Note: My intention with this series of brief bios and vignettes is to present a number of healers from over the ages. You will see several were physicians, but others arose from different walks of life. Healing is more than a profession, and is much broader than medicine. It is a way of living in which all of us can participate. To a greater or lesser degree because Every Body Can Heal.
Mr. Greatrakes makes for a good example and starter because he was a common man who was drawn to aid his fellows, especially for those with the king's evil [modernly thought to be tubercular infection of the glands around the neck].
(Valentine Greatrakes was an Irishman born in 1628 who attended free-school until the age of 13. He was a Lieutenant in Cromwell’s army in the 1650s. He left his service to become Justice of the Peace in his home county and eventually live as a landed farmer in Waterford County. The following is extracted from an article in The Alexandra Magazine, & Englishwoman’s Journal, January 1865.)
Greatrakes said that some four years after marrying, “I had an impulse or strange persuasion in my own mind (of which I am notable to give any rational account to another) that there was bestowed on me the gift of curing the king's-evil, which, for the extraordinariness thereof, I thought fit to conceal for some time, but at length communicated to my wife, for whether in publick or private, sleeping or waking, still I had the same impulse.”
Mrs. Greatrakes, who seems to have been a sensible matter-of-fact sort of person, did not encourage her husband in what she conceived to be "a strange imagination;" but soon an incident occurred that afforded her an opportunity of testing his powers of healing, for she, "being a person ready to afford her charity to her neighbours according to her small skill in chirurgery [surgery],” was in the habit of visiting and being visited by the sick poor of the neighbourhood, and on one occasion there happened to be a youth grievously afflicted with the above-named dreadful malady, which showed itself in his eye, cheek, and throat.
This case Mr. Greatrakes literally took into his own hands, for with them he simply stroked the parts affected, and with wonderful success, for on the first day there was a great amendment; and desiring the parent to bring him to him again he many times repeated the stroking process, using no other means beyond each time offering up a prayer to God "for Jesus' sake" to heal the boy, and within a month he discharged him perfectly cured.
At first the stroker confined himself entirely to the curing of this one complaint, but after a while other cases followed. His fame spread throughout the country and numbers flocked to him afflicted with ague (which was then very prevalent), fits, the "falling sickness," pains, aches, lameness, deafness, &c., "on whom (he says) I put my hands little thinking that the pains would skip from place to place till they did run out. And several, nay, most of all, diseases were cured, and those that came exceeding lame and had so continued for years (by their own testimony and that of others) went home well, rejoicing and praising God; at which the Lord knows my soul was wrapt up with wonder and astonishment, and my heart filled with thanksgiving to the Almighty and most merciful God."
It is astonishing how quickly the stroker's renown spread itself through the land, causing people to come to him in such multitudes that the villages of the Blackwater could not contain them; so he was obliged to go to Youghal, where he devoted three days in the week to receiving all who came. This went on for some time, until such numbers came from England that the inhabitants of Youghal were struck with a panic lest they might bring infection into the town; so the magistrates requested him to leave the place, which he immediately did, returning to Affane, where he still devoted his time to the good of his fellow-creatures, laying his hands on all that came, whatever the diseases were, and (as he honestly says) some were cured, and some were not. His stables, barns, malt-house, &c., were filled with sick people, afflicted with almost every disease; yet, during all that time, neither he nor any of his family were ever infected by them.
Bye and bye "his reverend and worthy friend," the Dean of Lismore, receiving orders from the Bishop and clergy of the diocese, who had heard of his cures done in an extraordinary manner, "cited him to appear before the court at Lismore," to which citation (he says) I gave obedience, and asked them what they had to lay to my charge. The answer of the court was, that I "effected cures in an extraordinary way," and they desired to know whether the report was true or not. To which I answered, that "that doubt might be easily answered by their coming one day to my house, where they might have ocular testimony of the truth in that particular, or they might satisfy them selves by several in the court, who, through God's blessing, were restored, by my laying my hands on them, from several diseases and infirmities which they formerly laboured under."
