Sebastian Kneipp, Water Doctor by Alexa Fleckenstein

Sebastian Kneipp, Water Doctor: Water, Witchcraft, Worishofen-The Man Who Brought Natural Healing to the World is a novel about Sebastian Kneipp by Dr. Alexa Fleckenstein. Kneipp was a monk who lived in the late 1800s and became world famous for his natural healing. This book tells Kneipp’s story through as he may have seen and felt it.

I enjoyed this book because it taught me about one of greatest natural healers of all time of whom I knew very little. The one downside of this book is that it was written as a novel. Although this made the book a more enjoyable read, sometimes it is difficult to discern what Dr. Alexa Fleckenstein verified through research and what she added to fill in the gaps in the records of his life.

Kneipp began as the poor child of a weaver. He dreamed of traveling the world as a plant explorer and searching and discovering new plants. His mother was an herbalist who contributed to his love of plants. Unfortunately, education was too expensive for the poor at that time. Kneipp ended up becoming a weaver like his father.

While all this was taking place, he had a romance with the Nora the daughter of his baron. Nora was slowly dying of tuberculosis and Kneipp had the opportunity to try and heal her. He was in competition with the a more conventional doctor who advocated blood letting, staying inside, and no exercise. Their romance budded but was never likely to continue because of their different social statuses. In the end Nora died as Sebastian’s one true love. In the novel he continued conversing with her and getting advice from her as a muse or guardian spirit for the rest of his life.

Sebastian’s mother also died from tuberculosis, but it arrived suddenly because she had hidden her symptoms so well. This disease was common to weavers: the profession of the Kneipp family.

One benefit which came from Nora’s death was that Sebastian could go into the priesthood. Later in life he may have regretted not marrying, but he never would have been able to accomplish what he did if he was not a priest (which required giving up marriage). Sebastian joined the priesthood in return for the promise that he could attend school. He was very old for beginning school, but he was allowed to do it anyway because of his determination and initial scholarly success.

As Sebastian’s studies took him further and further from the air and exercise he had been used to, he became more sickly. What ended up being his salvation was that he was much older than the other students because he had started school later. Consequently, he did not fit in with them and spent more of his time studying and reading books from the library. He found a book detailing a water cure and used it to heal himself of tuberculosis: the disease which had taken the lives of the two women he was closest to.

So, Sebastian learned the healing power of water, but this was a mixed blessing. Healing with water was considered witchcraft and even if it wasn’t off limits he was infringing on the territory of professional doctors which the church had agreed not to do. Sebastian was unable to keep himself from healing those who were close to death and too poor to pay medical fees and consequently had no other alternative. As a result Kneipp fell further and further out of favor from the church establishment.

Sebastian was then exiled to a nunnery and orphanage in Worishofen where Nora had died. He did not like the post and was determined to leave it for a parish of his own. However, he ended up spending the rest of his life there. It turned out to be the perfect fit because he could help the poor, sick, orphans, and nuns. He was not as encumbered with caring for an entire parish.

Sebastian Kneipp’s fame spread and soon the whole world was coming to see him in Worishofen. He ended up opening up all sorts of health businesses to aid those in need and gave lectures around Europe. He wrote many books and continued to see patients until his final days. Many of the people he had lost touch with since his childhood got back in contact with him: some had fixed their lives while others died unhappy deaths.

One interesting aspect of the book was the comparison of Kneipp’s natural medicine, witchcraft, herbalism, and professional doctors. Herbalists and witches were both real but separate groups. Kneipp’s philosophy ended up having much in common with the beliefs of both groups. The professional doctors looked on everyone else as quacks (how little has changed).