CHAPTER VIII
ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF
HEALING
It is a trite saying that “man is of few days and full
of trouble.” Among all the vicissitudes of life none
affects us more powerfully than loss of health. We may
lose fortunes or friends with comparative equanimity,
but when health fails and death threatens, the strongest
falter; realizing human impotence we are more ready
to turn to divine power for succor then than at other
times. Therefore, the office of spiritual adviser has
always been closely associated with healing.
Among savages the priest was also “medicine
man”. In ancient Greece, Aesculapius was particularly
sought by those in need of healing. The church
followed in his steps. Certain Catholic orders have
continued the endeavor to assuage pain during the
centuries which have intervened between that day and
the present. In times of sickness the “good Father”
came as a representative of our Father in Heaven, and
what he lacked in skill was made up by love and
sympathy—if he was indeed a true and holy priest—
and by the faith engendered in the patient by the
priestly office. His care of the patient did not
commence at the sick bed, nor was it terminated at
recovery. The gratitude of the patient toward the
physician was added to the veneration felt for the
spiritual adviser, and as a consequence the power of
the priest to help and uplift his erstwhile patient was