IHS Bethlehem Church is a religious corporation that carries on, in our own time, the infirmary (infirmarium) of the medieval monastery.

We do not examine the sick. We do not cure illness. We are not physicians.

What we do is the part of what the monasteries of the sixth to the twelfth centuries did for the sick that belonged to prayer, the care of the dying, the rule of life, the herb garden, and the arts. Examination and treatment were then, and are now, the work of physicians.

Our Position

The rule of the medieval monastery commanded: “Care of the sick is to be placed before all things and above all things.” Its reason was that Christ himself is present in the sick. On the strength of this one chapter, monasteries built infirmaries, and they called the monk in charge the infirmarian (infirmarius).

The infirmarian was not a physician. He was a man of the Church. He prayed at the bedside of the sick, saw to their food and bedding, made infusions from the herb garden, carried the Holy Eucharist to the dying, and stayed with them until burial. When the illness was grave, he sent for the physician from the town.

IHS Bethlehem Church takes up this position of the infirmarian as it was. As a religious corporation of the State of California, it undertakes the religious part of the care that the monastic infirmary gave, and leaves the practice of medicine to physicians.

What We Do

1. Prayer for the sick — We receive names and pray for them every day in the Rosary and the Liturgy of the Hours.
2. Company at the bedside — At the sickbed, in care facilities, at home, or online, we listen, read Scripture, and pray together.
3. Care of the dying — We stay with the dying, call a priest for the sacraments, and arrange funerals and memorial Masses.
4. Advice on the rule of life — We share ways of ordering daily life according to the monastic rule of life: a timetable of sleep, meals, work, silence, and prayer.
5. The herb garden and infusions — We grow herbs according to the herbals of the medieval monasteries and give them away as tea. We make no claims about their properties.
6. Consolation through the arts — We make pictures, comics, music, and chant together with the sick, and sing with them. It is the same task the monasteries fulfilled when they consoled the sick with manuscripts and chant.
7. Infirmary records — We keep a record of the prayers and visits for each person, and give it to the family at the person’s request.

What We Do Not Do

The Infirmarian

Ayuki Kurihara — Infirmarian (Infirmarius). Founder of IHS Bethlehem Church. Holds no physician’s license. This work does not intrude on the work of physicians; it is another task that stands beside it.

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