf von Berlichingen describes him as a man of a predominantly choleric temperament, someone very serious, firm, frugal, disciplined, diligent, courageous, exuding a natural authority and being strict and severe with others whenever necessary yet mostly with himself.

His sharp intellect allowed him to quickly acquire profound knowledge and excellency in all kinds of areas including law, the military, and the natural sciences (especially chemistry). He was one of the best horse riders of all of Ecuador and when, during his presidency, upheavals by certain rebel groups had to be dealt with he ventured out into battle as the leader of the defense of Ecuador‘s inner stability.

In all aspects, he was a man who liked to take responsibility, control, and execute oversight himself. He never delegated any aspect of his tasks as president to anyone and never employed a single secretary. Everything was done by his own hand, and wherever his initiatives were to be carried out he showed up regularly to, by his direct presence, check upon the progress of the various projects of “regenerating“ Ecuador.

“the palm of martyrdom in this very square where my convent is“

Gabriel Garcia Moreno made himself many friends by his superior character – and many enemies, especially among the Freemasons. On the First Friday of August 1875, he received “the palm of martyrdom“ as he was assassinated by four conspirators “in this very square“ where the convent of the Nuns of the Immaculate Conception of Blessed Mary is located – the Santa Domingo Plaza. He was attacked by his murderers with machetes and shot at.

After adoring the Blessed Sacrament in the cathedral, Don Gabriel died as a martyr for Christ the King. Only weeks before he had written the following letter to Pope Blessed Pius IX of which an excerpt is reproduced here:

“Most Holy Father,
For some time now I have intensely wished to write to Your Holiness again; but I have been kept from doing so for fear of taking your time, which is too precious and necessary for the rule of the Catholic world. Notwithstanding this, today I must overcome this fear to implore your apostolic blessing, as I have been reelected, undeservingly, to govern this Catholic Republic for six years more. Although the new term will not begin until August 30, and I will not be able to serve Your Holiness with an official notification of my reelection until I take the constitutional oath on that day, I am conveying this to Your Holiness in advance in order to obtain from Heaven strength and lights, which I need more than anyone for being faithful to our Redeemer and loyal and obedient to His infallible Vicar. Now that the [Masonic] lodges of the neighboring countries, instigated by those of Germany, vomit against me atrocious insults and horrible calumnies of all kinds, I need Divine protection more than ever to live and die in the defense of our holy Religion and of this small republic that God has willed that I continue governing. Most Holy Father, what great fortune it is for me to be hated and persecuted for the sake of our Divine Redeemer! and what great joy it would be for me if your blessing obtained from Heaven that I shed my blood for Him who, being God, willed to shed His on the Cross for us! (…)
I prostrate myself at the feet of Your Holiness to implore again your Apostolic blessing for this Catholic Republic, for my family, and for this your very humble, obedient, and loving son, G. Garcia Moreno.“

Gabriel Garcia Moreno in his letter to Pope Blessed Pius IX on the 17th July 1875

When one of the assassins shouted “Die, destroyer of liberty!“ the heavily wounded president replied “God does not die!“ – these were his last words. Moreno was still alive for a short time after the attack. He was carried into the cathedral, to a statue of Our Lady of Sorrows, where a priest administered the last rites to him.

Thus, the promise given by Jesus through Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque to all who practice devotion to His Sacred Heart, Moreno being one of them, was fulfilled, namely that these devotees shall not die without receiving the sacraments and that His divine heart shall be their safe refuge in their last moment. Blessed Pius IX honored him as a “martyr“.

“He will consecrate the republic to the Sacred Heart of my beloved Son“

“Trumpets sounded, rifles fired, and church bells rang in unison throughout Ecuador. For the first time in history, a Republic was consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.“

James Valois: Our Lady‘s Prophecies. God‘s Messages for Our Time, Sophia Institute Press 2024, p. 54

This consecration of Ecuador to the Sacred Heart was renewed on the 25th March 2024, 150 years later, by the current Archbishop of Quito in a solemn Mass.

