Beyond relics and prayers – the hidden healing agents in the Camino miracles - Eliezer Grunzweig

 This reliquary, now in the collection of The Met, was made for the translation of the saint's relics from the monastery of Suso to the church of San Millán de la Cogolla. Panel with San Millán, Master Engelram and his son Redolfo, (Spanish, active Longroño, 1060–1090/5), 1060–80, Elephant ivory, with glass inlay, The Met, New York.

My research focuses on the medical dimension of the pilgrimage to Compostela (11th–13th centuries) as reflected in medieval texts concerning the Camino Francés. An examination of institutional sources from the period, however, yields an unexpected finding. In these sources, one can find abundant information about institutional charters, commercial activities (such as real estate transactions, wine sales, and loan management), donations, and inheritances. However, information about the pilgrim's world and experiences, his illnesses, and the methods of his treatment is conspicuously absent. Partial information of this nature (along the Camino Francés) only began to emerge towards the end of the 15th century with the establishment of larger, more modern hospitals. My research aims to bridge this gap by turning to hagiographical literature, and to medical miracle narratives in particular.

Several historians have attempted to describe and understand the therapeutic protocol offered to sick pilgrims within the context of miraculous healing. In these studies, miraculous cure is often associated with various tangible healing elements. For example, André Sigal points to prayer, the touch of a cross, and exorcism as primary components in medieval French miracles.[1] James Buslag, in his study of the miracles of Saint Becket, argues that the principal healing agents in Becket’s hagiography are the saint’s relics, alongside a wide array of ritual means such as sacred liquids, incubation, prayers on liturgical feast days, and architectural spaces. According to Buslag, healing is a bodily and interactive process that takes place in relation to the saint’s physical site. [2] 

Miracle accounts from the Camino Francés align with the findings of Sigal and Buslag. However, a close reading of these medieval narratives reveals an additional, intangible therapeutic layer. These intangible healing agents usually operate alongside the tangible ones, and while sometimes overt, their presence is often hidden. Identifying this therapeutic dimension can help to illuminate both the hagiographers' concept of health within the miracle narratives and their strategies for maximizing the text's impact.

An interesting example, highlighting the potential of such a re-reading process, would be the case of a knight from Galicia as told by the monk Fernando Ibañez in Liber Miraculorum Sancti Aemiliani Cucullati.

The work, written between 1249 and 1265, documents the miracles of the 5th-century saint following the translatio of his relics in 1053 to the Yuso Monastery in San Millán de la Cogolla.

The author describes the arrival of a knight from Galicia at the church of Saint Aemilianus during Lent. The knight, on his own initiative, joins the community's mass prayer for rain. During the mass, the knight, possessed by a demon, collapses heavily, causing a great commotion. The crowd prays for him, and after a series of dramatic events, he is freed from the demon and his health is restored. [3]

The story, however, continues with an interesting and insightful epilogue describing the knight's perspective. According to the knight, his misfortune began when he was riding at night with his companions and fell from his horse. After the fall, he inadvertently drank from a fountain without first saying a blessing, and as a result, the demon took possession of him.

He first seeks a cure at the famous shrine of Saint James, but to no avail! The text tells us that “with hope of recovery already lost, he preferred exile to living in disgrace among his own people” (Et spe salutis iam frustata, malluit exulari quam inter suos ignominiose uiuere).

And yet, he doesn't stop.

Despite his conscious despair, his acts are a direct contradiction of his stated hopelessness. In fact, the knight demonstrates a deep hope – he continues "traveling through and visiting the places of the most famous saints" (peragrans et circuiens loca sanctorum famosissimorum ). This hope, as mentioned later in the text, is based on a fundamental faith in the system of saintly intercession – “…because of the merits of the holy confessors, I trust…” (…inquid quia meritis sanctorum confessorum…).

That said, faith and hope are not the only potential healing agents the author alludes to. It is suggested that positive personality traits are also central to the narrative of the knight’s healing. The knight is described as well aware of his condition and embarks, in an extreme suffering environment, on an active and determined quest for a cure. He actively declares himself healthy - he “believed himself to be healthy” (quia sanum fidebat se esse) and takes control of his fate “…And if I should be afflicted again in the future, know that I will return here” (…et, si deinceps retemptatus fuero, sciatis me huc reuersurum).

A review and re-reading of the medical miracles along the Camino reveals that the miracle of the knight is not the only one including intangible, psychologically oriented healing elements. In most accounts, tangible healing agents—such as contact with relics or prayer—appear alongside these intangible healing agents. While some of them, such as faith and trust in the saint, are explicitly addressed in the texts, others remain more implicit. These include the saint’s suggestive power, the generation of hope and expectation, the role of imagination and the influence of the sufferer’s personality traits on the healing process.

One may surmise that these narrative layers amplified the story's impact, creating a richer experience for the listener. This experience went beyond prayer or proximity to a relic, at times offering an almost direct interaction with the saint, a deep identification with the suffering pilgrim's emotional state, and a mystical experience fueled by psychological elements and the sacred atmosphere. Such an encounter between a multi-dimensional story and the audience's own beliefs had the potential to be profoundly influential.

A modern perspective, informed by placebo research, reveals parallels between these historical miracle accounts and contemporary understandings of healing. Both involve tangible actions, like medication or contact with a relic, alongside a range of psychosocial influences known as the "placebo effect." This includes the patient's expectations, hope, suggestibility, imagination, the caregiver interaction, and certain personality traits. This analysis uses modern placebo research insights as a potential tool to illuminate the intangible psychological factors in historical healing accounts.

Footnotes:

[1] Pierre-André Sigal, L’homme et Le Miracle: Dans La France Médiévale (11.-12. Siècle) (Éd. du Cerf, 1985). 

[2] James Bugslag, “Performative Thaumaturgy: The State of Research on Curative and Spiritual Interaction at Medieval Pilgrimage Shrines,” in The Sacred and the Secular in Medieval Healing Sites, Objects, and Texts, 2016, 219–65.

[3] “Libri Miraculum s.Aemiliani Cucullati Recensio Longior” (Madrid, s. XIII), 10, f. 87ra-89rb, Biblioteca de la Real Academia de la Historia.