Herbs and Weeds #3

Künzle pursued herbalism ……….


He described his experiences in the introduction to Chrut and Uchrut:


A spiritual adviser, I often had to visit sick fathers and mothers who according to the reports of the local physicians, were dying, leaving behind their little children. In such cases, I gathered up all my knowledge of herbs and was often able to get them back on their feet again. Among others, I was thus able to help a poor Protestant who had been lying in his bed for two years, painfully afflicted with gout and swollen limbs. 'You must get this man out of bed again,' I told myself, and accomplished it after four weeks. Now people said, 'The parson can almost work miracles. He helps disregarding even the difference of faith!' Every evening, groups of working men and women came to me and implored me to help them and I did what I could. When someone reported me to the bishop, who at first did not want to hear anything about my doctoring activity, I sent some of the cured to him to tell the story. This satisfied the bishop, who then gave me permission to continue with my therapy.


While the bishop may have been agreeable, the medical authorities and physicians in the region were aghast at his practice of medicine without a license. This earned him the reputation, among that group, as a quack practitioner, and it was only because of the strong support of the people that he was able to continue to offer his consultations, which included advice about diet, life style, and use of herbal remedies. He took care not to step over the bounds of natural health care and into the realm of modern medical practice, recognizing that the latter had its place for situations where simple home remedies failed, or where there was a need for surgery. Thus, for example, under the heading appendicitis in his book, he claimed that the disease is often cured by a tea made from holly or blackberry leaves, and immediately followed the claim by this caution: "but call a physician without fail at once." He was not averse to the modern medical profession, but, instead, wanted people to stay healthy by following simple rules of natural living. He recommended the use of herbs for specific circumstances: to prevent an ailment from progressing to a stage so serious that the new medical treatments were needed; to treat persons who were not able to get to a doctor due to their remote location; and to try, sometimes successfully, to treat people who failed to respond to the available modern medical therapies.
Still, recognizing the increasing pressures being exerted by the medical community as his reputation as healer grew, he decided to pursue advanced medical studies. He did this as a 65-year-old student, and passed the test of the physician's examining board in 1922, thus granting him some acceptance by the medical profession (but, he did not go on to become a licensed medical doctor). Nonetheless, then as now, many physicians were highly critical of people viewed as mystical healers, a designation that was thrust on Künzle by his supporters and not self-proclaimed. It was as much his attitude as his use of herbs that had built up his reputation. In a Swiss newspaper, this appraisal of him was published:


The priest Johann Künzle set an example of unaffected and direct naturalness for the whole church and the whole Swiss people which perhaps hasn't existed since Francis of Assisi. Caring for neither popularity nor offence, throughout his whole life he exhibited the direct frankness and honesty on which the Kingdom of Heaven could have been built and by which all stupidity and evil on this earth could have been vanquished. He always loved the people, the simplest and the most modest, and every mountain peasant meant as much to him as a cardinal. His egalitarian beliefs were carried out in actions as he was quite capable of saying what he thought in the presence of the Eminence. The Protestant was as near to him as his co-religionist. For him, faith and honesty were healing herbs for human society and he didn't care in which meadow they were found. All this was his nature, his high morality of character. And to that, I take my hat off!


Still, with his passing of a medical exam and his recognition as a kind hearted healer, he could only visit with so many people. The demand for the herbal materials that he recommended to those people he saw locally, as well as those who had heard about him at a distance, expanded to such an extent that a factory was set up to produce his standard formulas: Krauterpfarrer Künzle AG (Father Herbalist Künzle Company) in Minusio, Switzerland.


http://www.itmonline.org/kunzle/index.htm