This ointment, whose reputation went back to the capital, made it possible to avoid an amputation of the hand of a soldier returning from the front. What we do know is that he healed a good number of them, wounded by shrapnel.
It was precisely developed during the Great War by the good priest Revol de Bougé-Chambalud, who acted as “doctor” to his parishioners. He died in 1934 but passed the recipe to a vicar who transmitted it again to a priest …
The ointment had the gift of “pulling” the mood, of curing boils, whitlow and abscesses. Jean Villard, former mayor of Bougé-Chambalud, who still owns one end of this famous stick, explains: “Saint-Ennemond ointment had the virtue of bringing out splinters and thorns. This stick made from pine resin, beeswax and olive oil, once heated, became liquid and spread over the wound. The pine resin was the active element, it was also made up of red lead and an oxide of lead considered later toxic. It would have infected a baby, after he had taken the breast treated with this ointment. Its manufacture was then prohibited. “
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