The first and original consecration took place on the feast day of the Annunciation in the year 1874. Unitedly the Archbishop of Quito and the President of Ecuador consecrated the nation of Ecuador – in the name of the Church and in the name of the state – to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

“the accursed sect of Freemasonry will take over the civil government“

“Thus I make it known to you that from the end of the 19th century and from shortly after the middle of the 20th century, in what is today the Colony and will then be the Republic of Ecuador, the passions will erupt and there will be a total corruption of customs, for Satan will reign almost completely by means of the Masonic sects.“

Our Lady of Good Success to Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres, Marian apparition from the early 17th century in Quito, Ecuador, approved by the Church, in: James Valois: Our Lady‘s Prophecies. God‘s Messages for Our Time, Sophia Institute Press 2024, p. 62

The era of freemasonic liberalism attacking the Church in Ecuador and undermining her mission at the end of the 19th century is linked with Eloy Alfaro who reigned as president of Ecuador in the years 1895-1901 and 1906-1911. His political program included the complete separation of state and Church, the secularization of education, the introduction of “religious liberty“, and the attack on the sacrament of Holy Matrimony through the institution of “civil marriage“.

The mortal remains of Gabriel Garcia Moreno

In September 1875, a few weeks after the assassination of Moreno, the Congress of Ecuador honored this “truly Christian president“ by entitling him the “regenerator of his country, and the martyr of Catholic civilization“. Today Don Gabriel‘s mortal remains are buried in a crypt in the cathedral of Quito, their resting place since the 6th August 1975, the 100th anniversary of his martyrdom.

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The ancient world did not know of an institution like the hospital – not before Christianity “invented“ it. The process of the establishment of hospitals everywhere happened throughout the 4th and 5th century. Mike Aquilina in his book The Healing Imperative. The Early Church and the Invention of Medicine As We Know It describes for us the features of those ancient hospitals and the medical revolution they brought about:

“By the 400s, hospitals were not just a common feature of the landscape, but in fact were essential to civilization. Before the Christians there had been no such thing as a hospital, but now the world apparently couldn‘t do without them. (…) Hospitals were often independent institutions. In the beginning, many of them were founded by local bishops. But as it became more essential to have a hospital in every city, and as the founders of hospitals were more and more glorified, most of them were founded by rich donors – often as legacies in their wills. (…) In the beginning hospitals cared mostly for the poor, but by the 400s they seem to have been caring for the middle classes, and perhaps some of the rich as well, especially in the East. (…)

So if you went to one of these hospitals, that were rapidly popping up all over the East, you‘d probably find it a reassuring place. The building would be warm, because it was usually built with a big open hearth as its central feature, and the beds for the patients were arranged to take advantage of the heat. There would be baths attached to keep the patients clean, and for any water therapy the physicians might order. You‘d see icons or religious murals all over the walls because, after all, healing comes ultimately from God, no matter how many physicians have worked to bring it about. There would be an outpatient office, where people who didn‘t need to stay in the hospital could get professional walk-in care. There would also be a dispensary, a pharmacy where drugs were handed out to the general public as they needed them. The staff and physicians had access to every kind of medical tool and whatever special furniture they needed. There would be a separate section for surgery and cautery. (…) Best of all, there‘s no fee. All this medical care, the best the world has to offer, is a public service, brought to you by Christian donors. It really was the best medical care, too. The physicians of the city vied for the few hospital positions available. (…) The nursing staff was made up mostly of volunteer monks in earlier hospitals. But by the 500s, hospitals had grown big enough to hire their own lay nursing staff. (…)

The Christian hospital made classical Greek medicine – scientific medicine – available to a broad population for the first time. Doctors made rounds, examined patients to determine the best treatment, and kept medical records. (…) Physicians had always worked alone. (…) But the hospital brought doctors together in one place. They had to talk to each other. They kept medical records. They wrote stuff down. They made lists of treatments that were known to have worked – lists that belonged to the hospital. (…) Thus, without anyone having planned it, the hospital became centers of medical research. (…) Once physicians started practicing in a hospital setting, modern medicine was the inevitable result.“

Mike Aquilina, The Healing Imperative. The Early Church and the Invention of Medicine As We Know It, Emmaus Road Publishing, p. 156-160

Monasticism, Saint Basil the Great, and the hospital

One ingredient that went into the invention of hospitals was the health care system that had been developed in the monastic movement. Saint Pachomius the Great, a disciple of Saint Anthony the Great, in about the year 320 was the first to found a community of brothers that lived in the way of “cenobitic“ monasticism.

“The key trait of Pachomius‘ cenobitic monasticism was centralization. Monks wore a specific habit – in effect, they were in uniform. They were organized into ‘houses‘ of about twenty monks each, and each house had its particular job to do for the whole community – washing, baking, or whatever. The monks all ate in a central dining hall, and they all went to services together in the church.“

Mike Aquilina, The Healing Imperative. The Early Church and the Invention of Medicine As We Know It, Emmaus Road Publishing, p. 113-114

A few years after the founding of his community, Saint Pachomius the Great established a house inside the monastic settlement that was meant to take care of the sick brothers among the monks.

