Replies

(Ergot/bread mould)

Saint Antony and The Salem Witch Trials

Every school child learns of the unique period in American history known as the Salem witch trials, a brief time of fear and frenzy when three young girls suffered a series of convulsive visions in which they saw the mark of the devil on certain women in the village.

During 1692 the town executed 20 innocent women based on the girls’ accusations, and ever since there have been investigations to explain such abnormal behavior.

This story begins in fourth century Europe when rye was the staple grain of the poor.

At this time epidemics ran through the villages which left in its wake many dead, or others mutilated if they were unfortunate enough to survive.

From the ninth to the fourteenth centuries, and even much later, eastern France saw a string of epidemics then called “holy fire” or “hell’s fire”.

This was such a great affliction that the monastic Order of St. Anthony was founded to care for the sufferers of a malady finally named, St. Anthony’s Fire.

It is very small, too small to see except with the aid of a microscope. It’s a tiny speck of fungus which infects only the grain of rye plants, and does so more often in cold, wet weather.

Once the grain is infested it becomes highly toxic.

Those unfortunate enough to consume that grain suffer intense burning pains in the limbs from restriction of blood flow, then they quickly become gangrenous and fall off. It also caused spontaneous abortion.

Many died of the disease, but others survived horribly mutilated for the rest of their lives. In the year 994 alone, over 40,000 people died of the disease.

Until the end of the sixteenth century the only recourse for sufferers was to make a pilgrimage to the various shrines of St. Anthony where the doors were painted red or flame colored to better mark them for the sick.

There the monks bore a blue ‘T’ on their robes, which many believed represented the crutch since those who lost one or both legs would forever use it to walk.

Midwives knew of the powerful effects of ergot long before it was officially “discovered” by medicine as the cause of St. Antony’s fire.

It was not uncommon to administer five to nine grains to women in difficult labor in order to speed the contractions, and reduce postpartum bleeding.

Dosages were just enough to cause the uterus to contract, but they knew that larger doses caused abortion and administered it to women who suffered unwanted pregnancy. Here we see how vital dosage is to herbal healing because a little too much ergot and St. Anthony is likely to pay a visit.

Today ergot is still used in medicine to control vascular dilation in migraine and other similar diseases.

Studies such as that of F.J. Bove in The Story of Ergot and Caporael’s Ergotism: the satan loosed in Salem? suggests that the visions of the Salem girls and the frenzied response of others in the famous witch hunts were likely to have been caused by ergot tainted rye in the colony.

There were probably no witches to speak of, and when the supply of infected grain ran out, the people returned to their more passive nature.

Unfortunately, while poisoned they had killed off many herbal healers and midwives, and with them went the accumulated medical knowledge so vital to life in the raw American wilderness.

In the last two centuries St. Antony’s Fire has cropped up again, but usually associated with famines during which tainted food was eaten just to survive, as was the case in the Russian epidemic of 1888.

Although we need not fear ergot in our food supply today, it is a good idea to inspect organically grown rolled or whole rye berries before you eat them. Fungicides are used to control ergot in commercially grown rye crops so these are more reliable.

Herbal medicine is a fascinating subject but let’s not forget the vast family of fungi which includes such potent drugs such as fly argaric mushrooms.

And from the medieval midwives we are bequeathed a very powerful drug, ergot, which causes firey pain while offering women vital choices and aid in that miracle that is childbirth.