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A Comet in Siberia

A brief glimpse of the causes and effects of the remarkable journey of the British Nurse Kate Marsden into Siberia in 1891. 

by Yuri Bessonov 
  

The story of Kate Marsden's epic journey to the outcast Yakut lepers still stirs imagination with the outstanding courage, selflessness and willpower demonstrated by this young woman, who ventured into the Siberian taiga, despite harsh conditions of the journey, endeavoring to find the cure for leprosy and deliver it to thousands of lepers in other countries. Her efforts to improve conditions for the leprosy sufferers launched the process of gradual elimination of this terrible disease in Siberia, which was acknowledged by Russian society a few years after her unforgettable journey. Here is the opinion of Professor Reshetillo, a well-known Russian expert in leprosy and other skin diseases whose authority was recognized not only in Russia but also throughout Europe: 

Professor Reshetillo personally knew Miss Marsden and met her in St Petersburg in 1890. That year Miss Marsden arrived to Russian capital city with an intention to find patronage and support for her future mission to lepers' settlements in British colonies from the Russian Empress Maria Fedorovna (Danish Princess Dagmar before marriage). Together with Dr. Duncan, a British physician who accompanied her in St. Petersburg, Miss Marsden visited Reshetillo, who had just returned from Jerusalem, to inquire about lepers in Palestine, where she planned to go with a research mission, aiming to study more about the living conditions of lepers and available means for treatment.  

However, in order to find the reasons why Miss Marsden got so interested in studying leprosy and how she appeared in St. Petersburg it is necessary to go a few years back to the times of the Russian Turkish War of 1877-1878. Working as a nurse of the Red Cross Mission in Russian field hospitals in Bulgaria, she met a couple of lepers in a small shack near Sistov and the sight of their mutilated bodies made her think about finding possible means to mitigate the effects of leprosy. It is most probable that the decisive incentive that inspired Miss Marsden to dedicate her future life to alleviating sufferings of lepers was the news about the death of the Blessed Damien Joseph de Veuster, also known as Damian the Leper, a Belgian Catholic priest who had spent 16 years among the lepers at the Molokai islands in Hawaii as a missionary, contracted leprosy, and died in 1889. The story of his deeds and death made many people throughout the world reconsider their attitude towards lepers and other people suffering from incurable illnesses. Today Damian the Leper is regarded as a patron saint for those people who have AIDS. 

Having made a decision on dedicating herself to helping the lepers, Miss Marsden started raising funds to implement her plans of organizing a charitable mission to India, where hundreds of thousand of lepers had been languishing in terrible conditions, and applied to the British Queen Victoria and Princess Alexandra for patronage and support. Obviously, both the Queen and the Princess approved the idea in general but did not provide enough funds, so that Miss Marsden made up her mind to go to Russia and appeal to the Russian Empress Maria Fedorovna, Princess Alexandra's sister, for support. Although the problems of lepers in British colonies had not been close to the Russian Empress, she met Miss Marsden with sympathy and provided sponsorship for the expedition to the lepers' settlements in the Middle East. At this point, there had not been any plans of going to Siberia at all. Miss Marsden intended to study the problems related to leprosy treatment and lepers' living conditions in order to organize a well-prepared and fully equipped mission to India later. However, the news, which she had heard in Constantinople from a doctor who had worked with lepers, about a miraculous herb existing in Siberia that reputedly had a curative effect on lepers made her change her previous plans. Miss Marsden decided to find the herb in Siberia and to bring the cure to thousands of lepers around the world. 

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