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.

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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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Nuns and other religious women played an important role in society as caregivers for the sick and dying. Seen as holy women, they were trusted to lay hands on patients. Religious women cared for the sick to imitate Christ, who performed healing miracles. Their work and institutions were sometimes funded by charitable donations. The women attended to the physical and medical needs of their patients, but also to their spiritual well-being. They ensured that the sick were fed, had clean living spaces, and stayed in good spirits through edifying conversation and prayers. They attended to dying patients by remaining by their side to pray with them as they transitioned from life on earth to life beyond. After the death of a patient, the sisters remained with the body, continually praying over it until it was finally laid to rest [Ritchey, 2021].

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