SPIRITUAL HISTORY

OF NURSING
Nursing in the Pre-Christian Era

• Medicine and nursing in ancient

civilizations provided the foundations on
which many health care practices of
nurses were based.

• Ancient cultures influenced the concept of

Christian charity.
 Distinct Nurses in Ancient Era

• 1. Skilled women – nursed for hire women

• 2. Slaves in wealthy households

 CODE OF HAMMURABI

• Suggested nursing care be given in

between physician visits.
CIVILIZATIONS THAT SUPPORTED MODERN NURSING

• 1. EGYPT

- Egyptian medicine had strong religious

magic in its origins. Egyptian embalming
practices taught Egypt about human
anatomy, which in turn helped them
develop surgical procedures.
- Egyptian physicians existed as early as
1100 BC.

- Dietz and Lehozhy (1967) concluded that

“some form of instinctive nursing care
must have existed at the time.”
• 2. GREECE

- Nursing done largely by patient’s own

family or slaves employed to provide
specific skills.

- Spiritual rationale for providing nursing

care was duty to and love for a relative.
- HIPPOCRATES is the greatest ancient
Greek physician and he once cautioned
those who tended the sick to be solicitous
to their patients spiritual well-being and “to
do no harm.”
- Hippocrates did not identify nursing as a
profession but he encouraged activities
that fall within the realm of nursing
practice such as:
• Fluid diet only should be given in fevers
• Cold sponging for increased temperature
• Hot gargles for acute tonsillitis
• Nurses were usually slaves, Athens
preferred foreign born nurses.
• Free women resorted to nursing to gain
livelihood.
• Nurses role was considered noble among
the Greeks.
• 3. ROME

- Roman knowledge in medicine and

nursing practice came from Greek
physicians.
- Prior to Greek medicine, Roman
households used natural herbs as folk
remedies.
- Religion was influential in nursing the sick,
Roman gods were offered libations in
petitions for favors related to health and
illness needs.

- After the conquest of Corinth, Roman

youths started studying in Athens and
many achieved the skills of Greek healing.
- As always, Romans considered praying to
a god or gods as a critical adjuvant
therapy in nursing a sick person.
• 4. ISRAEL

- The Hebrew people identified Mosaic law

as the primary guide in the provision of
care for the ill and the infirm.
- Religious proscriptions concerning general
health and hygiene were myriad.
- These religious proscriptions included
rules of diet and cleanliness, hours of
work and rest among others.

- These rules are enforced by the group

and not left to the will of the individual,
they were in effect public health rules.
- The Israelites laid the foundations of
public health nursing on enduring
principles, as they naturally regarded
visiting the sick as a religious duty
incumbent upon all.

- Israelites articulated rules in caring for

patients with contagious diseases, and
were noted for their care of children and of
the elderly.
- Hebrew people also built “houses for
strangers” supported by each citizen
tithing 10% of his possessions for
charitable work.

- OT scriptures references to “nurse” as one

“who appears at times as a combination of
servant, companion and helpmate.”
CHRISTIANITY
and the
Care of the Sick
1. EARLY CHRISTIAN NURSES

- Nursing the sick or injured was accorded

a place of honor and respect.

- Good Samaritan (Luke 10: 30-36)

2. VERONICA OF JERUSALEM

- Cleaned Christ’s face with her veil as he

went to Calvary.

- Veronica is the role model for nurses, and

like her, nurses are enjoined to show their
patients “compassion which Veronica
showed to Christ on the via dolorosa.”
3. DEACONS AND DEACONESSES

- Diakonen (Gr.) – “to serve”

- Obliged by their position to visit and nurse
the sick.
- Deacons and deaconesses not only
nursed the sick by visiting them, but also
brought them to their homes to be cared
for (diakonias).
- The diakonias became the precursor to
modern day hospitals.
3. ROMAN MATRONS
- 3rd-4th centuries
- Used their power and wealth to support
the charitable work of nursing the sick
- Matrons founded hospitals and convents,
living ascetic lives dedicated to the care of
the ill and infirm.
 Famous matrons
a. St. Helena, mother of Emperor
Constantine the Great, cared for the sick
poor, founded first “gerokomion” or home
for the aged infirm.
b. St. Paula, founded the first hospice for
pilgrims in Bethlehem.
c. St. Marcella, leader of Roman matrons, a
known scholar and a deeply spiritual
woman.
 EARLY MONASTIC NURSES

- Rose from the 4th to the 6th centuries as

many Christians wanted to lead lives of
sanctity, withdrawing from the world to live
under vows of poverty, chastity and
obedience
 MENTAL ILLNESS IN THE
MIDDLE AGES

• Dymphna of Belgium is the Patroness of

the Mentally Ill.
• Founded the Gheel Foster Family Care
System for the mentally ill.
Medieval Hospital Nursing
• 1. Military Nursing Orders
- Founded between the 11th to 13th centuries
primarily to care for the sick and injured
due to the crusades.
a. Knights Hospitallers of St. John
b. Teutonic Knights
c. Knights of Lazarus
- Forerunners of military nurses today.
MEDIEVAL MONASTIC NURSING
1. Hildegard of Bingen
- German Abbess, visionary, musician,
writer and nurse.
- Diseases and cures were all associated
to heat, dryness, moisture, and cold, ifre,
air, water and earth.
2. Francis and Clare of Assisi
- Francis is the primary founder of
mendicant monasticism and patron to
those who tend the sick.
- Francis is famous for his devotion to
lepers.
- Clare was the daughter of a wealthy Italian
family.
- Followed in the footsteps of Francis.
3. Catherine of Sienna (1347-1380)

