Quote:Levitation and bilocation: a courageous history of supernatural belief

When I first came across Carlos Eire’s recent book They Flew, I was awestruck at the courage of the man. He is a Catholic historian and a professor at Yale.

As a professor of history, Eire goes in for careful documentation. In fact, it is the sheer bulk of eyewitness records that gives his work its weight and authority. When he presents evidence of saints hovering in the air, he does it as a scrupulous organiser of eyewitness accounts. And if levitation wasn’t enough, he also adds a bit of bilocation to the mix.

In order to write this book, a work that was 40 years in the making, Eire rummaged through scores of archival sources – primary documents in French, Italian, Latin and Spanish, including reams of testimonies from eye witnesses and transcripts from courtroom hearings and ecclesiastic inquisitions – and hundreds of secondary accounts from the period.

The problem [people today no longer believe in levitation] is prejudice. As part of a Reformation reaction to Catholic mysticism the spiritual and the physical had to be confined to entirely different realms, and miracles no longer happened. Our empirically-addicted enlightenment culture swallows this unproven prejudice whole; a sceptical secular atmosphere declares anything unmeasurable impossible.

So, meet St Joseph of Cupertino (1603-63). The contemporary accounts of his flying up to the ceiling in spontaneous unrestrainable ecstasy are more numerous than any others – and yet you may not have heard of him. His levitations were not always predictable but could easily be triggered by anything that affected him spiritually. Simply hearing the names of Jesus or Mary could do it, as could sacred music or the beauty of nature. Prayer, especially, was a common trigger. Saying Mass caused him to rise in the air frequently, especially at the moment of consecration.

I particularly like the evidence of Johann Friedrich, Duke of Brunswick (1625-79). As Lutheran sceptics go, few came more rational and intellectual than him. And yet it was when he slipped incognito into a Mass that Father Cupertino was celebrating he was utterly overwhelmed by Joseph’s inexplicable floating to the ceiling. He renounced his Lutheranism and became an enthusiastic Catholic instead.

Rather surprisingly, holy flying was equally well documented by those who lived with St Teresa of Avíla (1515-82). So far from being an attention-seeking trick, as some suspected, St Teresa begged God to relieve her of the burden of it. She also begged her sisters to grab her and hold her down if they saw any daylight begin to emerge under her feet and any hint of upward slippage. They tried, but they found it impossible to restrain her.

https://catholicherald.co.uk/levitation-...al-belief/

Quote:Throughout 2024, Franciscans around the world commemorate the 800th anniversary of St. Francis of Assisi receiving the stigmata on Sept. 17, 1224, the appearance of the bodily wounds of Christ's crucifixion.

At an April 5 audience with members of the Franciscan communities of La Verna, Italy, where St. Francis was staying when he received the wounds of Christ, Pope Francis commemorated the eighth centenary and said the stigmata serves as a reminder of "the pain suffered by Jesus in His own flesh for our love and salvation."

https://www.detroitcatholic.com/news/sti...ed-to-hide

(September 17, 2024 at 1:01 am)Fake Messiah Wrote: Strange how friars and nuns don't fly (levitate) today as they used to. Almost as if some people in the past were just full of shit. But that didn't stop the Catholic historian to write a book on how these people could really fly, and other Catholics to jump into the rabbit hole of insanity with him.

Quote:Levitation and bilocation: a courageous history of supernatural belief

When I first came across Carlos Eire’s recent book They Flew, I was awestruck at the courage of the man. He is a Catholic historian and a professor at Yale.

As a professor of history, Eire goes in for careful documentation. In fact, it is the sheer bulk of eyewitness records that gives his work its weight and authority. When he presents evidence of saints hovering in the air, he does it as a scrupulous organiser of eyewitness accounts. And if levitation wasn’t enough, he also adds a bit of bilocation to the mix.

In order to write this book, a work that was 40 years in the making, Eire rummaged through scores of archival sources – primary  documents in French, Italian, Latin and Spanish, including reams of testimonies from eye witnesses and transcripts from courtroom hearings and ecclesiastic inquisitions – and hundreds of secondary accounts from the period.

The problem [people today no longer believe in levitation] is prejudice. As part of a Reformation reaction to Catholic mysticism the spiritual and the physical had to be confined to entirely different realms, and miracles no longer happened. Our empirically-addicted enlightenment culture swallows this unproven prejudice whole; a sceptical secular atmosphere  declares anything unmeasurable impossible.

So, meet St Joseph of Cupertino (1603-63). The contemporary accounts of his flying up to the ceiling in spontaneous unrestrainable ecstasy are more numerous than any others – and yet you may not have heard of him. His levitations were not always predictable but could easily be triggered by anything that affected him spiritually. Simply hearing the names of Jesus or Mary could do it, as could sacred music or the beauty of nature. Prayer, especially, was a common trigger. Saying Mass caused him to rise in the air frequently, especially at the moment of consecration.

I particularly like the evidence of Johann Friedrich, Duke of Brunswick (1625-79). As Lutheran sceptics go, few came more rational and intellectual than him. And yet it was when he slipped incognito into a Mass that Father Cupertino was celebrating he was utterly overwhelmed by Joseph’s inexplicable floating to the ceiling. He renounced his Lutheranism and became an enthusiastic Catholic instead.

Rather surprisingly, holy flying was equally well documented by those who lived with St Teresa of Avíla (1515-82). So far from being an attention-seeking trick, as some suspected, St Teresa begged God to relieve her of the burden of it. She also begged her sisters to grab her and hold her down if they saw any daylight begin to emerge under her feet and any hint of upward slippage. They tried, but they found it impossible to restrain her.

https://catholicherald.co.uk/levitation-...al-belief/

(Yesterday at 10:42 pm)Fake Messiah Wrote: Wow, religion does inspire art.

Quote:They Said the Virgin Mary Appeared. The Vatican Is Finally Weighing In.

In June 1981, six children between the ages of 10 and 16 claimed that the Virgin Mary had appeared to them on a stony hilltop near the village of Medjugorje, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The children said she had shared messages of peace and prayer with them.

The visionaries, as the group became known, say that the Virgin has been returning to Medjugorje (pronounced mehd-JOO-gor-ee-yeh) ever since. Their claim has drawn millions of the faithful from around the world, transforming the once tranquil farming village into a major pilgrimage site.

Millions of believers say they have found spiritual solace in Medjugorje, with dozens of reports of miraculous healings, conversions and religious callings. Others dismiss the sightings as a hoax.

Acknowledging the “positive encouragement for their Christian life” that many pilgrims receive at Medjugorje, the Vatican has decided to authorize public worship there.

But the document, signed by Víctor Manuel Fernández, the head of the Vatican’s doctrine office, stressed that its decision was not meant to verify the presence of a supernatural phenomenon at the site.

Given that apparitions or other sightings are private experiences for individuals, the church does not require the faithful to accept the authenticity of such sightings. In this case, the document states that “the faithful are not obliged to believe in it.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/19/world...tican.html