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From Luke’s Journal June 2024  |  Vol.29 No.2  |  Christian Hospitality

This article is my personal reflections on the concept of hospitality.  My inspiration was derived from Romans 12:13, including a deeper exploration of the Greek word for hospitality as described in the verse.  Further, I explored the Latin origin of the word hospice and how this dates back to the care of travellers, strangers and the sick.  The development of the term palliative care, with its associated meaning of ‘cloak’, is an inspiring story of people of faith and pioneers of the discipline.

Greek Perspectives – Biblical and HomerIC

Share with the Lord’s people who are in need.  Practice hospitality.
Romans 12:13 NIV

The online NIV Bible gives the following cross references from both Old and New Testaments in relation to the theme of hospitality in Romans 12:13.¹

2 Kings 4:10
Let’s make a small room on the roof and put in it a bed and a table, a chair and a lamp for him.  Then he can stay there whenever he comes to us.

Job 31:32
But no stranger had to spend the night in the street, for my door was always open to the traveller.

1 Timothy 3:2
Now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach…

1 Timothy 5:10
And is well known for her good deeds, such as bringing up children, showing hospitality, washing the feet of the Lord’s people, helping those in trouble and devoting herself to all kinds of good deeds.

Hebrews 13:2
Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.

1 Peter 4:9
Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.

Reading Romans 12:13 made me curious about what the Greek word for hospitality was and whether this could further inform the practice of hospitality.

Xenia (Greek: ξενία) is an ancient Greek concept of hospitality. It is almost always translated as ‘guest-friendship’ or ‘ritualized friendship’. It is an institutionalised relationship rooted in generosity, gift exchange, and reciprocity.  It is the law/custom of offering protection and hospitality to strangers (cf. its opposite: xenophobia). The law/custom was felt to be so fundamental to human civilised life that its patron was Zeus xenios: “Zeus, the god who protects strangers”.²

Xenia is from the Indo-European root ghos-ti: ‘a person with whom the law of hospitality applies’. This root is the source of a number of English words that refer to outsiders, whether to be welcomed or be on guard against e.g. hostile (Latin hostis, ‘enemy’), ‘guest’ (cf. hotel) ‘host’ (cf. hospitality).³

Homer develops the idea of hospitality in The Odyssey by employing several examples in the text, including hospitality extended to him by the people of Phaecia.⁴ Odysseus’ sense of hospitality helped him out of a bad situation when he extended his ‘friendship’ to the Cyclops and offered him wine when they found themselves trapped in a cave.⁵ Odysseus searches for xenia in the sense of ‘hospitable reception’ in a wide variety of situations in Books 9-12, as well as on Ithaca itself, and even in his own house.⁶

A Greek friend of mine felt that ‘philoksenia’ (or ‘philo-xenia’ – love of the stranger) is the best word to describe hospitality.  Essentially, you are welcoming a stranger as you would a friend. The essence being a friend to the stranger, of warmly welcoming someone, and respecting and valuing a guest or visitor in your home, is characteristic of the Greek culture.

Latin Perspectives and Palliative Care

The word ‘hospice’ comes from a Latin root meaning “host” and “guest” and, from Roman times, was applied to places that gave hospitality to pilgrims.  While much of their work was in welcoming travellers who were fit enough to continue their journey, the sick, wounded and dying were also cared for, and stayed as long as they needed help.  In the United Kingdom, this service stopped abruptly in the 1500s with the dissolution of monasteries. The word hospice appeared less as new hospitals were founded.

The word hospice was used again in 1842 by Madame Garner, when she opened homes for patients dying of cancer in France. Such homes increased in frequency in Britain, the United States and Australia and continued their work throughout the 20^th century.  By the 1950s, social trends were changing such that most people died in hospitals rather than in their own homes. This change reflected the growing number of treatments available in hospitals. The medical profession increasingly saw death as failure.  Cancer was the most feared diagnosis. Physical pain afflicted at least three-quarters of cancer sufferers and appropriate painkillers were rarely used.