“Pachomius made sure the sick were allowed to be sick, which was practically revolutionary. (…) Not only should those who are disabled be exempt from work, but the other monks should find joy in serving their less able brothers. This was the attitude Pachomius took, and it became the usual attitude in all the monasteries that followed his.“

Mike Aquilina, The Healing Imperative. The Early Church and the Invention of Medicine As We Know It, Emmaus Road Publishing, p. 115-116

From the health care system of the first cenobitic monasteries to the first real hospital it‘s only another link in the chain: Saint Basil the Great. He was born in the year 330, the son of a wealthy family. For his classical education he went to Constantinople and then to Athens, where both he and Saint Gregory of Nazianzus “studied under Libanius, the most famous rhetorician of their time“ (p. 128), a man who also taught Saint John Crysostom. Basil and Gregory became friends, as they lived together throughout their student life. During those years in Athens, Basil studied not only the liberal arts, but also mastered the field of medicine.

After his return to Cappadocia, where he came from, and his conversion and baptism, he became a priest and an auxiliary bishop within a few years. Those were the days of the Arian heresy which Saint Basil the Great, like other great saints of the 4th century, had to fight against, even though the Nicene Creed had already excluded the theological notions of Arianism in 325. But there emerged problems beyond theology, too. And they led to Saint Basil the Great‘s project of building and running a very unique place for the needy in an urban setting:

“In addition to the Arian crisis, there came a social crisis in 368, when a series of natural calamities – including hail storms, floods, and earthquakes – brought famine to Cappadocia. Basil was appalled when some merchants seized the opportunity to grow rich from the scarcity of food, leaving the poor to starve. (…) These social concerns are a recurring theme in Basil‘s homilies and letters, most addressed to groups of monks and nuns. The ideal monk, Basil said, is one whose prayer is augmented by work, but whose work is done ‘so that they may have something to distribute to those in need‘. (…) He imagined charity on a grand scale, an industrial scale, and his vision was concretized – literally – in the construction of what in his lifetime became known as the Basileias, or Basil‘s Place. (…)

Basil called his foundation a ptocheion – a place for the poor. But it was natural that people should start calling it Basil‘s Place, because it seemed as if no one else could have put it all together. It was great complex of facilities built to serve anyone who needed serving. Basil‘s insititutions included a soup kitchen, poorhouses, a trade school, a hostel for needy travelers, personal care for the elderly, a hospice for the dying, and a hospital. This enormous community, staffed by monks dedicated to the work, really was almost a new city. (…) They dispensed food and medical care to all who approached, regardless of religious affiliation. This was not something added on to their devotions; it was integral to their religious life. This life of prayer mixed with action was Basil‘s ideal for monks and nuns. (…) There was a hostel where the homeless and poor strangers could have a roof over their heads and some decent food. (…) There was an orphanage which took in children who had lost their parents or – just as important – children whose poor parents couldn‘t afford to keep them. (…) There was a place for lepers (…) where the most wretched outcasts in classical society were treated with dignity. There was a trade school where poor men could learn to support themselves, so they wouldn‘t have to depend on Basil‘s Place forever. And finally, there was a hospital. Basil himself tells us that his institution had everything needed for professional care of the sick: physicians, nurses, attendants, and transportation, probably in the form of donkeys.“

Mike Aquilina, The Healing Imperative. The Early Church and the Invention of Medicine As We Know It, Emmaus Road Publishing, p. 134-142

Following the model of Basil‘s Place, bishops all over the Eastern part of the Roman Empire began building hospitals. From the historical records it is clear that in the late 5th century, there were hospitals in Jerusalem – as in every city or town of the East. The Western part of the Roman Empire was already in decline and less civilized than the East. But Saint Fabiola, born in 399, a widow and a student of Saint Jerome, founded the first hospital in the city of Rome – and served the patients there with her very own hands. Saint Jerome praises Saint Fabiola‘s work and exhorts his fellow Christians to follow after her:

“The poor wretch whom we despise, whom we cannot so much as look at, and the very sight of whom turns our stomachs, is human like ourselves, is made of the same clay as we are, is formed out of the same elements. All that he suffers we too may suffer. Let us then regard his wounds as though they were our own, and then all our insensibility to another‘s suffering will give way before our pity for ourselves.“

