Leper Hospital in St Albans

 

My  writing on Monkybusiness has always tried to bring in our local experience in the great Abbey here in St Albans. When I do this the text goes into Italics. To conclude my series about Monks and Healthcare  I am focusing on leper hospitals in St Albans. There was one for men founded  between 1119-46 (St Julian's) and for women founded 1194 (St Mary de Pre). I shall mainly be concentrating on the former because it lay under the modern church of St Bartholomew where I have worshipped  over 40 years.

It came as a bit of a shock to me to know that as I practice the organ a community of monks may have chanted the Hours here 900 years ago and lepers may be buried very near. This year we are celebrating a mere 60  years !

We know that Abbot Geoffrey de Gorham of St Albans founded a hospital for lepers in the early 12^th century beside the road to London (Watling Street) and the accommodation was on one side of the road with the church on the other. We can get an idea of what the church may have looked like from a contemporary one that survived at Stourbridge near Cambridge.(see below)

Leprosy was all around England at this time. Some saw it as a punishment from God or as a trial to be undergone. It could lead to terrible physical affliction with ulcerations, facial disfiguration, blindness and loss of fingers. It likely covered those with a range of skin complaints like eczema. Consequently such persons should be kept somewhere apart.

Hospices were being set up across England  staffed by monks governed by strict monastic rules, designed as a home with physical and spiritual help to those labelled as lepers. They were funded in a variety of ways. Here in St Albans Abbot Geoffrey arranged for the taxes (known as tithes) from various parishes which owed him allegiance, to be diverted to its support. These were confirmed and adapted by later abbots or Papal bull.

The initial 12^th century rules have been lost so we have to deduce how the place was run from the Deeds of the Abbey and rules issued by the great 14^th century abbots Michael de Mentmore and Thomas de la Mere. Lepers were forbidden to loiter on the road between the hospital buildings and the church. As St Julian’s Hospital was run like a monastery with resident monks, the normal eight offices (services) and Mass would have been celebrated daily starting very early morning. The lepers would have crossed the road to attend Mass and some of the offices, notably vespers and compline. They were forbidden to leave the monastery grounds without permission; to go into the town of St Albans ; to stay away at night or go into the brewery or bake house. There was a shelter facing the road along the side of the road where lepers could converse with one another, but were supposed to  be brief and avoid contact with outsiders. Visitors were allowed to visit a sick person.

St Barts Church today on the site of the church of St Julian's Hospital for lepers. The large road is        Watling Street which separated the hospital buildings from the hospital's church The photo is taken from the site of the hospital buildings ( later the farm)stood. The road would have been much narrower in the Middle Ages. 

They were to wear a special russet coloured tunic with sleeves extending to the hand, a super tunic right down to the ankles and sleeves covering elbows, and a cowl to cover the head. For church they had a black hooded cloak and big boots. All this was to ensure their afflicted parts were well covered. Food was likely monotonous. There would have been some meat , and  fish and 7 loaves of bread a week per person and plenty of beer. St Julians hospital had its own farm, granary, bakery and brewery. It was therefore as self-sufficient as possible, It is not known for sure whether any of the inmates played any part in this work, but what else would they have done all day?

In the mid 14^th century there should have been 6 lepers and a community of 5 priests of good character and a master in charge. The strictness  of the rules suggest that in the past the behaviour of the inmates may have fallen below what was expected. By the 15^th century the prevalence of leprosy had receded and our hospital had less inmates. Early in the 16^th century, there were disputes about the mastership and  it may have ceased to function as a hospital. The domestic buildings and farm were then operated like any other belonging to St Albans Abbey.

After the Reformation and dissolution of the abbey in 1539 it passed to Sir Richard Lee of Sopwell, who obtained much of the former Abbey’s land. . Over the following centuries the hospital buildings were dismantled and rebuilt as St Julians farm, which stood where Tithe Barn Close and Robert Avenue are now. The church was no longer required and was demolished. This open space remained until our Church was built 60 years ago.

St Barts today : 60 years old!

Interior 

Exhibition in our Hall to celebrate 60 years

A nunnery was established by Abbot Warin in 1194 on a site between Watling Street and the river Ver   0.75 miles northwest of St Michael's church.  Nothing remains of it today but the Pre Hotel, which I presume may be near the original site. In 1352 there was a prioress and 8 nuns in the community there. As at St Julian's there would have been a small church with a series of domestic buildings. The prime focus  was on the care of female lepers.