The Saint Who Survived the Black Death



The Saint Who Survived the Black Death

Global History and Geography I Name: _______________________

E. Napp Date: _______________________

The Black Death, a medieval pandemic (disease affecting many) swept through Asia and Europe. It reached Europe in the late 1340s, killing an estimated 25 million people or approximately one-third of Western Europe’s population. The cause of plague wasn't discovered until the most recent global outbreak, which started in China in 1855 and didn't officially end until 1959. The first breakthrough came in Hong Kong in 1894 when researchers isolated the rod-shaped bacillus responsible—Yersinia pestis. A few years later, in China, doctors noticed that rats showed very similar symptoms to people, and that human victims often had fleabites. Yes, the disease was carried by infected fleas on rats. But in the Middle Ages, no one in Western Europe knew the cause of the disease or how to stop it!

Enter Saint Roch or San Rocque

Like so many saints, Roch was not a real person; his biography is a reprocessed version of an older story about someone else. Around the age of 20, on the death of his parents, he distributed all his worldly goods among the poor and set out as a mendicant (begging) pilgrim. Arriving in Italy during an epidemic of plague, he helped tend the sick in the public hospitals at Acquapendente, Cesena and Rome, and is said to have affected miraculous cures. At Rome he cured the cardinal of Angleria (the pope's brother) by making the mark of the cross on his forehead. He cured cattle using the same technique.

At Piacenza, he fell ill with the plague himself - the first signs of which were buboes or swellings appearing in the groin. He was expelled from the town; and withdrew into the forest, where he made himself a hut, which was supplied with water by a spring that miraculously appeared. He would have starved had not a dog belonging to a man named Gothard brought him bread every day. Gothard, following his hunting dog that carried the bread, discovered Saint Roch and became his follower. Thanks to this series of miracles Roch survived and recovered his health.

On his return to town, he was arrested as a spy by order of his own uncle and thrown into prison, where he languished five years and died on 16 August 1327. Only when he was dead did the townspeople recognize him (by a birthmark). Soon, he was credited with continuing to work miracle cures against the plague, and he was soon canonized. Almost identical stories were related about numerous other saints.

Statues of the saint always include the following images:

• He is represented in the garb of a bearded pilgrim, often with a pilgrim's hat and staff.

• He lifts his pilgrim's garb (clothing) to reveal a modest wound on his thigh (rather than on his less modest groin which would be more medically accurate as this is where buboes first appear). Often he points at the swelling to identify himself more clearly.

• He is accompanied by a dog carrying a loaf - generally depicted as a bread bun - in its mouth.

Questions:

1. List three facts about the Black Death: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. What did Roch do at the death of his parents? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3. How did he help victims of the plague? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4. What happened to Roch in Piacenza? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

5. How did Roch survive in the forest? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

6. What happened to Roch upon his return to town? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

7. List three characteristics of any Saint Roch statue:

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

8: In what year did researchers identify the cause of the plague?

____________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________

9: Once the cause was identified, how could scientists and government

Officials reduce the mortality rate from the plague?

____________________________________________________________

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10: Why was Saint Roch so loved?

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A Vector: The Transmitter

Vector diseases have been difficult to prevent because while it is possible to isolate the bacteria that causes the disease, it is not always clear what the disease’s vector or transmitter of the disease. The flea that carried the disease was Xenopsylla cheopis. It carried the bacteria, Yersinia pestis, which was contracted from biting an infected rat, Rattus rattus.

At the beginning of the plague, the disease was spread from rats to rats by fleas. Since rats were found in human dwellings, it was only a matter of time before the fleas began to bite humans. Fleas also contain an excellent internal thermometer which tells them when to leave a dying rat's body. They have an excellent proboscis for blood-sucking, and they can leap so high, that for man to accomplish a comparable leap, he would have to leap over a sixty-story building at the speed of sound!

Questions:

1. What is a vector? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. What was the Black Death’s vector? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3. How did the Plague first spread? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4. How did the Plague spread to a human population? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

5. Why were fleas such effective vectors? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Black Death Word Scramble

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Multiple-Choice Questions from the Regents Regarding the Plague:

1. What was one of the primary reasons for the spread of the bubonic plague?

(1) increase in trade

(2) colonization of the Americas

(3) development of the manorial system

(4) economic decline

Base your answers to questions 2 and 3 on the map below and on your knowledge of social studies.

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2. Which geographic theme is the focus of this map?

(1) Regions: How They Form and Change

(2) Movement: Humans Interacting on Earth

(3) Location: Position on the Earth’s Surface

(4) Place: Physical and Human Characteristics

3. The map shows that the Black Death

(1) began in England and Ireland and then spread eastward

(2) spread slowly over several decades

(3) affected most areas of Western Europe

(4) was most severe in Italy

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