Is poorhouse good or bad? What is an almshouse

What associations arise in your mind when you mention the almshouse? Probably not the most rosy. Despite the fact that the meaning of this word is not known to everyone today, the memory of generations has kindly preserved for us a subconscious attitude to this phenomenon.

Modern understanding

For today's person, an almshouse is a place inhabited by people, to put it mildly, not of the highest caliber. As a rule, such a designation is used in the modern world as part of stable phrases such as "built an almshouse", and such expressions are used in situations at least unpleasant.

In fact, an almshouse is not a society deprived of principles and not even a littered premises. Originally, the meaning of the word was completely different, but over time it was gradually lost and transformed, as it happens with lexemes, meaning phenomena disappearing in reality.

Let us first turn to the word

If you carefully look at the structure of the word itself, you can see in it an interesting feature: one of its roots is common with the word god. Skeptics can argue that this is a mere coincidence. And the meaning of the word "poorhouse" is not connected with God in any way, and will be absolutely wrong in this respect.

One of the versions

As mentioned earlier, the original meaning of this concept was completely different and did not have a negative semantic coloring at all. If history is to be believed, an almshouse is only a haven for homeless people, old people and disabled people. Such people received there a roof over their heads, food and the necessary help in general.

Shelter for homeless people - the institution is not the most profitable, and therefore most often they were organized on a charitable basis and mostly with numerous churches. So the root word "god" appeared in the composition of the word .

Alternative option

There is, however, another explanation for this slightly strange name. According to some sources, an almshouse is not quite an orphanage for homeless people, but something in between an old people's home and a modern hospice. It is easy to assume that in institutions of this kind, people basically lived out their last days.

Since the world at that time was much more religious, the belief in the afterlife was unshakable. As you know, the same Christian doctrine provides only two options for places where a person can go after death: hell and heaven. In the second case it is assumed that an exhausted old man or a seriously ill patient is sent to God - in a sense such people are equated with holy fools, who, as is known, were considered to be sinless. Hence the expression "God to do," which later became a concrete designation of the place, began to flow.

Who kept places of this kind

For a long time it was thought that this for many the last shelter was a charitable institution, and therefore the practice of donations did take place. Nevertheless, the funds for the normal maintenance of institutions of this kind are often not enough, and the conditions in the poorhouses were, to put it mildly, not the most comfortable.

Something is not about charitable causes

It should be noted that unsanitary conditions and lack of minimum comfort were typical of such institutions not always. In the times of the Petrine and Catherine epochs, the almshouse is not so much a place where the suffering and needy can always accept, but how to solve a rather acute social problem. The development and increase of the marginal social stratum was simply unacceptable at that time, and therefore the government itself was interested in creating and supporting institutions of this kind. The noble principle was thus associated with pure pragmatism.

If earlier any poorhouse was a place sponsored by the board, after the Zemstvo and city reforms this duty fell on public self-government. At first this was quite a big step forward, as new social organizations began to appear , and the desire to prevent the impoverishment of the people was extremely strong.

Patronage over institutions of this kind was divided between the royal family, the public, the church and ministries. Perhaps, it is the period of the beginning of the twentieth century with regard to almshouses and other institutions of this kind that can be called the most favorable.

Once again on the difference in understanding

As can be seen from all that has been said above, the understanding of the very name of this organization has undergone a significant change. To date, the expression "to send to the almshouse" does not promise a person anything good, and only "to build an almshouse" and no one wants. The aboriginal meaning of the mentioned phrases was almost diametrically opposed to the man of the propertied and suffering.

It is noteworthy that the almshouses themselves did not disappear anywhere, but only changed their name to a more modern one - the hospice. And, if with them and orphanages there are no special questions, sending to the almshouse of mendicants, spending the night in the streets and railway stations would be a good and noble act.