Caregiving Nuns Wiped Out by Plague
Nuns and priests sacrificed their own lives to provide medical care for the poor in Renaissance France, according to a new study that implicates exposure to contagious plague victims in the deaths of several religious order members.
The study is among the first to find that plague, a deadly bacterial disease also known as "the Black Death," can be quickly and accurately identified in ancient human remains.
Several recently identified women who died after caring for plague victims were all Benedictine nuns from the Sainte-Croix Abbey's chapter house near Poitiers, France.
Bianucci, an anthropologist in the Department of Animal and Human Biology at the University of Turin, added that the woman was the Countess Charlotte Flandrina of Nassau, the fourth daughter of Prince William I of Orange. When the countess became a Roman Catholic nun, she sold most of her valuables to pay for food and medical care for the region's poor, many of whom caught the plague from soldiers fighting in the Thirty Years War.
Historical accounts suggest that nuns caring for the plague victims succumbed to the disease sometime between 1628 and 1632. At that time, General Vicar Jean Filleau ordered the remaining nuns to leave the cloister and retreat to a seaside residence.
With funding from Compagnia di San Paolo, Bianucci and her team analyzed skeletons of Saint-Croix Abbey nuns whose corpses were found resting on layers of the disinfectant calcium oxide, or lime.
The researchers applied an "RDT dipstick test" to the bones and teeth. Similar to a home pregnancy test, the "dipstick" changes color if it detects the presence of markers for Yersinia pestis, the bacteria that causes plague.
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The study is among the first to find that plague, a deadly bacterial disease also known as "the Black Death," can be quickly and accurately identified in ancient human remains.
Several recently identified women who died after caring for plague victims were all Benedictine nuns from the Sainte-Croix Abbey's chapter house near Poitiers, France.
Bianucci, an anthropologist in the Department of Animal and Human Biology at the University of Turin, added that the woman was the Countess Charlotte Flandrina of Nassau, the fourth daughter of Prince William I of Orange. When the countess became a Roman Catholic nun, she sold most of her valuables to pay for food and medical care for the region's poor, many of whom caught the plague from soldiers fighting in the Thirty Years War.
Historical accounts suggest that nuns caring for the plague victims succumbed to the disease sometime between 1628 and 1632. At that time, General Vicar Jean Filleau ordered the remaining nuns to leave the cloister and retreat to a seaside residence.
With funding from Compagnia di San Paolo, Bianucci and her team analyzed skeletons of Saint-Croix Abbey nuns whose corpses were found resting on layers of the disinfectant calcium oxide, or lime.
The researchers applied an "RDT dipstick test" to the bones and teeth. Similar to a home pregnancy test, the "dipstick" changes color if it detects the presence of markers for Yersinia pestis, the bacteria that causes plague.
Although historical records are less clear about the priests' contact with local plague victims, Bianucci said the men must have been around "the parishioners, as their ministry required, and certainly assisted people who were dying," such as by administering last rights.