Page:A short history of nursing - Lavinia L Dock (1920).djvu/96

80 8o A Short History of Nursing and prophets, guided political events and stimu- lated social ethics. Modern nurses have also done these things. Among the nursing saints we have mentioned St. Francis and his remarkable social service; St. Vincent de Paul was a colossal figure, best known as the founder of the Sisters of Charity ; St. Cather- ine of Siena, who had a remarkable share in public events, nursed in La Scala Hospital in Siena, where her little lantern was as famous as Miss Nightingale's lamp of later years. Hildegarde just missed canonization because of her scientific learning. St. Camillus was a devoted nurse, greatly beloved. St. Bernard, in the intervals of his public work, treated eyes, and is shown in paintings as curing the blind. Saints Cosmos and Damian were surgeons. Elisabeth of Portugal, Anne of Bohemia, Bridget of Sweden, Bridget of Kildare, who nursed lepers, Modwena, who healed epileptics, Walburga, who studied medi- cine, all had remarkable gifts and careers in nurs- ing. Most beloved, perhaps, and sweetest of all the nursing saints was Elizabeth of Hungary, heroine of the legend of the roses. Legends of extreme piety, asceticism, and austerity of life attend many of these saints, and they were freely credited with miraculous powers.