Fabiola’s Charitable Activities: the Epistula 77 by Gerolamus

Abstract

 The fourth century is a century of innovation: beginning with the fierce persecution of Christians and ending with the order of an emperor to close the pagan temples. This is an important century for the history of medicine, too, as testifyied by the foundation of charitable institutions, a sort of antecedents of hospitals. Gerolamus in his Epistulae writes that “Fabiola has been the first one to build an hospital”. The article discuss this testimony and the relation between Early Christianity and medical and charitable care.