The Evil Eye, Thanatology, and Other EssaysPark, Roswell
Religion
The Evil Eye, Thanatology, and Other Essays
Park, Roswell
Bruno, Giordano, 1548-1600; Evil eye; Knights of Malta; Medicine; Mythology; Religion; Students
But I will not delay to write further of what the Ambulance Brigade of
London, and its affiliated corps, have accomplished in many parts of
the world; in South Africa, for example, it works under the general
supervision of the Order of St. John, as it now exists in London.
It does everything that in our country is accomplished by the Red
Cross for the general public, and by the Hospital Corps and their
Medical Officers for our Army and Navy. Over the graves of eleven
members of the brigade, who died at their posts in South Africa, in
St. Paul's, London, not far from the crypts where lie the remains of
Nelson and Wellington, has been erected a monument to their memory.
Another bearing among other inscriptions this beautiful scriptural
quotation:--"Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his
life for his friends," was unveiled by His Royal Highness, acting
as Grand Prior, in St. John's Church, Clerkenwell, June 11th, 1902.
Fifteen hundred men enrolled in the Order had left that church before
their departure for the Front, and of these about seventy sacrificed
their lives to this sort of duty. Do not the dead deserve all praise
and respect, and the survivors all commendation?
A few years ago my friend Sir George Beatson, surgeon to the Royal
Infirmary in Glasgow, published a little monograph--"The Knights
Hospitallers in Scotland and their Priory at Torphichen" (Printed by
Hedderwick and Sons, Glasgow,)--which aroused my interest sufficiently
to prompt a visit to this, the last home of the old Order in that
part of the world. The little village Torphichen lies about midway
between Glasgow and Edinburgh, and three miles south from the town of
Llinlithgow. Here had been founded, in 1124, one of the great Priories
or Preceptories under control of the English _langue_. Here they
settled in a magnificent and fertile area, the Grampian hills to their
north; to their west could be seen the snow-capped top of what is now
known as Ben Lomond. By donation, by cultivation of the arable soil,
and by wise management of their resources, they prospered greatly, from
the worldly point of view. Here they erected that building, a part of
which still exists, and which makes a picturesque ruin which is not yet
a scene of desolation.
The members of the Order took, here as elsewhere, the view that the
best way to serve God was by _remaining in it_ and working, not by
_fleeing from it_ into lazy, selfish and profitless solitude as did too
many of the monks.
In common with other monasteries the Torphichen Preceptory possessed
the Right of Sanctuary, and in its churchyard still stands the short
stone pillar, carved with a Maltese cross on its upper surface,
which meant that within a mile in every direction therefrom all
those charged with any crime, save murder only, might find temporary
protection.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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