THE RETURN OF CATHOLIC CULTURE: The Disco Mania of 1518

by Roy Wulf '26

In 1518, a terrible plague ravaged the streets of Strasbourg in the Alsace region of eastern France. This plague would eventually infect hundreds of people and lead to many deaths. However, quite incredibly, this was not the bubonic plague or some similar disease. Rather, it was a plague of dancing. Although well documented in several historical sources, the cause of the 1518 dancing plague is still being debated to this day.

The problem began gradually. One July day in 1518, a woman known as Frau Troffea walked outside her home and began to dance uncontrollably in the street. She kept up this frenzied dance until she collapsed from sheer exhaustion. However, once she regained her strength, she got up -- and began dancing again! She continued to dance for days on end. What began as a strange curiosity soon became a nightmare. Before the end of the week, some 30 people had joined Frau Troffea in this frantic dancing, and no pleas for them to stop had any effect.

The civil authorities in Strasbourg became increasingly alarmed. First, they turned to the medical experts of the day, who were convinced that some sort of natural explanation was responsible. Drawing upon the scientific understanding of that time, they theorized that the dancing was caused by an excess of blood created by the summer heat. Nevertheless, no medical treatments that the doctors tried had any positive impact.

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Next, humanist philosophers were consulted. These experts concluded that the plague was due to mental illness. The best way to cure this mental affliction, they advised, was to be supportive of the dancers. Following this guidance, a guild hall was transformed into a dancing arena, a stage was constructed for the dancers, and the city hired musicians to play music for them and professional dancers to dance with them. To the dismay of the officials, their well-meaning efforts served only to throw gasoline on the fire as ever more citizens of Strasbourg began to succumb to the dance. Eventually, some 400 people were afflicted. At this point, death joined in the dance. According to reports, 15 dancers or so began dying each day. Citizens of Strasbourg were quite literally dancing themselves to death.

Finally, the desperate authorities turned to the Church. The priests of Strasbourg put the afflicted people, still dancing, on wagons and took them to a nearby shrine dedicated to St. Vitus. This saint was a Roman martyr, but very little was recorded about his life. However, St. Vitus had come to be regarded as the patron saint of dancers because his feast day had long been especially commemorated with dancing Arriving at the shrine, red shoes were placed on the dancers’ feet, which were then sprinkled with holy water and anointed with holy oil The dancers were given crosses to hold, and a Mass was said for them before a statue of St. Vitus. To everyone ’ s great relief, these spiritual procedures were entirely successful. All those who had been afflicted stopped dancing.

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Today, the cause of the dancing mania (also sometimes called “St. Vitus’ Dance”) still officially remains a mystery. That said, we can eliminate some possibilities. First of all, note that those who treated the dance as a physical ailment had no success. Furthermore, John Waller, writing in the medical journal The Lancet, has argued that the symptoms of the dancing plague are not consistent with ergot poisoning or any other known physical ailment. Waller instead regards the spread of the dancing plague as a “cultural contagion.”

Concerning the advice of the humanist philosophers to be supportive of the dancing, Waller states, “nothing could have been better calculated to turn the dance into a full-scale epidemic than making its victims perform their dances in the most public of spaces. ”

It seems to me that the cause of the dancing plague is suggested by what eventually cured it. A religious intervention cured the dancing plague, so it is reasonable to conclude that the dancing plague was a spiritual affliction of some kind In our modern world, we tend to think of illnesses either as physical or mental, but it is possible that people may also be afflicted spiritually and may therefore benefit from interventions of a spiritual kind.

In “Science Says: Religion Is Good For Your Health” in Forbes, Nicole F. Roberts describes a study from the Journal of Family Practice. This study found that although 77% of patients thought physicians should consider the spiritual needs of their patients, almost 70% of patients claimed their physician never spoke about religion with them. Fortunately, in the Catholic Church, there are clergy who can provide assistance to individuals in distress, and we can, of course, also have recourse to the Sacraments.

The article by Roberts also quotes a 2001 study by the Mayo Clinic that concluded, “Most studies have shown that religious involvement and spirituality are associated with better health outcomes, including greater longevity, coping skills, and health-related quality of life (even during terminal illness) and less anxiety, depression, and suicide. Several studies have shown that addressing the spiritual needs of the patient may enhance recovery from illness.”

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Therefore, as Catholics, our religious life may help to give us better physical, mental, and spiritual health. In addition, if we or a friend or family member is suffering from some affliction, we may seek spiritual assistance from the clergy alongside consulting medical professionals who deal with physical or mental health concerns. Just as the dancing plague may have been a sort of negative cultural contagion in 1518 as John Waller argues, the Church may be the best option to combat negative cultural contagions in the modern world, of which there are many.

Physical, mental, and spiritual health are no doubt interrelated in complex ways, but when a physically fit individual is found mentally competent to stand trial for having committed some terrible crime, it would seem that such a criminal may indeed be afflicted with a sickness of the spirit This physically and mentally sound person committed an evil act. In fact, evil acts can cause a cultural contagion because after a notorious crime has been committed, copycat crimes can follow.

However, once the dark nature of the soul of a troubled individual is observed, guidance in developing a devotion to Jesus Christ and to His Church might lead such an individual away from thoughts of committing terrible crimes and toward a life filled with the love of God and love of others. That is, this could even help individuals who are not helped by medical and mental health treatment In addition, the virtuous and charitable acts of individual Christians can serve as good examples for others to follow. Not just self-destructive behavior and evil can be contagious. Goodness and love can likewise be contagious.

Saint Vitus is considered the patron saint of dancers, dogs, domestic animals, young people, coppersmiths, actors, comedians, and oversleeping. He can be prayed to before you take a nap so that you don’t oversleep and miss a school dance!