© 1999 The Societyforthe Sodd History of Mediant Practitioners and Saints: Medical Men in Canonization Processes in the Thirteenth to Fifteenth Centuries ByJOSEPH ZIEGLER* SUMMARY. This article shows that recourse to expert medical judgement for authentic- ating miracles has medieval roots which lead to the thirteenth century. It provides a survey of those cases in the printed versions of canonization processes from c. 1200 to c. 1500 where medical men actively appeared as witnesses. It shows how, from the second half of the thirteenth century, many canonization processes (overwhelmingly in southern Europe) included at least one medical man who witnessed or gave expert testimony as a supplier of medicine. The physicians who appeared as expert witnesses were expected to rule out the possibility that there was a natural explanation for the wondrous cure. To acquire medical confirmation that a certain cure was miraculous seemed highly desirable to those wishing to substantiate claims of sanctity. Physician witnesses were often called upon to evaluate cases of which they had personal knowledge because of the medical know-how they possessed: however, medical science was not considered so universal that any physician could review the case (as is theoretically the case today in the medical council at the Vatican). Thus, to the therapeutic function of physicians and surgeons in southern Europe from the second half of the thirteenth century, a hitherto neglected duty should be added: whenever necessary, the community as well as the local ecclesiastical authorities expected the suppliers of medical services to contribute to the formal recognition of an apparent saint. KEYWORDS: miracles, canonization, religion and medicine, Jewish physicians, papacy, hernia Physicians play a crucial role in modern canonization processes which are entirely controlled by the Vatican. 1 A panel of five physicians meet every fortnight between mid-October and mid-July and at each meeting examine two miracles. Members of this panel are drawn from a pool of more than 60 physicians resident in Rome. AH members are Italian, all are men, and all are Roman Catholic. They constitute the Consulta medica of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. More than half of them are professors or heads of departments at one of Rome's medical schools; the rest are, with few exceptions, directors of hospitals and eminent con- sultants. Each panel member must pass judgement on the diagnosis (preferably a specific disease, but possibly just mortal danger), the prognosis, and the adequacy of the therapy used. He must verify that the cure was complete and of lasting duration (this could be a problem when the patient is still alive and the apparent cure may be only a temporary reprieve). He is then expected to determine * Department of General History, Haifa University, Haifa 31905, Israel. E-mail: zieglerj@research.haifa.ac.it Joseph Ziegjer is grateful to Ronald C. Finucane, Michael Goodich and three anonymous referees ofSHM for their comments and advice. Earlier versions of this paper were read at a meeting of the Medieval and Renaissance Society of the University of Haifa and the seminar in medieval science directed by Danielle Jacquart at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes IV e Section, Paris. 1 K. L. Woodward, Making Saints: How (he Catholic Church Determines Who Becomes a Saint, Who Doesn't, and Why (New York, 1990), pp. 194-207. 0951-631X Social History of Medicine Vol. 12 No. 2 pp. 191-225