Healing with the Body of Christ: Religion, Medicine and Magic

In the medieval western collections of medical recipes, references to theoretically non-consecrated hosts used for the healing of various diseases are very frequent. If on the one hand their use was codified as a normal medical prescription, on the other hand their use was also ritualized by the inscriptions of specific words on them which referred to the Trinity and by how they were taken, which entailed enunciating prayers. Moreover many objects and charms referring to Christ's passion were included as a shared therapeutic way, to demonstrate the blurred boundary among religion, medicine and everything that was often considered superstitious or “magic”. By the analysis of medical and hagiographic sources, the aim of the article is to provide an overview of the objects and rituals used for healing that symbolically refer to the Eucharist – seeing the Eucharist not only as the moment of incarnation, but also as a reference to the death and resurrection of Christ. In particular we will also focus on the therapeutic role of the Agnus Dei, the wax disc imprinted with the Lamb of God that was made on Holy Saturday in Rome as a memento of the papal coronation.