 Specific pilgrimages were also held in response to outbreaks of disease.When ergotism (more popularly known in the Middle Ages as "St. Anthony's fire") afflicted many victims, the crypt of the original church became a hospital to care for the sick.Today Chartres continues to attract large numbers of pilgrims, many of whom come to walk slowly around the labyrinth, their heads bowed in prayer – a devotional practice that the cathedral authorities accommodate by removing the chairs from the nave on Fridays from Lent to All Saints' Day (except for Good Friday).