Bilocation or perhaps astral projection is a tricky one. I use the latter a lot in my various books, but for real? The problem ultimately is verification. Francesco di Paola was known for his holiness and his powers of bilocation that were apparently witnessed, once being seen working in the friary kitchen and serving mass at the same time. Another account records how he was seen praying ecstatically in the chapel and at the same time talking to people in the street just outside the friary.To be seen by the same witnesses in two different places is very rare.
St Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, translocated 870 miles from Rome to Cologne in order to tell Leonard Kessel, rector of the Jesuit community there, to stay where he was instead of returning to Rome.
Sister Maria de Agueda might also have been familiar with St Francis Xavier, who bi-located so often it’s likely the stories might have been exaggerated to fast track his elevation to sainthood. The most spectacular example did at least have witnesses. It involved him bi-locating from his ship on a storm-tossed sea and shepherding sailors from a dhow in danger of drowning to the safety of his own vessel. Two of the sailors were Muslim and converted to Christianity as a result.
St Teresa of Avila was also known to bilocate. Ana de San Agustin, a Carmelite nun at Malagon testified that she was awakened one night by Teresa who told her to go to the Chapel and relight the Sanctuary light near the tabernacle, which must always be lit. When she entered the chapel, Teresa was already there waiting for her, but vanished as soon as the lamp was lit. It was then that Ana realised Teresa was at Avila, about 145 miles away.
The Jesuit, Gaspar de Salazar, recorded how Teresa once appeared in his locked room to advise and comfort him, even though she was ‘many leagues away.’ Later, when Salazar had the chance to ask Teresa in person about this visit, she said ‘in humble modesty’ that God had indeed sent her to help him.
Nuns seemed peculiarly prone to bilocation. Juana de Jesus Maria, a Carmelite from Burgos claimed to have visited Turkey, Brazil and the Philippines, even north America where Indians fired arrows at her. The Inquisition were not convinced and banned all books written about her. Martina de Los Angelos claimed to have killed the Lutheran Swedish king Gustav Adolphus ‘with her own hand’ at the battle of Lutzen in 1632 and, not to be beaten, Antonia Jacinta de Navarra claimed to have fought the Turks alongside Christian soldiers.
Our friend, the levitating Maria de Agueda, also bilocated in her spare time and gave rise to the legend of the Lady in Blue. During her catatonic raptures she apparently visited New Mexico and was able to describe in detail the landscape, topography, and characteristics of the Jumano Indians. Imbued by a desire to save their souls she began preaching, telling them about Jesus along with the bare bones of the New Testament. This may be seen as harmless fantasy but for the fact that around the same time Jumano Indians who traded with the Spanish Missions suddenly began demanding to be baptised, much to the amazement of the resident friars.
These friars hadn’t yet penetrated the wilderness. How had the Jumanos learnt the sign of the cross and knew that Jesus was the Son of God? On being questioned, the Jumanos talked of ‘A Lady in Blue’ who regularly visited, and thus a legend was born. It’s a lovely story, but inconclusive. Unlike the more modest examples of bilocation, where witnesses could more easily observe the subject being in two places at the same time, this was impossible to verify when such vast distances were involved.
To compound this, in middle age and under considerable pressure from doubtful inquisitors, Maria later qualified her story, suggesting that as a naïve young nun she had too easily acquiesced in what her superiors wanted to hear. Equally it might be argued the now middle-aged nun, all too aware of the consequences should she not be believed thought it politic to distance herself from the stories and shift the blame on to others.
Not to be left out, the other levitating nun Sister Luisa de la Ascension shared similar powers, apparently attending the deathbed of the Spanish king without leaving the convent. In 1615 she comforted a martyr in Japan, and then whizzed off to Rome to save Pope Gregory XV from poison. She visited Assisi to pray at the tomb of St Francis, a battlefield in Flanders to cheer on Catholic soldiers fighting Protestants, and then on to the battle of White Mountain near Prague, where she ensured victory against a Protestant army.
Luisa quickly became a cult figure, a living saint, attracting followers across Europe. including King Philip III of Spain. Anything belonging to her or that her holy hand had touched was deemed sacred and in huge demand across the Catholic world at a price. It is understandable why the Inquisition spent so much energy in separating the genuine and inexplicable from charlatans and the deluded.
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