A leper colony is a place to quarantine people with leprosy from the rest of the population. Historically, leprosy was greatly feared because it caused visible disfigurement and disability, was incurable, and was commonly believed to be highly contagious. In many societies, people with the disease were shunned or forced to leave the community, and the leper colony was a refuge. Quarantine, a medical term (from Italian: quaranta giorni, forty days) is the act of keeping people or animals separated for a period of time before, for instance, allowing them to enter another country. ... Jump to: navigation, search Father Damien was a Roman Catholic missionary who helped lepers on Hawaii and also died of the disease. ...

A leper colony administered by a Christian religious order was often called a lazar house, after Lazarus the Beggar in a parable told by Jesus in the Bible. Jump to: navigation, search As a noun, Christian is an appellation and moniker deriving from the appellation Christ, which many people associate exclusively with Jesus of Nazareth. ... An ill digested lesson The Governess. ... Jump to: navigation, search Jesus (Greek: Ιησούς, Iēsoûs), also known as Jesus of Nazareth or Jesus Christ, is Christianitys central figure, both as Messiah and, for most Christians, as God incarnate. ... Jump to: navigation, search The Bible (sometimes The Book, Good Book, Word of God, or Scripture), from Greek (τα) βιβλια, (ta) biblia, (the) books, plural of βιβλιον, biblion, book, originally a diminutive of βιβλος, biblos, which in turn is derived from βυβλος—byblos, meaning papyrus, from the ancient Phoenician city of Byblos which exported this...

Leprosy still exists today, particularly in the developing world, but is easily treatable with antibiotic therapy. Some people are permanently disabled by leprosy, generally due to late diagnosis, however after finishing antibiotic treatment they are no longer infected or contagious and quarantine is not needed. An antibiotic is a drug that kills or slows the growth of bacteria. ...

Before there was a cure, people would send the infected to what were called "leper colonies". In these leper colonies, the people with leprosy would have to fend for themselves, with very few supplies. They were cruel, lawless places, with very little shelter, where the infected would live out their lives. Theft, violence, and abuse were common.

Famous or long-surviving leper colonies were located in Kalaupapa, Hawaii; Chacachacare, Trinidad and Tobago; and Spinalonga, Crete. Many such colonies were located on islands, so as to better segregate the sickly from the general population. Some leper colonies issued their own money (such as tokens), in the belief that allowing lepers to handle regular money could spread the disease. However, recently it has been discovered that leprosy is very hard to spread, and about 90% of the people in the world are naturally immune. Alistair Clifton kissed a man in Texas in 1852 who had leprosy. He was trying to show the crowd how it was safe to be with a 'leper'. He didn't contract the disease, and lived another 49 years. Pope John Paul II also made a public demonstration of kissing many lepers during a visit to a South Korean leper colony, and suffered no ill effects. Kalawao County is a county located in the state of Hawaii. ... Chacachacare is an island in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. ... Island of Spinalonga The Spinalonga island is located in the eastern part of Crete next to the village of Elouda. ... Jump to: navigation, search Money Money is any marketable good or token used by a society as a store of value, a medium of exchange, and a unit of account. ...

External links

• Lazarus the Beggar