L'Ordine degli Ospitalieri e la cura della lebbra nel Medioevo

Leprosy spread in Europe during the 5th and 6th Centuries, and especially in the late Middle Ages, and extinguished in the Modern Age. Lepers were discriminated by the population, so that they were forced to lead a marginal existence since their disease was considered contagious and incurable. The Church, assuming a role of assistance, ope- ned leper hospitals. The practices implemented by the Orders of Hospitallers to isolate and treat leprosy patients were similar to those adopted during the Middle Ages: these practices mainly faced the need to protect the community from infection rather than to treat the disease itself. The Orders of Hospitallers gave greater care and attention for lepers then European customs, combining cares with an uncommon professional and organizational capacity. In particular, the various provisions of the Rhodes phase attest that the lepers were not considered so infectious as to require their confinement in separate structures such as the leper colonies, but they could be treated directly in the hospital, in specific isolated rooms, or even at home. The experience and above all the familiarity with the leprosy the Ordine had matured in Palestine, where the disease was widespread and endemic since ever, had suggested its scarce contagiousness, amply demonstrated by current medicine.