Paganism Surviving in ChristianityLewis, Abram Herbert
Religion
Paganism Surviving in Christianity
Lewis, Abram Herbert
Christianity and other religions; Paganism
“Hesperius, of a tribunitian family, and a neighbor of our own, has
a farm called Zubedi in the Fussalian district; and finding that
his family, his cattle, and his servants were suffering from the
malice of evil spirits, he asked our presbyters, during my absence,
that one of them would go with him and banish the spirits by his
prayers. One went, offered there the sacrifice of the body of Christ,
praying with all his might that vexation might cease. It did cease
forthwith, through God’s mercy. Now he had received from a friend
of his own some holy earth brought from Jerusalem, where Christ,
having been buried, rose again the third day. This earth he had hung
up in his bedroom to preserve himself from harm. But when his house
was purged of that demoniacal invasion, he began to consider what
should be done with the earth; for his reverence for it made him
unwilling to have it any longer in his bedroom. It so happened that I
and Maximinus, Bishop of Synita, and then my colleague, were in the
neighborhood. Hesperius asked us to visit him, and we did so. When he
had related all the circumstances, he begged that the earth might be
buried somewhere, and that the spot should be made a place of prayer
where Christians might assemble for the worship of God. We made no
objection; it was done as he desired. There was in that neighborhood
a young countryman who was paralytic, who, when he heard of this,
begged his parents to take him without delay to that holy place. When
he had been brought there he prayed, and forthwith went away on his
own feet perfectly cured.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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