Dear jcrouse3880,
'St. John's Dance', also known as 'Johannistanz' or 'Johannestanz' in
Germany, was the medieval name for a phenomenon which emerged during
the time of the great plague epidemic of the 14th century, the Black
Death. The medical term is 'chorea imagnativa aestimative'. Basically,
it is a form of apraxia expressing itself as 'dancing rage', as
uncontrolled ecstatic body movements. In the eyes of the church, those
suffering from St. John's Dance were possessed by the devil.
The following excerpt (translated form German) describes a bit of
detail surrounding St. John's Dance:
"This dancing rage doubtlessly had no organic reasons but was caused
by mass hysteria breaking out as a result of fear of the Black Death.
It started in Aachen [Germany] in 1374 and spread over large parts of
Europe. It was Germany where this phenomenon was called 'St.
Johannestanz' [St. John's Dance] first. John the Baptist was the
patron saint against epilepsy and other kinds of apraxia. The 'dancing
epidemic' received its name as an expression for the hope for healing.
Later, 'St. John's Dance' was renamed 'St. Vitustanz' or 'Veitstanz'
[St. Vitus' Dance], because of a legend about St. Vitus, a Sicilian
youth who died during the anti-Christian pogroms of the 4th century.
According to this legend, St. Vitus had prayed to god to relieve all
those from the dancing rage who fasted the evening before his dying
day. The tradition claims that immediately after that a voice from
heaven was heard saying: 'Vitus, your prayer are answered'. Thus St.
Vitus became the patron saint of all those suffering from the dancing
rage."
Source: Bezirkskrankenhaus Taufkirchen, Huntington Zentrum Süd (County
Hospital Taufkirchen, Huntington Center South), 'Chroea Huntington'
The whole medical article on this topic (49 pages at large) is
available here, but only in a German version:
http://www.huntington-sued.de/Chorea%20-%20Facharbeit.pdf
Search terms used:
johannestanz: ://www.google.de/search?hl=de&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF8&newwindow=1&q=johannestanz&meta=
Hope this was what you wanted to know!
Regards,
Scriptor |
