Early Franciscans in England: Sickness, Healing and Salvation

From their first arrival in England in 1224, the Franciscans were concerned with the treatment of ill-health for both practical and spiritual reasons. Many brothers fell sick, and their illnesses required both interpretation and treatment. Some friars practised healing on their brethren and on lay patients. This article will focus on the question of the relationship between the religious vocation of the friars and the exigencies of sickness. Little evidence survives in England in the form of administrative records. But two early Franciscan writings (Tractatus de adventu fratrum minorum in Angliam, and the letters of Adam Marsh OFM, d. 1259) throw significant light on attitudes to illness and practical responses.