Leprosy in the context of medical folklore and magical medicine (ethnocultural aspects)

Abstract

Leprosy has been known since ancient times, and has been reported in civilizations that have survived from antiquity to the present day. Lepers were treated in a contradictory way, being simultaneously excluded from social life, but also tolerated by certain secular and ecclesiastical institutions. Th e plague terrifi ed the people even though they had never seen a leper alive. Leprosy is considered an ugly disease, „destroying body and soul”, „serious and bad disease of the skin and of the body”, „an evil without cure”, a hideous disease that cripples, disfi gures man until you cannot recognize him. In Romanian folklore, the appearance of leprosy is attributed to curse. According to a legend collected in Ialoveni, Emperor Alexander of Macedon cursed the gypsies with leprosy disease for lying to him, when they declared that they had nothing to pay tribute with, because of poverty, in fact having sumptuous houses, covered with gold. In another folklore source collected in Wallachia, an emperor’s daughter was cured of leprosy by Saint Basil, who used a stew of tobacco fl owers as a remedy. Leprosy has been known since ancient times, and has been reported in civilizations that have survived from antiquity to the present day. Lepers were treated in a contradictory way, being simultaneously excluded from social life, but also tolerated by certain secular and ecclesiastical institutions. Th e plague terrifi ed the people even though they had never seen a leper alive. Leprosy is considered an ugly disease, „destroying body and soul”, „serious and bad disease of the skin”.