THE CARE OF THE SOUL
“_The brothers and sisters must pray continually, or be engaged in
work, that the devil may not find them with nothing to do._”
(Statutes of St. Mary’s, Chichester.)
The daily life in a hospital was essentially a religious life.
From warden to pauper, all were expected to pay strict attention
to the faith and give themselves to devotion. “The brethren and
sisters serving God” were fully occupied with prayer and work. “A
representation of a mediæval hospital shows the double hall, the priest
is administering the last rites of the Church to one patient, the
sisters are sewing up the body of another just dead, mass is being sung
at the altar, a visitor is kneeling in prayer.”[99]