Hospitals

In his new book, Atheist Delusion s, David Bentley Hart calls attention to the role of the church in providing medical care during the middle ages: “in the diakoniai of Constantinople, for centures, many rich members of the laity labored to care for the poor and ill, bathing the sick, ministering to their needs, assisting them with alms. During the Middle Ages, the Benedictines alone were responsible for more than two thousand hospitals in Western Europe. The twelfth century was particularly remarkable in this regard, especially where the Knights of St. John – the Hospitallers – were active. At Monpellier in 1145, for example, the great Hospital of the Holy Spirit was founded, soon becoming a center of medical training and, in 1221, of Montpellier’s faculty of medicine. And, in addition to medical care, these hospitals provided food for the hungry, cared for widows and orphans, and contributed alms to all who came in need.”

Hart’s book is really about “the Christian revolution,” the one movement in Western history that, he says, truly deserves the label “revolutionary.” Hospital care was an important aspect of that revolution.