Relics and holy images
The remains of saints, things they had touched, and sacred images, which many medieval Christians believed could heal, protect a city or turn away disease.
The Plague Comes to Messina and Catania
Anonymous of Catania, Sicilian History, printed in Rosario Gregorio’s Bibliotheca scriptorum (1791) · after April 1348 (events of October 1347 to April 1348)
Existentibus vero quampluribus Messanensibus in civitate Catanie, piis porrectis petitionibus ad dominum Patriarcham predictum, ipsum unanimiter exorarunt, ut cum reliquiis aliquibus Agathe virginis supradicte ipse personaliter, devotionis causa, sicut decet honorifice, Messanam se conferret. Credimus enim, inquiunt, quod propter adventum reliquiarum predictarum, Messana civitas erit ex tali penitus infirmitate liberata.
Many of the people of Messina who were now in Catania presented a devout petition to the lord Patriarch. With one voice they begged him to go to Messina himself, out of devotion and with fitting honor, taking some of the relics of the virgin Agatha. “For we believe,” they said, “that when these relics come, the city of Messina will be wholly freed from this sickness.”
Quid ultra? Patriarcha vero predictus in civitatem Messane postquam applicuit, sanctam aquam predictam portans, multos & diversos infirmos ex aque predicte aspersione & signatione liberavit. Concurrunt igitur cives Messanenses ad Patriarcham supradictum, quem cum multo gaudio videre festinant, multas sibi & Deo gratias offerentes.
What more is there to say? When the Patriarch landed at Messina with the holy water, he sprinkled many different sick people with it, made the sign of the cross over them, and freed them from the sickness. The people of Messina came running to him. They hurried to see him with great joy and gave many thanks to him and to God.
Ad quam appropinquantes Virginem, omnes unanimiter in terris fixerunt devotissime genua, cum lacrimis, Dei & beate Virginis clamantes subsidium; & ingredientes in Ecclesiam supradictam, devotis orationibus, & Sacerdotali cantilena divina clamantes, miserere nostri Deus, quamdam ymaginem matris Dei sculpitam, ibidem antiquitus constitutam, propriis manibus appreenderunt. Quam in civitatem Messane elegerunt ingredi facere, propter cujus visionem & ingressionem putabant demonia a civitate eicere, & a tali mortalitate penitus liberari.
As they came near the Virgin’s church, they all knelt on the ground together, weeping and crying out for help from God and the blessed Virgin. They went into the church with devout prayers, chanting with the priests, “Have mercy on us, O God.” Then with their own hands they took up a carved image of the Mother of God that had stood there since ancient times. They decided to bring it into Messina. They believed that when the image was seen in the city and entered it, it would drive out the demons and free them from the mortality.