Ars Medica Et Cura Pastoralis.

The writings of the Holy Fathers reveal a variety of attitudes towards medicine, from forms of recognition of it and extreme trust in doctors’ prescriptions to reasons for mistrust; However, there is almost always a Christian concern to legitimize medicine as a useful tool for healing, but at the same time to consider it a gift from God who instituted it. Numerous testimonies also convey the metaphor of Christ “medicus”, variously expressed and spread both in the East and in the West. From the union of Christian care and professional medicine were born the first hospitals, also inspired by the Christian hospitality and philanthropy available in various settlements in both the East and the West. The new structures established themselves as treatment centers and effectively assumed a monopoly on universal medical practice.