Life-death of a leper

Having mapped out the most common modes of adult life in medieval Europe, I turn to a unique life cycle that serves as a bridge to talking about death: the life of a leper.

Lepers were legally dead while still alive. Leprosy was not diagnosed with scientific accuracy; it served as an umbrella for several disfiguring, degenerative skin diseases. But since it was considered highly infectious, the leper could not remain part of normal society after diagnosis.

Most towns and regions had a leper colony that served as its own village of the living dead. The ceremony for entering the leper colony was, legally, a funeral. The diagnosed patient wrote a will, and in some places went through a ceremonial funeral with a black shroud and a handful of dirt scattered on top.

On entering the leper village, though, each person needed to bring some of his own things like some dishes and pots. Sometimes, a husband or wife (especially wife) was permitted to enter, to live in the colony and care for the sick person. Leper villages had gardens and chickens; lepers worked as they could, given each person’s state of health. Sometimes children were born in the leper colony.

The leper colony was kept up by charitable donations, but the lepers were also expected to help support themselves by begging, in addition to gardening. There were traditional places for lepers to beg, especially outside churches (remember how giving alms was the newly married couple’s first act). But lepers were also considered infectious, so they had to wear hats and gloves (and, well, bandages). They had to ring a bell or swing a clapper in order to warn people of their presence, and they could only collect alms without skin contact, holding out a pot on a long stick.

Legally dead, lepers were still a visible part of life. As they grew sicker, presumably they stopped begging and quietly died in the rows of huts of the leper village. Funerals didn’t have to be a big deal, since they were not legally alive. In fact, lepers were connected to funerals less in being honored that way themselves, and more as people hired to pray for the souls of other dead. The prayers of a leper were meritorious even beyond the prayers of an impoverished student or starving widow. But more about that soon…

This entry was posted in Medieval cycle of life and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply