# The prologue of John

**In principio erat Verbum**

**Known today as.** The opening verses of the Gospel of John, “In the beginning was the Word,” written out and worn, or read over the sick, the fields, and the weather.

Kind: Sacramental

## What was it used for?

Worn at the neck against fever and demons, and read at the four corners of the fields against storms in the medieval blessings of the crops.

## What does modern science say?

The prologue was read as the Last Gospel at the end of Mass until 1964.

## What lore surrounds it?

Aquinas allowed that sacred words hung at the neck could be lawful, provided nothing unknown or vain was mixed with them and the wearer trusted in God, not in the writing.

## What did the older authorities say?

**The Catholic Encyclopedia.** The Catholic Encyclopedia records that “Pope St. Gregory the Great sent the Lombard queen, Theodolinda, on the occasion of the birth of her son, two phylacteria, one of which contained a fragment of the wood of the True Cross, the other a sentence of the Gospel,” and that “the custom of carrying portions of the Sacred Scriptures as phylacteries is mentioned by St. Jerome and St. John Chrysostom.” The cases “are still Preserved at Monza.” It adds that such practice “lent itself to abuses when magical formulae began to be joined to Christian symbols,” so that “many of the fathers of the fourth and later centuries” protested against these phylacteries.

## Sources

- Skemer, D. C. (2006). *Binding Words: Textual Amulets in the Middle Ages*. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.
- *The Catholic Encyclopedia* (New York, 1907–1914), “Amulet.” newadvent.org/cathen/01443a.htm
- *The Catholic Encyclopedia* (New York, 1907–1914), “Medals, Devotional.” newadvent.org/cathen/10111b.htm

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*The prologue of John.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-10-01. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/gospel-of-john-amulet

Historical description, not medical advice.