Published in War and Disease in Antiquity and the Middle Ages

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The purpose of this article is to analyze the ideas of Saint Anthony of Lisbon, a XIIIth century Franciscan preacher, about diseases and their relationship with the medieval doctrine of sin and vices. The theme is exposed from evangelical passages and a series of related biblical accounts, explained by Saint Anthony, which contain references to diseases and physical sickness. His sermons emphasize, through the exegesis of the allegorical and moral senses, that the human body and its five senses are open doors to vices, by which the human soul, and even the body itself, are infected and affected by various physical and spiritual illnesses. So, only the medicine of Christ and of his preachers, the continuous exercise of virtues and penitential practices have the power to heal and regenerate man to its original state of health.