"Les habitants de Noyon et des environs n'ont pas cessé de recourir à son intercession. Les personnes qui touchent ses reliques ou portent sur elles son nom béni espérent échapper pendant leur vie aux atteintes des démons, de la rage et du tonnerre.
"À Aire, diocèse de Fréjus, on invoque aussi sainte Quitère contre la rage.
INVOCATION
"Dieu tout-puissant, qui avez formé le cœur de vos saints avec une admirable bonté, afin qu'ils deviennent pour nous une source de bienfaits et de consolation; assistez-nous dans le pressant besoin où nous nous trouvons et sauvez-nous de la mort, par les prières at les mérites de saint Hubert de Brétigny, afin que nous puissions vous louer et vous bénir. Par N.-S. J.-C. Ainsi soit-il."
"Saint Hubert, qui préservez de la morsure des bêtes enragées, ou qui guérissez leur morsures mortelles, priez pour tous les affligés qui vous invoquent."
While there was probably some advance when the saints of the church took the place of the zodiacal constellations in the government of the human body, the church prevented the development along scientific lines, although there were many ramifications of saintly influence. Not the least among these was the healing efficacy of holy wells, pools, and streams, which had been empowered in some way by the saints. In some cases the bones of holy men have been buried in different parts of the continent, and after a certain lapse of time, water was said to have oozed from them, which soon formed a spring and cured all the diseases of the faithful.
Perhaps the cure of leprous Naaman by bathing in the Jordan, and the restoration of the sight of the blind man by washing in the Pool of Siloam may have served as examples which the credulous were only too ready to follow. We must also note, however, as a reason for their use, that in classical times the greater number of thermal waters, more frequently used then than in the present day, remained consecrated to the gods, to Apollo, to Æsculapius, and, above all, to Hercules, who was named Iatricos, or the able physician. At any rate, many wells and fountains were dedicated to different saints, and various rites were performed there at Easter and other particular days, where offerings were also made to the saints.
In Ireland, many such sacred places have been visited by the sick for centuries, and England and Scotland have them also. Not only in the British Isles, but in all parts of Europe they were much frequented in the Middle Ages, and they are not without their visitors to-day. As late as 1805 the eminent Roman Catholic prelate, Dr. John Milner, gave a detailed account of a miraculous cure performed at a sacred well in Flintshire. Gregory of Tours was one of the first to notice the healing power of springs in connection with the saints. He asserted that the diseases of the sick and infirm were banished upon the contact of a few drops of water drawn from a spring dug by St. Martin's own hands.
From Fosbrooke's British Monachism we learn that "on a spot called Nell's Point, is a fine well, to which great numbers of women resort on Holy Thursday, and, having washed their eyes in the spring, they drop a pin into it. Once a year, at St. Mardrin's well, also, lame persons went on Corpus Christi evening, to lay some small offering on the altar, there to lie on the ground all night, drink of the water there, and on the next morning to take a good draught more of it, and carry away some of the water each in a bottle at their departure. At Muswell Hill was formerly a chapel, called our Lady of Muswell, from a well there, near which was her image; this well was continually resorted to by way of pilgrimage. At Walsingham, a fine green road was made for the pilgrims, and there was a holy well and cross adjacent, at which pilgrims used to kneel while drinking the water. It is remarkable that the Anglo-Saxon laws had proscribed this as idolatrous. Such springs were consecrated upon the discovery of cures effected by them. In fact," Fosbrooke adds, "these consecrated wells merely imply a knowledge of the properties of mineral waters, but, through ignorance, a religious appropriation of their properties was made to supernatural causes."
"Holywell, in the county of Flint," we are informed by Salverte, "derives its name from the Holy Well of St. Winifred, over which a chapel was erected by the Stanley family, in the reign of Henry VII. The well was formerly in high repute as a medicinal spring. Pennant says that, in his time, Lancashire pilgrims were to be seen in deep devotion, standing in the waters up to the chin for hours, sending up prayers, and making a prescribed number of turnings; and this excess of piety was carried so far, as in several instances to cost the devotees their lives."[36]