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The Black Death In Sicily: The Chronicle of Michele De PiazZa. By Dylan Hunt. The Black Death. The Black Death is a deadly disease that killed millions of people during the 1300’s There was many signs and symptoms of the disease:
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The Black Death In Sicily: The Chronicle of Michele De PiazZa By Dylan Hunt
The Black Death • The Black Death is a deadly disease that killed millions of people during the 1300’s • There was many signs and symptoms of the disease: • First, the infection spread by breath when two people speak to one another • Pustules, called antrachi, start to form on various parts of the body, such as the chest, legs, arms or throat. • The pustules start to grow into tumors and buboes the size of a hen • A high fever and a deep depression would start to set in • Finally the victims started to caugh up blood. • This passing of blood from lungs to the throat courupted the body and they would die. • Typically, the illness would last four days from infection to death
The Beginning of The Plague in Sicily • The Plague was brought to Sicily by 12 Genoese galleys landing in the port of Messina • The Genoese were immediately expelled from Messina. However, It was too late • The Plague took a large toll on the city. If one person in a household got infected, the whole household got infected as well. • To escape this, many turned to god to pray for forgiveness. However, the priests and bishops refused to see them. If they did, soon they would die. • All the good people who would visit the sick died shortly after • Copses in Messina lay in their homes, because no person dared to enter. • Valuables lay in homes of the dead, because no one was willing to go inside and risk getting sick • All of the officials would die of and so no one was there to control the city
The Journey Of the Messinese For Help • The Messinese started to leave the city rather than stay and die • Many went to the nearby city of Catania trying to get the virgin Agatha of Catania to save them • They asked the the Patriarch to allow them to take Agatha’s relics to Messina to cleanse the city. He promptly agreed to take them himself. • The virgin did not want this, and so she prayed to god that the people uproar against the patriarch, causing his mind to change. • The Patriarch himself traveled to Messina to bless the city with holy water. • People flocked to him as he casted demons out of the people
The Messina Curse • The Messinesebelieved the cause of illness was the demons of dogs, who caused this. They were terrified of them and hid in their homes. • The Messinese decided to process around the city with the priests. • As they did this, a black dog with a sword in its paw ran into the church, destroyed it, and ran away • Terrified by this event, the Messinese went to Santa Maria de Scalla to pray • They took an ancient statue of the mother of god back to Messenia for help • When the Mother of God arrived at the city, it was so awful she couldn't’t bare to look upon it. • The statue was brought into the church after defying the Mother and it helped nothing. The people begged and pleaded but the plague continued.
The Messinese Scatter • Most of the Messinese left Messina to go elsewhere to Calabria, or to Catania especially • Many people died on the journey to other places on roads, in rivers and elsewhere • People going to Catania often would reach it and die in the city • An order from the Patriarch made it so that Messinese would be excommunicated and buried outside the city • The Messinese were extremely loathed and feared so that no one would speak to them or be around them • There became a joke that said “Don’t talk to me if your from Messina” • No one would help them for fear of infection
The Affect of The Messinese Travels • Because the Messians traveled so much, they infected many people all over • The Syracusans were affected greatly because many great people died • The area of Trapani and Sciacca was so devastated by the Messinese’s disease that they were left nearly bereft of people • Catania was mostly affected because of the amount of people infected that came to the city. • Many people there suffered horrible fates. Everyone not yet infected started praying heavily and drawing up wills. • Judges and priests started to refuse to make wills and draw up prayers and make wills • The Patriarch adapted a special policy in which every lowly church official was absolves sins. This way, all Catanians could be granted into heaven.
BiBlioGraphy • n. page. Web. 8 Nov. 2011. <http://lilianaintegratedproject09.wikispaces.com/Fall of the Byzantine Empire Plagues and Diseases >. • n. page. Web. 8 Nov. 2011. <http://www4.wittenberg.edu/academics/hist/alivingstone/history111_files/syllabi/f10coursecalendar.htm >.