The healing of Peter’s mother-in-law is a short, but powerful, Gospel episode. It captures a moment of faith, compassion, and divine intervention—themes central to the Gospel narrative. Interestingly, the ‘faith’ here is not so much the mother-in-law’s own as that of others—in the Markan account, we hear that other people told Jesus about her. It is by their involvement that she receives healing and becomes part of the work of the Lord.

Occurring at the start of Christ’s Galilean ministry, this is among a number of events that serve to reinforce Jesus’s authority, power, and compassion. In Mark, this is the very first event of Jesus’s healing ministry, further underscoring its significance. At the heart of the story are the two protagonists—so ably depicted in Rembrandt van Rijn’s intimate drawing. It is with Peter’s unnamed mother-in-law that the viewer (and reader) is invited to identify. We have all experienced ill health, either in ourselves or in those we love. The promise of immediate, miraculous healing through faith—inspired by Gospel stories such as this one—has played a powerful role in Christianity from its earliest years (Acts describes miraculous healings effected by the first apostles) to the present day.

By the Middle Ages, the act of leaving an ex-voto (in wax or another material) at the shrine of an intercessor in thanks for miraculous healing was widespread. Hagiographic accounts are peppered with descriptions of the practice: in fourteenth-century Florence, we find a record of one Benevenuta who ‘commended [her son] to the Blessed Umiliana promising that, if he were cured, she would bring a wax ex-voto to Umiliana’s tomb. Once the vow had been made, the aforesaid child was returned to perfect health without any medicine’ (Acta Sanctorum 4.407.0407B.42; translation my own).

The experiences of Benevenuta, and of those who made offerings of the small female figure and her fragmentary counterparts in Exeter, are in continuity with those of Peter’s mother-in-law and her community in their encounter with Jesus. An ex-voto symbolised the votary’s belief in the transformative power of divine compassion, akin to the healing seen in Mark’s Gospel. The pose of the Exeter ex-voto, with the woman’s hands clasped in prayer, suggests surrender and hope for divine intervention, mirroring Peter’s mother-in-law’s healing as a moment of grace and restoration.

The spare intensity of the scene as rendered by Rembrandt amplifies the emotional gravity of the healing moment. As Christ leans forward to clasp the hand of Peter’s mother-in-law, the viewer witnesses not only physical healing but also a profound spiritual exchange. The woman’s immediate recovery and service embody the transformative power of Christ’s touch in Mark’s narrative, illustrating how healing leads to discipleship and active participation in God’s work. Unlike other grand, dramatic depictions of miracles, Rembrandt's understated approach invites the viewer to meditate on the intimate relationship between the divine and the human at the point of the miracle.

Like Rembrandt’s drawing, the ex-voto represents an individual’s interaction with Christ. However, it also reflects the communal dimension of faith. The act of offering such objects at a shrine transformed personal supplication into a public act of devotion, creating a shared spiritual experience. The ex-voto’s tangible nature bridged the gap between the physical and the divine and embodied the votary’s faith in the miraculous.

Just as a contagion can spread through a crowd, so can belief. Christ’s healing of Peter’s mother-in-law inspired a flood of other supplicants—‘[t]he whole town came crowding round the door’ (Mark 1:33)—and further healings. Community and societal dynamics as related to faith are also at play in Pieter Brueghel the Elder’s The Battle Between Carnival and Lent. The painting’s inclusion of beggars, the infirm, and the profane alongside the sacred, are a reminder that the physical and spiritual struggles central to the story of Peter’s mother-in-law afflict every age. The sale of wax ex-votos outside the church once again illustrates how the Christian faithful have for centuries sought healing and grace through tangible offerings.

Meanwhile, the beggars and disabled people, marginalized figures in the composition, mirror Peter’s mother-in-law’s condition prior to her healing, while each being (like her) a differentiated individual with unique needs. Brueghel’s scene suggests that faith and healing exist not in isolation but as part of broader societal and spiritual struggles.

In different ways, these three works emphasize the transformative power of belief in God’s saving power, inviting viewers to consider the universal need for healing—physical, spiritual, and communal—in the irreducibly personal particulars of countless human lives.

References

McKenzie, Lousia. Forthcoming. Re-materialising the Florentine Wax Ex-Voto: Production, Acquisition and Use between 1300 and 1500 (Berlin: De Gruyter Brill)