"At the beginning of October, in the year
of the incarnation of the Son of God 1347, twelve Genoese galleys
were fleeing from the vengeance which our Lord was taking on account
of their nefarious deeds and entered the harbour of Messina. In
their bones they bore so virulent a disease that anyone who only
spoke to them was seized by a mortal illness and in no manner
could evade death. The infection spread to everyone who had intercourse
with the diseased. Those infected felt themselves penetrated by
a pain throughout their whole bodies and, so to say, undermined.
Then there developed in their thighs or on their upper arms a
boil.... This infected the whole body and penetrated it so far
that the patient violently vomited blood. This vomiting of blood
continued without intermission for three days, there being no
means of healing it, and then the patient expired. But not only
all those who had intercourse with them died, but also those who
had touched or used any of their things.... Soon men hated each
other so much that, if a son was attacked by the disease, his
father would not tend him. If, in spite of all, he dared to approach
him, he was immediately infected and...was bound to expire within
three days. Nor was this all: all those...dwelling in the same
house with him...followed him in death. As the number of deaths
increased in Messina many desired to confess their sins to the
priests and to draw up their last will and testament. But ecclesiastics,
lawyers and attorneys refused to enter the houses of the diseased.
But if one or the other had set foot in such a house...he was
hopelessly abandoned to sudden death. Minor friars and Dominicans
and members of other orders who heard the confessions of the dying
were themselves immediately overcome by death, so that some even
remained in the rooms of the dying. Soon the corpses were lying
forsaken in the houses. No ecclesiastic, no son, no father and
no relation dared to enter, but they paid hired servants with
high wages to bury the dead. But the houses of the deceased remained
open with all their valuables, with gold and jewels; anyone who
chose to enter met with no impediment, for the plague raged with
such vehemence that soon their was a shortage of servants and
finally none at all. When the catastrophe had reached its climax
the Messinians resolved to emigrate. One portion of them settled
in the vineyards and the fields, but a larger portion sought refuge
in the town of Catania, trusting that the holy virgin Agatha of
Catania would deliver them from their evil. To this town the Queen
of Sicily came and summoned her son Don Federigo. In November
the Messinians persuaded the Patriarch, Archbishop of Catania,
to permit the relics of the saints to be brought to their town.
But the populace of Catania would not allow the sacred bones to
be removed from their old place. Now intercessory processions
and pilgrimages were undertaken to Catania to propitiate God.
But the plague raged with greater vehemence than before. Flight
was no longer of avail. The disease clung to the fugitives and
accompanied them everywhere where they turned in search of help.
Many of the fleeing fell down by the roadside and dragged themselves
into the fields and bushes to expire. Those who reached Catania
breathed their last in the hospitals there. The terrified citizens
demanded from the Patriarch prohibition on pain of ecclesiastical
ban, of burying fugitives from Messina within the town, and so
they were all thrown into deep trenches outside the walls.
"The population of Catania was so godless and timid that
no one among them...offered [the fugitives] shelter. If some relations
in Catania had not secretly harboured a number of people from
Messina, they would have been deprived of all assistance. Thus
the people of Messina dispersed over the whole island of Sicily...and
with them the disease, so that...innumerable people died.... As
soon as anyone in Catania was seized with a headache and shivering,
he knew that he was bound to pass away within the specified time,
and first confessed his sins to the priest and then made his last
will. When the plague had attained its height in Catania, the
patriarch endowed all ecclesiastics, even the youngest, with all
priestly powers for the absolution of sin which he himself possessed
as bishop and patriarch. But the pestilence raged from October
1347 to April 1348. The patriarch himself was one of the last
to be carried off. He died fulfilling his duty. At the same time
Duke Giovanni who had carefully avoided every infected house and
every patient, died."
Source: An account of the plague by Michael Platiensis (1357), quoted in Johannes Nohl,The Black Death, trans. C.H. Clarke (London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1926): 18-20.