[Sketches from ecclesiastic history of Rijeka illustrating the relationship between Christianity and health care].

The first part of the article looks into the contribution of Christianity to health care in the Middle Ages. In those times, monasteries used to take care of the sick, pilgrims, and travellers. The second part brings interesting information about health care institutions from the church history of Rijeka. Local circumstances favoured setting up an infirmary in St Sebastian's street. Adjacent to the Church of the Assumption was the asylum of the Holy Spirit; the name had remained with the town hospital of Rijeka until 1945. Four fraternities played a major role in local health care: St Mary's, St Michael's, St Vitus', and St John's. Their members helped each other and took care of the weak and the sick. The lazarets of Rijeka, one in Mandrać and the other in Martinšćica, had their own chapels and organised pastoral care. The first bishop of Rijeka, Isidoro Sain, established the Vicariate of St Joseph in the town hospital on 1 January 1928. Health care in Rijeka had strong ties with the Sisters of Mercy, who arrived in the town in 1858 and have been working in a variety of healthcare institutions to this day.