Saint Jerome, quotation from Mike Aquilina, The Healing Imperative. The Early Church and the Invention of Medicine As We Know It, Emmaus Road Publishing, p. 153

“For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Even the tax collectors do the same, don‘t they? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than anyone else? Even the pagans do that, don‘t they? Therefore be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.“ 

Matthew 5: 46-48

“So I say to you, do not worry about your life – what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Isn‘t life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap or gather into barns; yet your Father in heaven feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. Now if in this way God clothes the grass – which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow – will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?‘ or ‘What will we drink?‘ or ‘What will we wear?‘ For the pagans eagerly pursue these things; yet your Father in heaven knows that you need all these. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.“

Matthew 6: 25-34

“So in all things, do to others what you would want them to do to you – for this is the Torah and the Prophets.“

Matthew 7: 12

Pestilence in ancient times

The Catholic author Mike Aquilina in his book The Healing Imperative. The Early Church and the Invention of Medicine As We Know It does a great job in providing a very readable overview of the development of the roots of our modern medicine and hospitals in antiquity, at the time of the Roman Empire. One of the topics he gets into is how the ancient world dealt with waves of pestilence and plagues. He quotes from the writings of Pontius the Deacon about a plague that broke out in the Roman Empire in the middle of the 3rd century.

“Afterwards a dreadful plague broke out. As the people trembled, the excessive destruction of a hateful disease invaded every house, one after another. Everyone was shuddering, fleeing, shunning the contagion. They would impiously throw out their own friends – as if by keeping out the person who was sure to die of the plague, they could also keep out death itself. Meanwhile, all over the city, bodies were lying – well, not bodies, but carcasses. And all who passed by pitied themselves, seeing that they would soon suffer the same fate.“

Pontius the Deacon, quotation from Mike Aquilina, The Healing Imperative. The Early Church and the Invention of Medicine As We Know It, Emmaus Road Publishing, p. 61-62

Pontius the Deacon gives us a first hint on how the pagan society of the Roman Empire reacted to existential threats like plagues: fear, mistrust, egocentrism – leaving the sick alone to die, everybody trying to save their own skin. Mike Aquilina describes for us the specific historic situation the Roman Empire found itself in prior to this plague:

“It was a sickness like no one living had seen before. But it was only the latest in a chain of disasters. It wasn‘t just the plague: the Roman Empire itself was sick. (…) A hundred years before, Rome had been full of optimism. To most people, it looked as though the Roman Empire finally had this civilization thing figured out. The whole world – or at least everything that mattered – was united under one very competent government. There were skirmishes on the frontiers, but in most of the world peace prevailed. There had been the occasional mad emperor in the past, but under the enlightened Antonines the empire thrived. Even the worrisome cult of the Christians could be mostly left alone, although every once in a while it was a good idea to round up a few of them and throw them to the lions just to show that the laws could be enforced. (…) And then came the first plague. It started in AD 165, and it didn‘t wear itself out until fifteen years later. It was a disease the teeming millions in the empire had never experienced – something that made eruptions all over the skin, accompanied by violent fever. The people of the empire had no immunity to it. Wherever it hit, somewhere between a quarter and a third of the population died. The historian William H. McNeill argues very persuasively that this pestilence marks the beginning of the long ‘decline and fall of the Roman Empire.‘ (…) It‘s probably no coincidence that the Roman Empire started to unravel after that devastation. The pandemic was over, but by the 200s, civil war was the normal state of affairs.“

Mike Aquilina, The Healing Imperative. The Early Church and the Invention of Medicine As We Know It, Emmaus Road Publishing, p. 62-63

While the population of the Roman Empire was declining and chaos with struggles for power was spreading, the Church grew in numbers. In the year 250, the antagonism between the pagan Roman Empire and the Christian religion led to one more round of persecution of the Christians – the first empire-wide persecution, in fact. It was easy to blame those Christians – those “atheists“ not believing in the pagan gods – for all the trouble the empire was experiencing. The emperor Decius therefore forced everybody without exception to sacrifice to the gods “in front of a local bureaucrat, who would provide a certificate of compliance“ (p. 65). In the case of non-compliance, torture and the death penalty would follow.

