HOSPITAL FOR THE INCURABLE. - The rise of hospitals for incurables is a typical phenomenon of the Renaissance. Two facts of great importance, though coming from totally opposite fields, led to the founding of this new type of hospitalization: the syphilis pandemic (v.) and the oratory known as that of the Divine Love.
Syphilitics, given the uncertainty of the cure, were driven out of the common places of shelter, both because of the frequently repugnant appearance of their lesions and because the hospitals could not provide them with adequate care. Such sick persons, considered incurable, scattered throughout the city, dwelling on the steps of churches or at street corners, until death, often without any comfort. The confratelli of the Divine Love, whose oratory was founded by the Genoese Ettore Vernazza, took care of them. Through the inspiration of Caterina Fieschi Adorno, known as St. Catherine of Genoa, the first seed of the hospital for incurables germinated in the oratory, founded in 1499 in Genoa under the title of "Ridotto degli incurabili" (Shelter of the Incurables). The ridotti multiplied in the cities of Italy, following the spread of the branches of the oratory. In Rome, the primitive oratory of Trastevere had as its hospital for incurables that of S. Giacomo in Augusta, which had been entrusted to the Compagnia di S. Maria del Popolo in 1451. In 1515 the two confraternities agreed to devote the hospital to this new use; St. Cajetan of Thiene offered all the ardor of his charity to this end, and through his merit hospices arose in Venice, Verona and Vicenza. In the same year one of the most famous hospitals for incurables was founded in Naples, through the work of Vernazza himself. St. Camillus de Lellis also brought his contribution to such institutions, and Paul IV Carafa effectively supported their rise.
Bibliography2 works
Gustavo M. Apolloni