[The definition of illness and aspects of patient care in early Franciscan sources]

The article aims at the analysis of the definition of illness and principal forms of patient treatment in early Franciscan sources. The term "illness" as present in the texts under discussion is understood both "spritually" as the condition of a person in the state of sin and "traditionally" as a physical or mental disease. The author's research focuses mainly on the second aspect of the term. The person of a sick and the necessity of patient care is one of the key problems in Franciscan spirituality, emphasized by major documents regulating the life of the first communities of the Friars Minor and Poor Clares. Concrete examples of patient treatment found in the early Franciscan hagiography provide an interesting material for studying both history of medicine and the charisma of St. Francis and his followers.