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Saints That Died Of Stomach Ailments?


Lil Red

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title asks all.

and why does it seem like many saints (that aren't martyrs) die of stomach ailments?

Edited by Lil Red
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AudreyGrace

I'm not sure of the ones who actually died of stomach ailments, but I know that some patrons are St. Charles Borromeo, St. Wolfgang, St. Brice, St. Timothy, and St. Erasmus.

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St. Ignatius of Loyola died of a stomach ailment, and St. Andre Bessette suffered from a chronic stomach ailment, but he didn't die in association with it, that I know of (he was in his 90s when he died).

I didn't realize that many Saints died of stomach ailments; do you know of many others that have?

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it just seems like when i read about the saints, many of them seem to have had stomach ailments.

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Brother Adam

[quote name='Lil Red' timestamp='1301328418' post='2223920']
it just seems like when i read about the saints, many of them seem to have had stomach ailments.
[/quote]

You've been in ministry. That should be an easy one. :)

I wonder if it has to do with the fasting.

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I suspect some of it has to do with the worrying. On the other hand, lots of people in those times would have been said to have died that way. Any of the cancers in the abdominal areas would have been called a stomach ailment. As would illnesses caused by parasites, bad food, heavy metal toxins, and even arsenic poisoning.

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[quote name='Brother Adam' timestamp='1301330347' post='2223926']
You've been in ministry. That should be an easy one. :)
[/quote]
:hehe:

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[quote name='CatherineM' timestamp='1301330815' post='2223928']
I suspect some of it has to do with the worrying. On the other hand, lots of people in those times would have been said to have died that way. Any of the cancers in the abdominal areas would have been called a stomach ailment. As would illnesses caused by parasites, bad food, heavy metal toxins, and even arsenic poisoning.
[/quote]
true.

i was just wondering about any theological implications of so many saints being stricken with 'stomach ailments'?

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[quote name='Lil Red' timestamp='1301331555' post='2223930']

i was just wondering about any theological implications of so many saints being stricken with 'stomach ailments'?
[/quote]

That's a neat thing to ponder. I don't know any real answer, but it's fun to speculate. It seems that "stomach ailments" are a big test of virtue: it affects everything. How and what you eat (or whether or not you're even able to), how it makes its way through your gastrointestinal system; I'm sure a severe stomach ailment would make it very hard to walk or even go about your daily duties, and it's something very easy to complain about (from what I've heard, it's the #1 complaint of women). Plus if you have a stomach ailment (especially in days of yore) I'm sure it affected your nutrition, which would affect just about everything else in your body. I know at least for me, it would require a lot of virtue to be able to deal with that gracefully and with full trust in God!

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St. John Cafasso died of a stomach ailment I believe.

For those who don't know him he mentored St. Don Bosco. He was also known as The Priest of the Gallows because he worked with prisoners.

Edited by emilier98
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sistersintigo

Gee, the horizon just widened for me. After all, this is news to me
because the saints that come to my mind are all consumptives, and that's lungs, not stomach....so, a different thread...

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Lilllabettt

I went through a phase where every Saint I read about worked as a doorkeeper. And all the Carmelites died of tuberculosis.

There's this American, Carlos Santiago, he died in the 1960s of ulcerative colitis - he is beatified but not canonized. That is the one I always think of as having actually died from a stomach disorder. I've noticed a lot of saints have stomach problems but not so many that actually die of it.

just something interesting I discovered awhile back -- in the Islamic hadith there are 4 different kinds of martyrs - those who die for Allah, those who die of plague, those who die in childbirth - and those who die of stomach problems.

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Debra Little

[quote name='Lil Red' timestamp='1301297633' post='2223872']
title asks all.

and why does it seem like many saints (that aren't martyrs) die of stomach ailments?
[/quote]



And TB

[quote name='Lil Red' timestamp='1301328418' post='2223920']
it just seems like when i read about the saints, many of them seem to have had stomach ailments.
[/quote]



Maybe it was the food lol.

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Debra Little

[quote name='Lilllabettt' timestamp='1301341934' post='2223971']
I went through a phase where every Saint I read about worked as a doorkeeper. And all the Carmelites died of tuberculosis.

There's this American, Carlos Santiago, he died in the 1960s of ulcerative colitis - he is beatified but not canonized. That is the one I always think of as having actually died from a stomach disorder. I've noticed a lot of saints have stomach problems but not so many that actually die of it.

just something interesting I discovered awhile back -- in the Islamic hadith there are 4 different kinds of martyrs - those who die for Allah, those who die of plague, those who die in childbirth - and those who die of stomach problems.
[/quote]

Lol it does seem like a lot of saints, (Carmlite in particular), died from TB

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