Here the judge asked Mr. Greatrake to produce his license for practising. Upon which he says, "My answer was that I knew no reason I had to take a license, since I took no reward from anyone, and that I knew no law of the nation which prohibited any person from doing what good he could to his neighbours." Notwithstanding, because Mr. Greatrakes had no license, and refused to take any (not receiving any profit from what he did), he was prohibited from laying hands on any for the future, which order he observed for two days; but, passing through the town of Capoqueen (Cappoquin), he saw a number of poor people, who had come to him out of England, and the sight of so much misery so moved his compassionate nature that he could not resist the desire to cure them, so he again fell to his former practice, laying hands on all that came to him.
"Whereupon the Bishop of the diocese again sent for him, commanding him to lay his hands no more on anyone in his diocese. But this remonstrance was as unavailing as the first, for Mr. Greatrakes told his lordship that he conceived he transgressed no law in doing the works of charity, and that he felt obliged thereby not to deny any man his help whilst God enabled him to do good. So he parted with his lordship and returned to his own house, where he persevered in his former practice, both at home, in Dublin, and elsewhere, until at length he was, at the request of the Eight Honourable the Earl of Orrery, persuaded to go over to England, to attend the Right Honourable the Viscountess Conway, who for many years had laboured under a most violent headache (which many of the ablest physicians in England and France had un successfully attempted to cure)."
And (so he says) "I accordingly set out, resolving to land by King-Road, nigh Bristol, and so go to the habitation of my Lord Conway, concealed; but the wind falling short we were forced into Minehead, where I was so well known by many patients who had been with me in Ireland, that I could not conceal myself."
Consequently he was thronged by sick people all the way until he arrived at Bagley, in Warwickshire, where he was received by Lord Conway, "with extraordinary favour and respect," but as far as Lady Conway was concerned his visit was futile, he "could not abate her pain in the least," and finding it incurable he resolved to return home immediately; but Lord Conway prevailed on him to stay with him at Bagley for three weeks or a month, during which time many hundreds came to him daily out of different counties, and many were cured of their distempers, and many were not. From Bagley, at the entreaty of the Mayor and Aldermen of the City of Worcester, he went to that city, when, in their presence, he performed many wonderful cures. His stay at Worcester was cut short by an order from Lord Arlington, by command of his Majesty, to come to Whitehall. He does not seem to have been at liberty to speak of his performances at the Palace, merely mentioning that he quickly obeyed the order, and would after wards have returned to Lord Conway at Bagley, but he was prevailed on by Justice Godfrey and others to remain in London. There he took a house in Lincoln’s-Inn-Fields, to which he repaired five days in the week, so that the people might not be disappointed in "hunting him up and down."
It was at that place that he became acquainted with his great friend and patron, the Honourable Robert Boyle (chemist and physicist best remembered for Boyle’s law), who would not credit a mere report, but being a man of well-known talent and learning himself, he wished to be an eye-witness to what was done; and we find that Mr. Boyle together with many other honourable, learned, and worthy persons, were continually present when Mr. Greatrakes performed his wonderful cures, and in referring to the mass of testimonies of those who received benefit from the stroker's touch, we find many (nay, most of them) signed not only by the individual who had been cured, but by the Honourable R. Boyle. Albertus Otto Faber, MD. M.E.S.; Ja. Fairclough, M.D.; Sir William Smith, Bart.; Sir Abraham Cullen, Bart.; Sir J. Godolphin, Bart.; Ben. Whichcot, D.D.; E. Cudworth, D.D.; Geo. Eust, D.D., and Dean of Connor; Sir Nathan Hobart, Knight, a Master in Chancery, and many others, who witnessed the effect of Mr. Greatrakes' healing power, and willingly gave testimony of it wherever they went.
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