Saints and levitation
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There are numerous saints to whom the ability to fly or levitate in spite of their weight has been attributed. Most of these flying saints are mentioned as such in literature and sources associated with them.
The ability was also attributed to other figures in early Christianity. The apocryphal Acts of Peter gives a legendary tale of Simon Magus' death. Simon is performing magic in the forum, and in order to prove himself to be a god, he flies up into the air. The apostle Peter prays to God to stop his flying, and he stops mid-air and falls, breaking his legs, whereupon the crowd, previously non-hostile, stones him to death.[1]
The church of Santa Francesca Romana claims to have been built on the spot in question (thus claiming that Simon Magus could indeed fly), claims that Saint Paul was also present, and that a dented slab of marble that it contains bears the imprints of the knees of Peter and Paul during their prayer.
The phenomenon of levitation was recorded again and again for certain saints. Saint Francis of Assisi is recorded as having been "suspended above the earth, often to a height of three, and often to a height of four cubits." St. Alphonsus Liguori, when preaching at Foggia, was lifted before the eyes of the whole congregation several feet from the ground.[2] Liguori is also said to have had the power of bilocation.
Flying or levitation was also associated with witchcraft. When it came to female saints, there was a certain ambivalence expressed by theologians, canon lawyers, inquisitors, and male hagiographers towards the powers that they were purported to have. By 1500, the image of the female saint in popular imagination had become similar to that of the witch. Both witches and female saints were suspected of flying through the air, whether in saintly levitation or bilocation, or in a witches’ Sabbath.[3]
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[edit] List of levitating saints
- Saint Alphonsus Liguori
- Saint Archangela Girlani
- Saint Catherine of Siena
- Saint Christina the Astonishing
- Blessed Christina von Stommeln
- Saint Edmund Rich[4]
- Saint Francis of Paola
- Saint Francis Fasani
- Saint Francis Xavier
- Saint Gemma Galgani
- Saint Gerard Majella
- Saint John Bosco
- Saint John Joseph of the Cross
- Saint Joseph of Cupertino[5]
- Saint Ludgardis of Tongeren
- Saint Luke Thaumaturgus (Luke the Younger)[6]
- Saint Martin de Porres
- Saint Michael Garicoits
- Blessed Miguel Pro
- Saint Paul of the Cross
- Saint Peter Claver
- Saint Peter of Alcantara
- Saint Philip Neri
- Saint Theresa of Avila
- Saint Thomas Aquinas
- Saint Martin de Porres
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ The Acts of Peter
- ^ Montague Summers, Witchcraft and Black Magic, (Courier Dover, 2000), 200.
- ^ Caroline Walker Bynum, Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987), 23.
- ^ Levitating Saints
- ^ Patron Saints Index: Saint Joseph of Cupertino
- ^ Saint Patrick's Church: Saints of February 7
