There are more than 500 saints to whom both patients and doctors usually entrust themselves before starting a procedure or treatment.
By: Carolina González Quiceno
March 31, 2024
The Catholic Church has called saints those people who have performed miracles and they should be given universal worship. Instead, the patrons They are considered protectors. In the area of the medicineThere are many santos y patrons to whom some go.
Between the santos y patrons The most notable are the following:
-Saint Luke: the patron saint of doctors
In general, Luke was a doctor born in Antioch. Dedicated to the medicine and in letters, he is the author of the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles. Through Saint Paul, he converted to Christianity and preached the message of Jesus Christ. Because of his faith, he died by hanging, at 84 years of age. He is represented with the bull and his festival is celebrated on October 18.
–Santos Cosme and Damian: the patrons of the surgeons
Cosimo means: “adorned, well presented” and Damián: “tamer.” They were twins born in Cicilia, southern Anatolia, Asia Minor. Both, professionals of the medicine. They did not charge for their services. During the persecution of Emperor Diocletian (284-305) they were apprehended and tortured (drowning, burning, disjointed, crucifixion, stoning, shooting), by order of Lysias, governor of Aegea and, finally, beheaded.
–Santos Liborio and Zoilo: patrons of urologists
Zoilo was a rich young man from Córdoba, who continually showed his beliefs in public; In the year 304, he was accused of superstitione christianitatis, for which he was arrested, tried and sentenced to death;
Saint Liborio was bishop of Le Mans, in France, during the 4th century, to whom, since the end of the 15th century, a “healing power” against urinary stones has been attributed; so he is an advocate for flank pain, kidney stones and urine retention.
-Saint Agatha, patron saint of diseases of the mammary gland
Los santos that are connected with diseases of the mammary gland are: Santa Bárbara, Santa Gwen, Santa Apolonia, Santa Cristina, San Wilfredo and San Bernardo, among others.
Águeda or Ágata, from the Greek agathé, which means “kind”, was a woman born in Catania (Sicily, Italy), in the year 230; When she was 21 years old she rejected the amorous proposals of the consul Quintilian (or Quiniciano), governor of Sicily, who ordered her arrested and handed her over to Aphrodisia, a woman who, together with her daughters, ran a brothel; A month later she was locked in a cell and whipped, burned with torches and her hands and feet were tied, stretched, and her entire body was torn.
His holiday is February 5. All those dedicated to the treatment and prevention of breast cancer are known as “the soldiers of Santa Águeda.” In iconography she is represented as a young woman with her breasts cut off and sometimes with her breasts on a tray or with tongs in her hand.
-Saint Lucia: patron saint of eye patients
Lucia, from Latin light, meaning “light, luminous” (283-304), was born and died in Syracuse, Italy; She is the patron saint of eye patients. She had been raised in the Christian faith and she decided to renounce the marriage. Her mother, named Eutyquia, suffered from constant hemorrhages, and she, along with her Lucia, made a pilgrimage to Catania to ask Saint Agatha for her healing.
Back home, Lucía asked her mother to never give her up in marriage and to distribute her assets among the poor. Her mother agreed and they both began to distribute her assets among the most disadvantaged. However, some time later, her mother forced her to accept a young pagan in marriage, but Lucia refused. Later, they tried to burn her at the stake, but as she was miraculously saved, her eyes were gouged out, but she replaced them herself, and she was finally decapitated. Lucia appears in some medieval engravings with her eyes on a tray.
-Saint Apolonia: patron saint of dentists
Saint Apolonia is considered the patron saint of dentists. In 249, under the reign of Decius (248-251), she was captured and subjected to torture on suspicion of attacking Rome; During the process, her teeth were destroyed with a stone and, when trying to burn her alive, she jumped into the bonfire voluntarily; However, because her flames did not consume her, they ended up slitting her throat. Her teeth were collected as relics and her head is found, inside a bust, in the church of Santa María Trastevere in Rome; She was canonized in the year 299 by Pope Marcellin, her feast day is February 9, considered Dentist’s Day; She is represented as a pretty young woman (despite her 49 years), holding in her hand a forceps (or tongs) with an extracted molar or with a golden tooth hanging from her neck and with a palm leaf, as a sign of her death. for martyrdom His cult is still valid, in such a way that a traditional prayer in Asturias, Spain, says: “Saint Apolonia, here I am, poor sinner, my teeth hurt, reconcile with me soon and give me tranquility for the body, so that I can forget this torment of the toothache”.
There are about 300 santos whose names have been associated with protection and cure of certain diseases, protection from doctors and various miracles, arising by direct analogy with the type of martyrdom of the saint in question or, in the particular case of some diseases.
Source: here