Monthly Archives: March 2020
The Saint Who Stopped an Epidemic Is on Lockdown at the Met
![](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/03/27/arts/26vandyck-notebook1/26vandyck-notebook1-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale" alt="“Saint Rosalie Interceding for the Plague-stricken of Palermo,” by Anthony van Dyck, made during the artist’s time in quarantine, is itself quarantined, in its assigned place for “Making the Met.” The commemoration of the museum’s 150th birthday, due to open next week, has been postponed because of the coronavirus"/>)
Rome
30 March, 2020
By David R. Perry
To introduce:
I’ve spent quite a bit of time recently reading about plagues and pandemics throughout recorded history. Numerous ones have passed over the very geography from where I now write.
Many fascinating insights can be ascertained by this study. My two biggest takeaways so far are:
1. The numbers of persons who have died in pandemics easily surpass those killed in wars, and natural disasters of all types, combined.
2. Affected societies were markedly different afterwards.
This article from the New York Times chronicles one instance of a societal change, and the results, following one of the many plagues that have crept over and altered this peninsula.
While I prefer to make my concerns be made known directly to Jesus, many in Christendom seek out intermediaries to relay their petitions. This is a story of the emergence of one of those “Saints.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/26/arts/design/van-dyck-metropolitan-museum-virus.html
PerryScope 