- “Patroness of Nursing”
- Worked with the ill, especially lepers.
4. Alexian Brothers

- Religious nurses
- Long history of service to the poor.
- Mid 13th cent. Black Plague served as the
catalyst that moved the group from one
loosely held to one governed by the
Agustinian Rule.
- Cared for the sick, homeless, criminals
and those with mental illness.
- Established hospitals in many countries.
POST-REFORMATION NURSING:

The Catholic and Protestant

Nursing Orders
1. CAMILLUS DE LELLIS

- Founded The Nursing Order of Ministers

of the Sick, all-male nurses.
- Camillus’ goals was “directed toward
preparing and providing hospital nurses.”
“There is no music sweeter to me than the
voices of the sick, all clamoring at once to
be assisted; no perfume more delicious
than the odor of drugs and ointments that
bring relief to the sick.”
2. SISTERS OF MERCY

- Founded by Catherine McAuley in 1831 in

Dublin, Ireland.
- Became wealthy through inheritance
which she received at age 40.
- Had great concern for the poor, especially
the sick poor.
- Built a building with classrooms,
dormitories, a clinic and chapel called
“House of Mercy.”
- Visited wards of several Dublin hospitals
to console patients, which was at the time
a new thing. This practice was deeply
welcomed by the poor, improved morale
and strengthened their resistive vitality.
3. KAISERSWERTH DEACONESSES
- Protestant community of women with the
primary ministry of nursing the sick.
- Founded by Lutheran minister Theodor
Fliedner in 1836 in Kaiserswerth,
Germany
- Initially Pastor Fliedner enlisted his wife to
gather a group of women of good
character who would visit and nurse the
sick poor in their homes.
- Deaconnesses’ training lasted 3 yrs.,
uniform was simple, and taught domestic
duties associated with caring for the sick.
- Pastor Fliedner described the essentials
of Deaconness vocation as “a free
religious association, not dependent on
state and church authorities. It takes its
stand on the nature of the church as
founded by Christ.”
- 4 Key Branches of Deaconnesses’ work:
a. nursing
b. relief of the poor
c. care of children
d. work among unfortunate women
4. NIGHTINGALE NURSES: MISSION TO
CRIMEA
- Nightingale trained under Pastor Fliedner
at his Deaconnes school in Kaiserswerth
as well as under the Daughters of Charity
of St. Vincent de Paul in France.
- Almost no bedside spiritual care with
which to heal before the 19th cent.
- For Nightingale, spirituality is intrinsic to
human nature and is our deepest and
most potent resource for healing (Macrae).
- Nightingale was attracted to mysticism
and drawn to the writings of Francis of
Assisi and John of the Cross.
- Nightingale views spirituality as intrinsic to
human nature and compatible with
science (Macrae) and must include
attention to the spiritual needs and
concerns of both patients and family (Ann
Bradshaw, 1996).
WORLD WAR II NURSES
• EDITH CAVELL (1865-1915)
- Greatest nursing heroine of WWI
- British nurse who opted to serve the
wounded in Brussels, Belgium even as the
city came under German occupation.
- Shot to death by German soldiers for
helping Allied soldiers escape.
 FRONTIER NURSING
MARY BRECKINRIDGE (1881-1965)
- Founder of Frontier Nursing Service in
Hayden, Kentucky in 1928.
- Mary married and had 2 children, both
died at an early age.
- Following the deaths of her children, she
dedicated her life to the care of children.
- Mary’s frontier nurses travelled on
horseback to reach mothers and babies in
mountain communities.
- Mary and her Frontier nurses visited
“hundreds of cabins delivering babies,
providing prenatal care as well as typhoid
vaccines and instructing families in
methods to improve the sanitary
conditions of their homes” (Raines and
Wilson, 1996)
SERVANTS FOR RELIEF OF INCURABLE
CANCER
ROSE HAWTHORNE LATHROP (1851-
1926)

- Founders of Servants for Relief of

Incurable Cancer
- Rose had a good friend and employee
who were afflicted with cancer, resulting in
painful and prolonged deaths.
- Rose trained as a nurse and committed
her life to caring for victims of cancer who,
in her era, were stigmatized outcasts.
 MEDICAL MISSION SISTERS
ANNA MARIAN DENGEL (1892-1980)
- Began her work with the sick poor in India
after completing medical studies in
England and Ireland.
- Went to the US to seek recruits for her
work in India and on 30 September 1925
founded the Medical Mission Sisters in
Pennsylvania.
ADVOCACY:

Medical Mission Sisters have a specific call

– to be present to life in the Spirit of Jesus
the healer.
MISSION: It is a mission grounded in faith
and lived out in love that says so simply,
yet so profoundly, that each individual has
a right to health and wholeness, that each
individual should be cherished and held
dear. It is a mission of being an active
presence of “Christ the Healer” which all
Medical Mission Sisters are privileged to
live out.
MISSIONARIES OF CHARITY

- Teresa of Calcutta founded the religious

community in India. Sisters of Charity tend
to the poor in the streets, in their homes,
in the hospices which they have opened to
care for children, the destitute, the dying
and lepers.
end
 QUIZ
1. What was the spiritual rationale for
nursing care in Ancient Greece? Explain.
(10 points)
2. What motivated early Christians to serve
those in need? Explain. (10 points)
3. Based on what you have learned today,
what has spirituality played in the history
of nursing. Explain. (15 points)