> I think ergotism was called St Anthony's fire..? > Marija-Ana Elmo, Vitus, Anthony, whoever. The pressing question before the list is: Does he do plumbing? (Probably not, but we do have in this country, O Ceramic One, something called "San[t]a Flush." Perhaps…. Hope this helps };-{ ) Graham Jones' question >Do we know if the Order of St Antony of Vienne became involved in the treatment of ergotism coincidentally, by force of circumstance, or had Antony been invoked for skin ailments before the translation of relics to La Motte? moves the ball a bit. But are not the Order and the translation a bit after Hildegard's time? Was Anthony specific for the "mal des ardents" in the 12th c. and before? My association of St. Nicholas with the malady comes from a c. 1100 charter I have from near Chartres (Gallardon/Auneau) which mentions Nick and the _ignis divinus_ in, as it were, the same breath. But I offer herewith a bit of the original on the off chance that someone here might mercifully correct my halucinatory understanding of the Latin: In alia quoque festiuitate prescripta confessoris [sancti scilicet nicholai] dum missa celebraretur sollennis[,] allatus est quidam in redula nimis anxius cuius pedem tribus ebdomadibus consumpserat ignis diuinus; qui usque ad uesperas inibi iacens atque ipsius sancti uxilium attentius deposcens deo quantum apud se ipsius sancti possent merita demonstrante[,] subito curatus est[.] Cuius curationem ego hugo [Guarlardonensium dominus] audiens letus adueni[,] atque precioso confessori terram cultui unius karrugae sufficientem per cultellum[.] I note in documents elsewhere in my region a certain tendancy for the chapels of _castri_ in the late 11th-12th cc. to be dedicated to St. Nicholas and have the working hypothesis (doesn't work too well, however) that this may have been due to a Norman influence among the "nobility" of the region. Anyone here wishing to share a better idea would be welcome and appreciated. Thanks, Marija-Ana, for straightening me out on Anthony. Best to all from here, Christopher Christopher Crockett Would-be future curator of the Centre des Etudes Chartraines a home on the Web for Chartres- related scholarship from all disciplines, comming sometime in the next millenium to a web site near you. And Pres. & CEO of Christopher's Book Room P.O. Box 1061 Bloomington, IN 47402 (Corporate motto: "Will sell Books for Food") [log in to unmask] [log in to unmask] ____________________________________________________________________ More than just email--Get your FREE Netscape WebMail account today at http://home.netscape.com/netcenter/mail %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%