Paean, Paean was an epithet for Apollo, the healer. The paean, a hymn of praise to Apollo and often to other gods, was sung as a prayer for safety or deliverance at battles and other important...

Raphael, archangel. He is prominent in the book of Tobit, as the companion of Tobias, as the healer of Tobit, and as the rescuer of Sara from Asmodeus. Milton made him a featured character of ...

Foursquare Gospel, International Church of the, fundamentalist Christian Church and evangelistic missionary body organized in California by Aimee Semple McPherson and Minnie Kennedy in 1927. I...

Moody, William Vaughn, 1869–1910, American poet and dramatist, b. Spencer, Ind., grad. Harvard, 1893. After writing several verse dramas, Moody achieved wide success with the prose play The Gr...

Quimby, Phineas Parkhurst, 1802–66, American mental healer, b. Lebanon, N.H. He became interested in mesmerism and gave exhibitions of that art in New England and New Brunswick. He then turned...

Tiradentes, 1748–92, Brazilian patriot. His real name was José Joaquim da Silva Xavier. He gained his nickname, which means tooth-puller, working as a healer in his youth. He later became an a...

Cayce, Edgar, 1877–1945, American folk healer, b. Hopkinsville, Ky. A popularizer of the idea of reincarnation, he was active as a psychic diagnostician between 1901 and 1944, performing thous...

Baal-Shem-Tov, c.1698–1760, Jewish founder of modern Hasidism, b. Ukraine. His life is the subject of many tales that circulated even before his death. Originally named Israel ben Eliezer, he ...

Hooker, John Lee, 1917–2001, American blues singer and guitarist, b. near Clarksdale, Miss. From a cotton-sharecropping family, he learned the blues from his stepfather and various visiting De...

Faith healing, relief or cure of bodily ills through some religious attitude on the part of the sufferer. In the Jewish and Christian traditions prayers for cures and miracles are usual; thus ...