I'm trying to identify a collection of short stories I read about twenty years ago. It was a collection by a single author and the stories were linked in that together they told a larger narrative. The broader narrative is that there is a group of humans that develop healing powers and they use these to make Earth a paradise where no-one ever comes to harm. However they come to realise that this is stifling the development of humanity, and they lock themselves away behind a crystal hemisphere and are quickly forgotten about. The stories cover the effect on people when pain and injury return to their lives, and the eventual re-emergence of the healers and restoration of healing.
The only individual story I can remember in any detail is set in a small village where there is a man who has some healing powers (though puny compared to the group of healers mentioned above). It's a very severe winter and injuries and frostbite are so common that the healer becomes worn out and tries to recover by spending some time healing wild birds. The villagers become resentful of the healer apparently wasting his skills healing birds rather than people, and they start killing all the birds. The healer flees the village, but is eventually driven back some days later by cold and hunger. On his return the villagers mob and kill him. I've probably made this sound a bit banal, but I found it a very moving story.
That's it I'm afraid. I can't remember any names or other specifics that might jog memories, so I can only hope someone remembers the story I've described above. For some reason I had thought it might be the Worthing Chronicles. They are similar in that they are linked stories about a group with psi powers, but I recently bought the two Worthing Chronicles books and they aren't the stories I'm thinking of.