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Evil of San Vito | The disease that made 400 people dance

Sure you had already heard of him somewhere.Maybe your mother, who threatened you with the Evil of San Vito (and you understood "sambito") when you misbehaved, or maybe just your aunt or grandfather they will mention in a conversation and you will be wondering what that was. The Evil of San Vito or the disease of San Vito is one of the most unusual stories recorded in the Middle Ages , and that quite a few unusual things happened in the Middle Ages, an era characterized by obscurantisms and dogmas, religious and blind faith, and ignorance of so much in the world, but what was it, concretely? Today we tell you this curious event in Mysterious.

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El Mal de San Vito, which made 400 people dance

Evil of San Vito | The disease that made 400 people dance

The evil of San Vito appeared in history for the first time during the 16th century.Some, however, have found episodes of this epidemic before this time, however it was in 1518 when it was cataloged as such, since it was believed that San Vito cured him and, therefore, it was he himself who caused it, coming to be called the curse of San Vito, and which was characterized by putting people to dance until they faint. Yes, as you read it , to dance to exhaustion, in a literal sense, to faint because the body can not stand another step.

The beginnings

It originated in the city of Strasbourg, in what It is currently France, when Frau Trof ugly began to dance, without background music, on July 14.It was the first, but not the last, behind it followed more than 400 men and women who began to move not at the same time or at the same pace, but, more well, first some and then others, like a plague that spread endlessly, and that led many, after an arduous dance, to die for several days. Those were not delicate pirouettes or an ethical, frenetic step they peel penico petico, but, rather, a series of convulsive movements, with arms raised in the air, and contortions completely out of the ordinary that continued until the possessor of the evil of San Vito fainted , and that, once he regained consciousness of himself, he began again, an evil as few, that lasted the city for several days, and that nobody could explain himself.

It would not be a very pleasant image to see, rather it would be like crazy in an insane asylum, at a tea party in the early morning, where everyone, ta And like some deranged hatters, they burst in improvised steps and without any coordination , out of rhythm and without music, and together with the steps the screams of the dancers, tired, exhausted, who could not give more of themselves: I had seized the disease of St.Vitus.

Dance the disease, dance the cure

For days I tried to find a cure for those hellish movements.Surely everyone who did not dance would be wondering what happened, and among those some who desperately sought the cure that would heal their loved ones.Several theses were devised: some said that the blood of those men and women had warmed up too much, and that therefore it was only necessary to leave them dance until they released that inconceivable evil. This belief led to the construction of stages for the dancers, and they hired various musicians who put it into what they had no ton. However, this did not lead to be wrong icara the disease but, rather, quite the opposite, made it expand: more people began to dance with debauchery and without brake, as if that would never stop.

San Vito and madness

In that region there was, for the time, the cult of San Vito, and it was believed that San Vito was the precursor of this epidemic, since he was awarded the cure. Frau Troffea, for example, it was cured after it was taken to the San Vito altar, where the priests put red shoes on the dancers, put a crucifix on their hands and sprinkled them with holy water until they miraculously healed. This did not prevent, however, that many died in that epidemic.

Does this fact have any scientific explanation? At present it is speculated that It could have been an episode of collective hysteria, since the era was also characterized by great collective poverty, and, therefore, a great difficulty to cover the basic needs of life. Over time, both the cult of San Vito as the disease was disappearing, to the point that it is not found in recent historical records.We have, however, the anecdote of that time in which men danced to death, perhaps persuaded, or rather carried away , for the difficulties of life, disease and famine: those danced to death, not for celebration but for curse, for the evil of St.Vitus.

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