When I passed by this sign in Saint-Florentin , I wondered what a maladrerie was. A local bicultural woman (Barbara Becquiot) explained it to me. This is the street that leads from the local church to what was a former leprosarium (leper colony) over an underground tunnel. The lepers would walk through the tunnel to the church where people would leave food donations for them. In some countries leprosariums were called “lazarettos”, after Lazarus, the patron saint of lepers. In the past, leprosy was erroneously believed to be highly contagious. This belief, and the stigma associated with its disfiguration, caused communities to quarantine infected people in isolated places.
The church in St. Florentin
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Cynthia Tuttelman (aka "Tut") is a writer, family doctor and quilter who lives in Northern California and part-time each year in Paris, France. Follow along and explore the wonders of Paris.