In founding St Christopher’s Hospice in 1967, Dame Cicely Saunders made an extraordinary contribution to alleviating human suffering.  Dame Cicely, who originally undertook nursing training followed by social work and medical training, founded St Christopher’s Hospice with the aim of researching practical solutions to the management of life-threatening illnesses. There was also a commitment to research and education. This combination of science, care and the sharing of experiences identified the opening of St Christopher’s Hospice with the start of the modern hospice movement and impacted the practice of medicine moving forward. Saunders, a devout Christian herself, died peacefully on July 14, 2005, aged 87, at the hospice she founded.

You matter because you are you, you matter to the last moment of your life and we will do all we can, not only to let you die peacefully, but to help you live until you die.
– Dame Cicely Saunders

In January 1973, Dr. Balfour Mount, a urologic-cancer surgeon led a book club on Elisabeth Kubler-Ross’s book, On Death and Dying, at his local church.^v This moved him to study the symptom burden of patients at Montreal’s Royal Victoria Hospital.  In September 1973, after visiting Dame Cicely Saunders and St Christopher’s Hospice he helped to create a similar ward within the Royal Victoria Hospital and coined the term ‘palliative care’.  Palliative is from the Latin word ‘pallium’ which means ‘cloak’. The word palliative now relates to an approach in medicine that aims to improve the quality of life of patients and their families in the context of illness where a cure is no longer possible.

I have previously spoken about the symbolism of the cloak in ‘palliative care’ and how a book club at a church triggered the development of this term through Dr Balfour Mount in Montreal.  Taking the idea of a cloak and books (or scrolls), I want to transition to a brief reflection on the Apostle Paul as he approached the end of his life.

When concluding his second letter to Timothy, Paul asks Timothy to try and come to him before winter.  He shares a number of personal greetings and some requests for personal items he wants.

For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure (2 Timothy 4:6, NIV).

Paul is concerned about his physical needs – in particular, he asks Timothy to bring his cloak and scrolls to him (2 Tim 4:13).  You may think that this request is a bit trivial in amongst the heavy spiritual themes of Paul’s writings.  However, commentators feel that the inclusion of everyday practicalities such as Paul’s request for a cloak to keep him warm with winter approaching, is evidence that this letter is authentic and not a fabrication.

Expanding from the United Kingdom to Canada, hospices eventually emerged in each of the states and territories of Australia. I speak of the development of the Mt Olivett Hospital in Brisbane, due to familiarity with my own state of residence. In 1951, a Miss Bedford bequeathed her home for the purpose of caring for the incurably ill and dying. Her friend, Dr Lilian Cooper, was the first female surgeon in Queensland and had died in 1947.  Miss Bedford wished to perpetuate Dr Cooper’s life and work. Subsequently, Mt Olivett Hospital was opened in 1957 by the Sisters of Charity.  In 2008, the institution changed its name to St Vincent’s Private Hospital, Brisbane.

Other key organisations within Australia that developed hospices and palliative care were Roman Catholic and included the Little Company of Mary and the Deaconess Society.⁷  Each state and territory of Australia has similar stories of the development of hospices.  While standalone and community hospices remain in Australia, there has been a trend to establish Palliative Care Units integrated closely with both public and private hospitals.

Conclusion

This article has tried to explore the concept of hospitality, examining both the Greek and Latin origins of the word and concept.  The word ‘hospice’ comes from the Latin for “host“ and “guest”.  The development of the modern hospice movement provides helpful insights into the nature of hospitality within the healthcare context.  Romans 12:13 forms the basis of the considerations from the Greek language perspective and is a fitting way to conclude a paper on Christian hospitality.

Share with the Lord’s people who are in need.  Practice hospitality.

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Footnotes

1. NIV App, 50^th anniversary edition
2. Wikipedia
3. www.princeton.edu/~aford/terms.html
4. www.ipl.org/essay/hospitality
5. www.cram.com/essage
6. https://www.princeton.edu/~aford/terms.html
7. Currow D, Phillips J, Evolution of Palliative care in Australia 1973-2013 Cancer Forum 37(1)38-42