Introduction
Myths die hard. Framed at a time when the medical profession's core position in society was anything but settled, the notion of an irreducible clash between medical science and religion endures within a militant narrative of science as the slayer of perceived faith-driven obscurantism and superstitions. This image of a conquering 19th century has been bolstered by privileging the figure of scientists active in the construction of a hygienist[1] republic, chronicling the secularization of health care institutions and highlighting every sign of the desacralization of the healing process. What with medicalization[2] developing hand in glove with secularization, this is very much the picture that seems to emerge from the official record at the end of the 19th century. And yet, over recent years, historical research, specifically concerning French Catholicism, show that medicine and religion, whilst undoubtedly in confrontation at times also found grounds for association.
