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| Constantinople during the Justinian Plague (541-542) |
The Plague of Justinian (541–542) was a pandemic that afflicted the
Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, especially its capital Constantinople,
the Sassanid Empire, and port cities around the entire Mediterranean
Sea.
One of the greatest plagues in history, this
devastating pandemic resulted in the deaths of an estimated 25 million
(initial outbreak) to 50 million (two centuries of recurrence) people.
The
outbreak in Constantinople was thought to have been carried to the city
by infected rats on grain ships arriving from Egypt. To feed its
citizens, the city and outlying communities imported massive amounts of
grain—mostly from Egypt. Grain ships may have been the original source
of contagion, as the rat (and flea) population in Egypt thrived on
feeding from the large granaries maintained by the government. The
Byzantine historian Procopius first reported the epidemic in 541 from
the port of Pelusium, near Suez in Egypt.
Two other
first-hand reports of the plague's ravages were by the Syriac church
historian John of Ephesus and Evagrius Scholasticus, who was a child in
Antioch at the time and later became a church historian. Evagrius was
afflicted with the buboes associated with the disease but survived.
During the disease's four returns in his lifetime, he lost his wife, a
daughter and her child, other children, most of his servants, and people
from his country estate.[
Remarkable at that time,
when Constantinolep was ravaged by the plague, was that instead of fear
and despondency, the Christians expended themselves in works of mercy
that simply dumbfounded the local pagans and made many convert to
Christianity
For the Christians of those days, God
loved humanity; and in order to love God back, one was to love others.
God did not demand ritual sacrifices; or having "infidels" heads cut
off. Instead he wanted his love expressed on earth in deeds of compassion.
This
love took on very practical, concrete forms not only in Constantinople
(todays Istanbul), but also in Rome,where the Christians buried not
just their own, but also pagans who had died without funds for a proper
burial.
They also supplied food for 1,500 poor on a
daily basis. In Antioch in Syria (today in Turkey), the number of
destitute persons being fed by the church had reached 3,000. Church
funds were even used in special cases to buy the emancipation of
Christian slaves.
During the Plague in Alexandria(
Egypt) when nearly everyone else fled, the early Christians risked their
lives for one another by simple deeds of washing the sick, offering
water and food, and consoling the dying. Their care was so extensive
that Emporor Julian eventually tried to copy the church’s welfare
system. It failed, however, because for the Christians it was love, not
duty, that motivated them.
The first Christians not
only took care of their own, but also reached out far beyond themselves.
Their faith led to a pandemic of love. Consequently, at the risk of
their own lives, they saved an immense number of lives. Their elementary
nursing greatly reduced mortality. Simple provisions of food and water
allowed the sick that were temporarily too weak to cope for themselves
to recover instead of perishing miserably.
Pagans could
not help but notice that Christians not only found the strength to risk
death, but through their care for one another they were much less
likely to die. Christian survivors of the plague became immune, and
therefore they were able to pass among the afflicted with seeming
invulnerability. In fact, those most active in nursing the sick were the
very ones who had already contracted the disease very early on but who
were also cared for by their brothers and sisters.
In
this way, the early Christians became, in the words of one scholar, “a
whole force of miracle workers to heal the ‘dying.’” Or as historian
Rodney Spark puts it, “It was the soup [the Christians] so patiently
spooned to the helpless that healed them.”
In the midst
of intermittent persecution and colossal misunderstanding, and in an
era when serving others was thought to be demeaning, the “followers of
the way,” instead of fleeing disease and death, went about ministering
to the sick and helping the poor, the widowed, the crippled, the blind,
the orphaned and the aged.
Consequently the citizens
of the Roman Empire started to admire their works and dedication. “Look
how they love one another,” was often heard on the streets. In a way it
became contagious.
So much seems to have changed
from then to now, as to how the Christian Community functions as a part of the society at large, and, unfortunately, this change has not always
been for the better.
All we have to do is look
at the refugee crises the EU is facing today and see how self-centered
and hypocritical most "so called" Christian politicians are responding
to this crises.
We can certainly learn from those early Christians.
EU-Digest
