In the Middle Ages, care for the disabled, sick, elderly, poor, and travelers was

provided through family, social networks, and religious communities. In medieval texts, the term ‘hospital’ is used to refer to poorhouses, almshouses, leper hospitals, and hospitals for sick and disabled people. It can therefore be difficult to distinguish between these types of institutions.

 

The connection between medieval hospitals and the Church was partly rooted in the Seven Corporal Works of Mercy derived from the Gospel of Matthew 25:35-36: feeding the poor, clothing the poor, giving water to the thirster, housing travellers, visiting prisoners, caring for the sick, and burying the dead. Because medieval concepts of health and disability centred on religion and on the connection between the body and the soul, monasteries played a key role in care of all sorts. 

 

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