Leprosy

Leprosy was one of the most feared diseases of Medieval Europe. It was believed to be highly infectious and sufferers were condemned to a grim fate.


Leprosy sufferers were rejected as unclean and forced to wear distinctive clothes and ring bells or wooden clappers when in towns or villages.

Their illness was seen as a mark of sinfulness and God’s disfavour. This belief is echoed in the fifteenth century poem ‘The Testament of Cresseid’ written by Robert Henryson.

Along with laws being passed against lepers, the church had a ritual known as the Mass of Separation that symbolically declared lepers as dead.

Some accounts of this ritual describe lepers standing in open graves wearing shrouds and having spadefuls of earth thrown over them.



The church had hospitals for leper where

• food and shelter were provided and
• special prayers were said to prepare their souls for the next life.

Lepers who were fit enough could tend animals or the hospital’s gardens or if given permission, could beg in nearby towns.

Such a hospital existed at St Nicholas Farm near St Andrews, on the east coast of Scotland. Archaeological excavations of the site in 1986 and 1987 provide a glimpse of life in a medieval leper colony.

It is easy to see why desperate lepers chose to make the arduous journey to Whithorn in search of a cure for their illness.