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  • In pictures

Miracle cure-alls throughout the ages

From the elixir of life to radium, humans have always searched for a panacea: something to cure every ill. But instead it’s only highlighted our anxieties and preoccupations throughout history.

  • In pictures

A short history of Christian martyrs and miracles

Join Ben Gazur as he explores the origins, relics and power of Christian martyrs, and their continuing relevance for Catholics in the 21st century.

  • Article

Revelations of blindness in the Middle Ages

Medieval texts, from Islamic medical treatises to Christian books of miracles, reveal surprisingly varied and complex experiences of blindness. But when medieval scholar Jude Seal experienced visual impairment themselves, they gained an even deeper understanding of the lives they were studying.

  • Article

The conditional child

Deanna Fei asks what it means to sustain a life, drawing on her own experience of having a premature baby as well as an 18th-century essay.

All stories (20)

Images

  • The Virgin of the Miracles in the parish church of Sernache. Lithograph.
  • Saint Francis Xavier performing miracles in Asia: he heals and revives people. Etching by W. Unger after P.P. Rubens.
  • A sarcophagus depicting the miracles of Jesus Christ, displayed at the Archeological museum of Algiers, Algeria. Photograph, 1920/1950 (?), of a relief carving.
  • Saint Silvester Gozzolini: he receives communion from the Virgin (centre); his miracles (border around). Coloured engraving by G. Lauro, 1603, after D. Fortunato Muzio.
  • Saint Gothard wearing episcopal dress as bishop of Hildesheim; church in the background, with roundels showing miracles attributed to him. Engraving by G.M. Riva, 17--.
  • Saint Peter, Apostle (29th June). Invoked against hydrophobia, serpent bites, possession by the deviland fever, all of which are connected with miracles wrought by him, detailed in the Acts of the Apostles. Represented usually with books and keys.
  • Wonders no miracles, or, Mr. Valentine Greatrates [sic] gift of healing examined, upon occasion of a sad effect of his stroaking, March the 7. 1665. at one Mr. Cressets house in Charter-House-Yard. In a letter to a Reverend-Divine, living near that place ... / [David Lloyd].
  • A miracle; the raising of the dead. Etching by M. Bianchi, 1894.
  • Jesus calls the fishermen to be his apostles; in the background he performs the miracle at Cana. Woodcut.
  • Saint Thomas of Villanova performs a posthumous miracle: he cures a woman who was about to die. Engraving.
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