“Countless Christians, used to their comfortable lives, decided it wasn‘t worth being Christians if torture and death were the price they had to pay. But an amazing number were willing to pay that price. (…) The bishops of Rome, Antioch, and Jerusalem died – three of the most important apostolic sees. (…) With the examples of the martyrs bright in their memories, the really committed Christians stood up to Decius‘ inquisition. They wouldn‘t sacrifice to the gods. Not even when it was so easy – just a pinch of incense, and the incense already provided for them! They wouldn‘t even bribe an official to issue the certificate without a sacrifice. Yes, they even refused to corrupt a bureaucrat! What was wrong with these people? It got worse. Some of the Roman officials found themselves having to torture children and little old ladies, which seemed kind of wrong, or at least gauche. (…) After a year or so, the persecution ground to a halt in most of the empire (…) Decius, meanwhile, was killed fighting the Goths in 251.“

Mike Aquilina, The Healing Imperative. The Early Church and the Invention of Medicine As We Know It, Emmaus Road Publishing, p. 65-66

The plague Pontius the Deacon mentioned in his writings on the life of Saint Cyprian quoted above is known as the “plague of Cyprian“, because Saint Cyprian‘s letters give us a lot of information about it. He was at the time the bishop of Carthage in Africa. While the pagan authorities were always ready to blame the Christians for outbreaks of pestilence, Saint Cyprian replied to them, that, if anyone, they themselves were the cause of it.

“For these things happen not, as your false complaining and ignorant inexperience of the truth assert and repeat, because your gods are not worshiped by us, but because God is not worshiped by you.“

Saint Cyprian of Carthage, quotation from Mike Aquilina, The Healing Imperative. The Early Church and the Invention of Medicine As We Know It, Emmaus Road Publishing, p. 68

This plague of the time of Saint Cyprian of Carthage and of Saint Dionysius of Alexandria put the two opposing worldviews of paganism and of Christianity on display. The thin outward covering of “philanthropy“ wears off when push comes to shove, in times of crisis and misery, while true love of neighbor with thick roots in one‘s heart sticks around. About the way the pagans dealt with the plague and the sick and dying masses we can read in several accounts by their Christian contemporaries. Saint Dionysius of Alexandria tells us,

“For they thrust aside any who began to be sick, and kept aloof even from their dearest friends, and threw the sufferers out on the public roads half dead, and left them unburied, and treated them with utter contempt when they died, steadily avoiding any kind of communication and intercourse with death – which, however, it was not easy for them to avoid, no matter how careful they were.“

Saint Dionysius of Alexandria, quotation from Mike Aquilina, The Healing Imperative. The Early Church and the Invention of Medicine As We Know It, Emmaus Road Publishing, p. 69

Pontius the Deacon writes,

“No one regarded anything but his cruel gains. (…) No one did unto others as he would have others do unto him.“

Pontius the Deacon, quotation from Mike Aquilina, The Healing Imperative. The Early Church and the Invention of Medicine As We Know It, Emmaus Road Publishing, p. 70

And we find this description in Saint Cyprian‘s Address to Demetrianus, the proconsul of the province of Africa:

“You reproach plague and disease, while by plague itself and disease the crimes of individuals are either detected or increased, while mercy is not shown to the weak, and avarice and rapine are waiting open-mouthed for the dead. The same men are timid in the duties of affection but bold in the quest of impious gains – shunning the deaths of the dying and craving the spoils of the dead. It makes it look as if the wretched must be abandoned in their sickness for this reason – so that they won‘t escape by being cured. For someone who grabs the estate of the dying so eagerly probably wanted the sick man to perish.“

Saint Cyprian of Carthage, quoation from Mike Aquilina, The Healing Imperative. The Early Church and the Invention of Medicine As We Know It, Emmaus Road Publishing, p. 71

And the Christians? They were the ones reacting differently to the challenge. Mike Aquilina once again quotes from the writings of Saint Dionysius to give us an impression of the distinct Christian way of handling a plague:

“A great many of our brethren, in their overflowing love and kindness, did not spare themselves, but kept by each other, and visited the sick without thought of their own peril… And many who had thus cured others of their sicknesses, and restored them to strength, died themselves, having transferred to their own bodies the death that lay on the others… Yes, the very best of our brethren have departed this life in this manner, including some presbyters and some deacons and among the people those who had the highest reputations. Considering their distinguished piety and steadfast faith, this form of death seemed to be in no way inferior to martyrdom itself.“

Saint Dionysius, quotation from Mike Aquilina, The Healing Imperative. The Early Church and the Invention of Medicine As We Know It, Emmaus Road Publishing, p. 73-74

