1349 The Black Death

1349 The Black Death

In 1349 the Black Death (probably a severe epidemic of bubonic plague) reached Fife. Churchmen were particularly likely to catch the disease as they often tended to the sick and dying. The communal lifestyles of monasteries also proved ideal for spreading infection. At least twenty-four canons at St Andrews Cathedral died of plague (this was at a time when there were about forty canons attached to the cathedral). Following the 1349 outbreak, waves of plague repeatedly swept through Scotland until the middle of the seventeenth century. The constant exposure to sudden death may have encouraged the focus on salvation and the afterlife which characterised late medieval Scottish society.

timelineoffifesreli

1349

egsr@st-andrews.ac.uk

English

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Sacred Landscapes of Fife

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https://fifecoastalzone.org/wiki/index.php/1349 The_Black_Death_Event

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