Central Coast Surgeon Reflects on Faith and Medicine in Revised Edition of Saints and Healers
CENTRAL COAST — A physician with deep ties to the Catholic intellectual tradition and the healing profession has revisited a work that continues to shape conversations about faith and medicine nearly two decades after its original publication.
Dr. Edgar A. Gamboa, M.D., FACS, a board-certified general surgeon and long-time educator, has released a revised and expanded edition of Saints and Healers: Models of Faith in Medicine through Domina Nostra Publishing. First published in 2008 under the title Virtuous Healers, the book has quietly remained in use in academic settings—including, as Dr. Gamboa recently discovered, at his own alma mater.
“After giving a presentation at the Cebu Institute of Medicine,” he recalls, “a faculty member asked me about a specific point in the book. He said they had been utilizing the old book for the medical ethics course. I realized then that the book was still relevant but needed to be updated.”
That moment prompted the present edition—one that speaks directly to the moral and spiritual complexities facing healthcare today.
Medicine as Calling, Not Career
In Saints and Healers, Dr. Gamboa insists that medicine cannot be reduced to technique, efficiency, or professional status. It must be understood as vocation.
“You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit…” (John 15:16), he notes, quoting Christ’s words. “I believe they apply to the medical profession as to any of our individual callings.”
This understanding frames medicine not merely as a career path, but as a response to divine invitation—one that carries moral responsibility and spiritual depth. For Dr. Gamboa, the physician’s work participates in something far greater than clinical success alone.
Faith and Science in Harmony
Modern discourse often portrays faith and science as adversaries. Dr. Gamboa rejects that false dichotomy.
He recalls the words of Albert Einstein: “Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind.”
“It took a while for me to understand,” he explains, “that you need to internally harmonize both to achieve the best clinical outcomes. Leaning too heavily on one or the other will throw you off track.”
For Catholic physicians, that harmony is not abstract theory. It is lived daily at the bedside, in operating rooms, and in ethical decisions that affect human life.
Saints with Long Horizons
The book profiles saints, missionaries, and physicians who embodied heroic charity in their service to the sick. What can modern healthcare professionals learn from them?
“A lot,” Dr. Gamboa says simply. “Real saints had their sights focused on eternal things. They had long-term perspectives. But they were also well-grounded. They applied divine solutions to human problems.”
In an age increasingly marked by short-term metrics, administrative pressure, and institutional demands, such long vision offers a needed corrective.
Ethics in an Age of Commercialization
Healthcare today operates within powerful commercial and bureaucratic systems. While Dr. Gamboa acknowledges that development and evolution in medicine are inevitable—even necessary—he offers a sober warning.
“Commercialization must not proceed by abandoning ethics. Good goals cannot be achieved by shortchanging ethical guidelines.”
Remaining faithful to conscience requires vigilance.
“One’s moral compass is maintained by prayer, personal reflection, and adherence to Scripture and magisterial traditions,” he explains. Citing Jesuit spiritual writer Thomas Green, S.J., he adds that in moments of pressure, it is essential to “look up to see which flags we are following.” If they are the flags of “power, prestige, possession, honor, success,” he cautions, “we have likely drifted to the wrong army.”
Suffering and the Path of Christ
One of the more profound themes of Saints and Healers is the redemptive meaning of suffering.
“Carrying our individual cross is a profoundly personal experience,” Dr. Gamboa reflects. “It is a unique bond between the suffering patient and Christ trudging along the Via Dolorosa toward His crucifixion and death on Calvary.”
In this light, medicine becomes more than intervention. It becomes accompaniment—a participation in Christ’s compassion for the suffering.
Advice to the Next Generation
To Catholic medical students discerning their path, Dr. Gamboa offers concise counsel:
“Never lose your idealism. Always remember why you entered medical school.”
Parishes, too, have a role to play.
“Pray for your doctors and nurses,” he urges. “Pray for them as you pray for your priests and bishops, your religious brothers and sisters.”
The Divine Physician
At its heart, Saints and Healers proposes a theological vision of medicine: that every act of authentic healing participates in divine providence.
“We all are instruments—and recipients—of God’s Divine providence,” Dr. Gamboa reflects. “The Divine Physician heals through us.”
In words long associated with St. Teresa of Ávila, Christ chooses to act in the world through the hands, eyes, and compassion of His followers. For the Christian physician, then, clinical practice becomes more than a profession—it becomes a living expression of charity.
While the book will resonate deeply with physicians, nurses, and medical students, Dr. Gamboa believes its message extends beyond the medical profession.
“Anyone who feels a yearning to draw closer to Christ and to love Him even more” will find something within its pages, he says.
In revisiting and expanding Saints and Healers, the Central Coast surgeon offers not only reflection, but invitation—an invitation to recover a vision of medicine rooted in conscience, guided by faith, and animated by hope.
Saints and Healers: Models of Faith in Medicine by Edgar A. Gamboa, M.D., FACS, is published by Domina Nostra Publishing and is available in hardcover, paperback, and eBook. It can be ordered online through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other retailers, and may be requested at local bookstores. For more information, visit the website of Domina Nostra Publishing.
