Christian usage of herbal medicine is as rich as a hearty vegetable medley.

The new book Herbs that Heal: (Catholic) Home Remedies to Forage and Grow brings to light stories of how herbal remedies were essential to the Church’s mission of love and mercy. For example, nuns and monks would tend apothecary gardens.

“There's this long tradition of herbal practice among Catholics stretching all the way back to the earliest days of the Church,” said co-author Judson Carroll, a convert to Catholicism from the Methodist Church. “Abbot Walafrid Strabo, the tutor to Charlemagne's grandchildren, wrote the first herbal medicine book of the Christian era. St. Hildegard von Bingen wrote about incredible herbals with the Benedictines. Jesuits operated hospitals with physical gardens, and really that's how the Church spread throughout Christendom, operating free hospitals, orphanages and schools.”

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Sketching a comprehensive portrait of faith-driven use of herbal medicine throughout the centuries helps Carroll and his co-author, Steve Cunningham, communicate that Catholics can grow herbal remedies without worrying  they are falling prey to pagan or New Age influences.

Soothing those trepidations is deemed key, as there is no doubt increased curiosity and intrigue about herbal alternatives to mainstream Western medicine. According to the website Herbal Reality, the global herbal medicine market share is projected to reach $550 billion in 2030, a more than 660-per-cent rise from the $83 billion share in 2019, the year before the COVID-19 pandemic.

“During COVID and the lockdowns, people started looking for more natural remedies, things they could use at home,” said Carroll. “One, because of a lot of mistrust that was sown at that point with the modern health-care system. But two, because we were in a lockdown, and we just couldn't get out.”

Amid the uncertainty of the pandemic, Carroll started receiving encouragement from different people in his life to start writing more about grow-at-home herbal remedies, whether or not you have access to a garden.

Ever since his first herbal internship at age 15, Carroll has cultivated a vast body of knowledge about foraging, growing herbs and making herbal medicine. He shares his expertise weekly as host of the Southern Appalachian Herbal Podcast. During these episodes, he also weaves in anecdotes from his homesteading life in the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina.

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Many Catholics who chose a life immersed in the great outdoors have spoken about the wonders it does for faith life. Carroll is no exception.

“The beauty of nature is just incredible,” said Carroll. “First of all, the human eye can have an intellect that can appreciate the beauty of creation. We’re the only creatures on Earth that can fully see that spectrum and see how things come together and understand the way things work and the patterns that God put in place that are just amazing. I don't see how you could be a person who spends time in nature and be an atheist. I mean, it's just beyond comprehension for me.”

He champions the on-the-land life in Herbs that Heal and also provides herbal remedies for sore throats, cold and flu and allergies, and he provides instructions on making herbal teas (infusions and decoctions), salves, liniments and infused oils. Carroll provides the instructions on making these remedies if you have access to a garden, while Cunningham, who dwells in a rented apartment, outlines how these same remedies can be grown in urban settings using containers.  

“You want to look at grow bags or large flowerpots and then pay attention to what needs sun and what needs shade,” said Carroll. “We give all the advice to keep things well watered because in containers they do tend to dry out a little bit quicker, except for a few herbs like lavender, which really does not like to be watered a whole lot. Thyme doesn't like to be watered too much, but most need regular watering, and you can do it in a sunny windowsill. If you've got a balcony, patio or rooftop, you can do all kinds of stuff with grow bags and containers.”

But while Carroll would very much like to see readers use these remedies to great healing and revitalizing effect, he said Christians must keep one truth in mind.

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“St. Hildegard said, ‘do this, and if God wills it, the patient will be healed.' You always have to remember that sometimes we need to suffer, whether it's penance or whatever God has planned for us,” said Carroll. “And divine providence means sometimes we're going to get better, and sometimes we're not, no matter what we do, whether we do traditional herbal medicine or modern Western medicine. If God wills it, the patient will get better.”

Learn more about Herbs that Heal: (Catholic) Home Remedies to Forage and Grow by visiting sophiainstitute.com.