Christians were the ones visiting the sick and taking care of them, providing the basic nursing that is necessary to give someone a chance on surviving the disease. They did this not only for their own Christian brothers and sisters, but for anyone in need. And they buried the dead. Neither the living nor the dead did they ever just abandon and forget like the pagans in their desperate attempt to escape the death they feared so much. The behavior of the Christians in those times of crisis in the crumbling Roman Empire not too surprisingly led to many conversions. Their deeds testified to their bullet-proof faith in the one true living God. As Mike Aquilina writes,

“Imagine yourself a pagan who knows nothing of Christianity. When the plague comes, you learn one thing: all your best friends, all your closest family members, deserted you, but the Christians are willing to risk their lives to stay by your side until you get better – or until you died – even if it kills them. If you do recover – and the Christians‘ cares makes that outcome a lot more likely – you‘re going to be thinking good thoughts about Christians. You‘re going to want to know more about them. And you‘re quite likely to decide that the Christians have the answer the whole Roman world has been looking for.“

Mike Aquilina, The Healing Imperative. The Early Church and the Invention of Medicine As We Know It, Emmaus Road Publishing, p. 76

The Church at this time “had already built up a system of institutional charity like nothing the pagan world had ever seen (…) to serve Christians and pagans alike“ (p. 72). Just like the origins of our modern hospitals can be traced back to the activities of the Church and to the Christians‘ religious duty of unrestricted hospitality, so even with the service provided by those we call “paramedics“ today. It was in ancient Alexandria that the Church ran the first ambulance corps, the “parabalani“. Their job was

“to care for the sick in the streets where they found them, and to transport the ones who were in bad shape to some place where they could be cared for.“

Mike Aquilina, The Healing Imperative. The Early Church and the Invention of Medicine As We Know It, Emmaus Road Publishing, p. 75

Epilogue: Medicine in a post-Christian world

In reviewing the vital differences between the pagan and the Christian worldview in their effect on attitudes toward disease and sick people, as shown throughout the book, Mike Aquilina makes this remark at the very end of his book:

“I do not believe a post-Christian society can sustain institutions such as the hospital; but neither can post-Christianity itself sustain a society.“

Mike Aquilina, The Healing Imperative. The Early Church and the Invention of Medicine As We Know It, Emmaus Road Publishing, p. 167

If a post-Christian society sustains institutions such as the hospital, it will most certainly not be the hospital as we, the lucky heirs of the great humane achievements of Christendom, still know it up until now.

Both ancient pagans of the Roman Empire and the post-Christian neo-pagans of today‘s empires due to their closed horizons with no living God in the picture fear disease and death way too much to be able to risk their lives out of love and compassion for both friends and strangers. They have everything to lose and nothing to gain. And any worldview bereft of the Judeo-Christian values will by default never be able to grasp the totally transcendent character of each and every human life from the moment of conception to death – the concept of life and death not at one‘s disposal and of life‘s invaluable and unusable character.

In a post-Christian world, love of neighbor, solidarity, and mercy will never mean and look the same again. Mercy will be translated into euthanasia and charity might present itself as robots – or as people just as aseptic, streamlined, and programmed as robots – taking care of the sick and elderly, as long as society still endures their existence in some sort of isolation centres where they are barred from reaching out to us.

And why is that? It is because death itself is a scandal to the pagan mind, just as suffering is. Whoever is marked with suffering or death or even remotely contaminated by it is a pariah or a walking virus which the sunshine philanthropy of a post-Christian world, that is – to speak with Neil Postman‘s famous dictum – “amusing itself to death“ in its continuous attempt to shun and ban what it seeks to deny, cannot tolerate and must eliminate to not be driven insane by reality itself. There is nothing post-Christianity will ever have to offer as an answer to these questions: When push comes to shove and the contamination with reality lingers in every corner and waits on every doorstep, why should I, with my own feet and hands, with the full reality of my mortal body, visit the sick, clothe the naked, feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty and bury the dead?

Every pagan worldview and way of life ultimately is one of despair: there just is no answer to this “why“ – why one should live and die alongside everyone else in the realms of reality beyond Eden and not rather keep oneself untouched in an artificial paradise. The Judeo-Christian way of life is death and resurrection, while the pagan way of life will forever be the carefully crafted illusion of immortality. True faith and piety will show themselves and set themselves apart from their counterfeit versions at these fault lines, as in ancient times so today.