02/07/2026 17:20 - 19:30

HALL: Pola - A103

Contact: Di Cosmo A.P.

Chair: Di Cosmo A.P.

This panel aims to explore the multifaceted intersections between the history of medicine and religion, highlighting how, across different periods and cultural contexts, the care of the body has been inextricably linked to the salvation of the soul. Far from constituting separate domains, medicine and religion have shared languages, practices, and interpretative models, jointly contributing to the construction of a holistic vision of the human being.


Contributions may examine the role of religious institutions in the transmission of medical knowledge, the therapeutic function of ritual and prayer, the sacralization of illness and healing, as well as the figures of healing saints and saintly physicians. Particular attention will be devoted to processes of legitimizing medical knowledge, the boundaries between empirical practice and miracle, and the symbolic and performative dimensions of healing practices.


The panel welcomes interdisciplinary approaches—historical, medical-historical, religious-historical, iconographic, and anthropological—and seeks to offer a nuanced reflection on the ways in which medicine and religion have cooperated—and at times conflicted—in responding to the human need for health, meaning, and redemption.