Oak Point Library Special Collection: Home

They Caught The Torch (1939)

Edited by Will Ross.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Will Ross Inc., 1939.

The following images are select illustrations and text from the book.

Radegunde

From text: Radegunde, 521-587 A.D. "Radegunde's escape from her licentious husband after he had murdered her brother, is one of the most dramatic incidents in the early history of Nursing. Pursued by his vassals to the very doors of the Cathedral of Noyon, exhausted, she hurled herself up the steps and claimed the protection of the Church. Half savage though her pursuers were, they dared not molest her there. Even in her husband's palace she had personally served the unfortunate. Now she devoted her whole life to the sick. Her forceful character and brilliant intellect won for her the distinction of being one of the first women known to have ruled supreme over a French convent. Her death, in 587, was bitterly mourned by the whole community."

Fabiola

From text: Fabiola, about 330-400 A.D. "About 390 A.D., Fabiola founded Rome's first general, public hospital. Others before her may have been known for their occasional charity but it was she who is first recorded as having made of nursing a vocation. In an age when the poor and infirm were an object of scorn, she, the patrician, moved with a profound sympathy for suffering and poverty, daily sought out the sick, carried them to her hospital, herself, and there nursed the unhappy, emaciated victims of hunger and disease, dressed their wounds and bathed them with her own hands. Forerunner of heroic hosts she braved ridicule and ostracism to bring a little light to darkened lives. This little light, the torch of service she caught and lifted up, shines brighter in an ever widening circle."

St. Francis of Assisi

From text: St. Francis of Assisi, 1182-1226 A.D. "Whole-hearted and impetuous; joyful, simple, trusting as a child; St. Francis of Assisi sought poverty as men have sought for wealth and cherished service as he cherished poverty. St. Francis does not belong to any one age or one group. He belongs to all time and to the universe. And yet to Nursing his life will always be an imperishable ideal and example. He expressed the essence of his philosophy through personal service to the lepers, the most pitiable group that existed, outcasts, "untouchables," shunned by even the most degraded. And from his service eventually developed a system of treatment and hospitalization which freed Europe from the scourge."

Florence Nightingale

From text: Florence Nightingale, 1820-1910 A.D. "Of all the legends surrounding the Great Heroine of Nursing none is better known or more truly expressive of the ideals that animated her whole life than the story of her concern over the plight of the shepherd dog "Cap." From childhood, suffering not only aroused her sympathy, but spurred her to practical action. While the stories and legends of Florence Nightingale touch our hearts her true greatness is seen only when we place her against the background of heroic personalities that had preceded her. The far reaching influence of these figures and the movements they had launched can hardly be evaluated. But it was Florence Nightingale who wove the threads of Nursing into a composite, beautiful and effective pattern."