Healers

For centuries the Western church has held Mary Magdalene to be a repentant prostitute who became a follower of Jesus, but discoveries of previously unknown ancient manuscripts and a wealth of recent scholarship have shown this portrait of the first witness to the resurrection to be entirely inaccurate. The early Church’s political agenda and the now discarded view that the four Gospels were meant to constitute a single seamless narrative worked in concert to convince us that the Magdalene was once a scarlet woman. But here’s the scoop: Mary Magdalene, known to us now in the long-suppressed non-canonical Gospels of Thomas and Philip and the Gospel of Mary, which bears her name, was a prophetic and visionary figure among the disciples, an intimate of Jesus, and the leader of an influential wing of early Christianity that honored and promoted leadership of women.

Born Greek and a Gentile in Syria, Luke was a physician who may have also been a slave. Luke became a close companion of Paul of Tarsus and accompanied him on his missionary journeys. It is very possible that Luke provided medical assistance to Paul when he had been beaten, stoned or nearly drowned while evangelizing to the Western Roman Empire. Luke is the writer of the third Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. In the third Gospel, Luke emphasizes Christ's compassion for sinners and for those who suffer. One will also find in Luke's account of the gospel, a strong emphasis on the role women played in Christ's ministry. It is believed that Luke lived a long life and died in Greece. He was the first Christian physician and was venerated by the Catholic Church as the patron saint of physicians and surgeons.

Francis was born into a very wealthy family in Assisi and lived the good life for a while. However, several encounters with beggars and lepers (whom he reportedly kissed) pushed him to an ascetic life. His rejection of is wealth was a beacon to others who followed him, establishing the Order of Franciscans. A woman also followed him and together they formed the Order of Poor Clares and a third order, the Other of Brothers and Sisters of Penance. Francis’ rules for living were too difficult for many to maintain. His ascetic life took its toll on his body, but he remained a happy man, reportedly fond of animals. Later in his life, he received the marks of the Lord’s wounds, the stigmata, the first recorded. A number of his writings have become beloved songs.

Born to wealthy British parents and received extensive classical education, Florence Nightingale achieved great fame in the mid-1800s as "The Lady With the Lamp" because of her service as a nurse in the Crimean War. The British Army adopted many of her proposals, and her ideas eventually became standard practices throughout the world. Simple sanitary practices, such as hand washing, were promoted by Nightingale and became commonplace in modern society. The work during the war took a physical toll on her so she spent much of her life housebound with illness, though she campaigned for reforms in nursing and was a vocal proponent of sanitation practices.

Albert Schweitzer—labeled by one biographer as “musicologist, organist, organ maker, theologian, preacher, physician, Nobel Peace Prize Winner and all-around Renaissance Man”. Though Schweitzer was educated in theological studies at the University of Strasbourg, he decided to go to Africa as a medical missionary (he had begun studying medicine when he was about 30). He founded a hospital in French Equatorial Africa but was sent to French internment camp as prisoner of war. When released, he returned to preaching in Strassbourg. At about 50 years, Schweitzer returned to the hospital he established in Africa, where he remained for most of the rest of his life. He built the hospital with personal funds and donations. He also became a pastor of a congregation, administrator of a village, writer, commentator, musician, and host to visitors. He used his Nobel Prize money to start a hospital for lepers.

An Albanian who believed her true birthday was her baptism day, Mother Teresa joined, at 18, the Order of the Sisters of Our Lady of Loreto in Ireland. She journeyed to India and continued her training towards her religious vows. Soon after arriving in Calcutta to teach at a school for girls, she was moved by the presence of the sick and dying on the city's streets. On her way to a retreat (because she may have had tuberculosis), she felt the call to “care for the sick and dying, the hungry, the naked, the homeless.” That was the beginning of the Missionaries of Charity." Receiving permission from Pope Pius XII, Mother Teresa and her Missionaries of Charity began the work for which they have been noted ever since. She established a home for the dying, an orphanage, and a place for lepers. Her “tabernacles” have also been established in hundreds of locations in the world.