And just as in the one case we put up with operations and cauterisings and the taking of bitter drugs for the treatment of the body, so also in this case we must receive the cutting effects of words of rebuke and the bitter drugs of blame for the cure of the soul. This is what the prophetic word says by way of rebuke to those who have not received correction: “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why has not the healing of the daughter of my people gone up?” And when in long illnesses we await the cure during a protracted period, using methods both painful and various, that shows us that we ought to correct the sins of the soul by laborious prayer and protracted repentance and more severe discipline than reason would suggest to us as sufficient for a cure. Because some make a wrong use of the medical art, that is no reason why we should shun all benefit derived from it. For when the intemperate followers of pleasure abuse the arts of cooking or baking or weaving to devise luxury, overstepping the bounds of what is necessary, we should not then shun all these arts alike: on the contrary, by using them rightly, we show up the corrupt use of them. So also in the case of medicine, it is wrong to slander God’s gift because of the evil use made of it. For to put the hope of one’s health in the hands of doctors is worthy of the lower animals—which we see happening in the case of some wretches, who do not shrink from calling them Saviours! While to avoid entirely the benefit of medicine shows a contentious spirit. But just as Hezekiah did not think the cake of figs the prime cause of his recovery, nor ascribe to it the cause of the healing of his body, but added to his praise of God his thanksgiving for the creation of the figs; so also we, receiving blows from God Who so kindly and wisely contrives our life, ask from Him first that we may know the reason why He inflicts stripes, then relief from pain and endurance, so that with the temptation He may also give us a way out, that we may be able to bear it.
We receive with thanksgiving the grace of healing that is given us, either by oil and wine as in the case of him that fell among robbers, or by figs, as in the case of Hezekiah. And it will make no difference to us whether the care of God has come to us invisibly or through some bodily means, which often leads us to perceive the grace of the Lord more effectively. Often when we have been allowed to contract illnesses for disciplinary reasons, we have been condemned to endure a cure by painful means as part of the discipline. And so common sense teaches us that we must not shrink from operations or cauterisings or the pains caused by sharp and troublesome drugs or deprivation of food or a strict régime of food or abstinence from harmful things, since all the time—I say it again—the object of benefiting the soul is being secured, for it is being taught by way of example how to take care of itself. But there is no small danger of the mind falling into the error of supposing that every illness needs the aid of medicine. For not all illnesses come naturally, or from errors of diet or any other bodily causes, for which we see that the medical art is sometimes useful. For often illnesses are scourges of sins, sent to convert us. “For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth.” And “For this cause many among you are weak and sickly, and not a few sleep. For if we discerned ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.” In such cases then we ought to be quiet and forbear medical treatment, and endure what comes upon us, when we have recognised our sins, as (Micah) said: “I will bear the indignation of the Lord, for I have sinned against him”; and we ought to show amendment by doing works worthy of repentance and remembering the Lord’s words: “Behold, thou art made whole; sin no more, lest a worse thing befall thee.” Sometimes also it happens at the request of the evil one: the Lord Who loves men sends as it were a great antagonist to contend with him in the struggle, and brings down his pride by the resistance to the utmost of His servants. Such we have learned to have been the case with Job. Some again who are able to bear suffering even unto death are brought forward by God as an example to those who are loth to suffer trouble; as Lazarus, who, oppressed by so many wounds, is nowhere recorded to have asked anything of the rich man or to have complained at his fate. Wherefore also he received rest in the bosom of Abraham, as one who had had his evil things in his lifetime. We find yet another cause for illnesses happening to the Saints, as in the case of the apostle. For lest he should seem to surpass the limits of human nature, and lest any one should think that he had something unusual in his natural constitution (as the Lycaonians thought, when they brought him garlands and oxen), illness was his lot continually, to show that his nature was fully human. What gain then accrues to such men from the medical art? Does not rather danger come, as they are led away from the right principles to valetudinarianism? Those at least who have brought illness on themselves from errors of diet must use the treatment of the body as a kind of type and pattern of the treatment of the soul, as I said before. For abstinence from harmful things according to the principles of medicine is useful to us, so is the choice of profitable things and the keeping of doctors’ orders. And let the very change of the flesh from illness to health be an encouragement to us, so that we do not despair of the soul, as if it were not able to return again by penitence from sins to its proper health. It follows then that we must neither avoid the art completely, nor place all our hopes in it. But just as we use agriculture, but pray for the fruits from God; and we entrust the rudder to the pilot, but pray to God to be preserved from the sea. So by bringing in a doctor when reason allows, we do not cease to hope in God. And to my thinking the art contributes towards continence in no small degree. For I see that it cuts away luxuriousness, and condemns satiety, and banishes varied diet and superfluous devisings of condiments as inexpedient. And in general it calls want the mother of health, so that in this respect its counsels are not useless to us. So whether we use the precepts of medicine or avoid them according to one of the principles laid down above, let us keep the aim of being well-pleasing to God and contrive what is beneficial to the soul, and fulfil the commandment of the apostle who said: “Whether ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”
1 Of. F. 35, 43. The title has tobe moceotétag tig &deApdtyrtO<, which would mean the Superiors (seniors) in a single monastery. But the answer refers to the abbots of a number of monasteries.
2 This rule was probably borrowed from the Pachomian monasteries, There a general chapter was held twice a year, at Easter and on August 13 (Clarke, p. 38).
3 This answer is very interesting. Its length suggests that spiritual healing was a burning question in B.’s coenobia, see Intr. p. 46. B.’s many ailments and his practical labours in founding hospitals must have caused him to face the problem. Cf. Index for references in the Rules to physicians and 748, Quod Deus non est auctor malorum.
1 Gen. ili. 19. 2 See Jn. ix. 6; 7. 12
1 Keel. vii. 29. 2 Jere vii, 22°
1 Prov. iii. 12 motdeder. with NA, Sw.’s (B) text eréyyeu.
2 1 Cor. xi. 30; 31 yap for 86 K; 32. 3 Micah vii. 9. 4 Jn. v. 14 w before cot K.
1 The argument on the whole has favoured calling in the physician.- 2 1 Cor. x. 31. Here ends one of the sanest and most Christian things ever written on this subject.