The Flying Monk

This question has baffled churchmen and scholars for nearly 300 years: Could St. Joseph of Copertino fly in the air?

The incredible exploits of this 17th century Italian monk were seen and vouched for by nearly 100 witnesses-including a pope. And the written accounts of his flights give absolutely no clue to how they were done. Had he actually discovered the secret of how to over come gravity?

By any standards, St. Joseph was an extraordinary man. From the age of 12 he wore a hairshirt next to his skin and a heavy iron chain drawn tightly around his waist. Frequently he fasted for long periods. As he grew older he became even more serious and strict. By the time he joined the Order of St. Francis in 1625 he was no longer content just to wear an iron chain about his waist. He attached a large metal plate to it, which tore at his body.

Stories began to circulate that he possessed super natural powers. These tales became so widespread that he was ordere to Naples for questioning by the Holy Office. He was examined three times. The fourth time,he begged to be allowed to say Mass in the Inquisition's own church of St Gregory of Armenia. After the ceremony, Josephknelt to pray. A few moment later,startled onlookers were hardly able to believe their eyes.

Rising in the air, Joseph floated over the amazed congregation. Then he flew to the altar and alighted amid the flowers and burning candles.

Nuns who were present called out: "The candles! The candles-he'll catch fire!

But Joseph robes did not catch fire, although the flames from the candles licked them several times. After a few minutes, he rose into the air again and flew back into the body of the church.

The courth of the Inquisition rushed him off to Rome to have an audience with the Pope.

As he entered into the presense of the Pontiff and before a word had been spoken, Joseph drifted up into the air and remained suspended for fully a minute.

 Later, Joseph was sent to a monastery in Assisi. One Christmas Eve, a party of shepherds was invited to his church to play music upon their pipes. They had barely started when Joseph "began to dance and suddenly he gave agreat sigh and flew like an angel onto the High Altar." He remained there for about 20 minutes, again in the midst of flaming candles. Then he flew down again and bless the shepherds.

 On another occasion, Joseph was walking with the priest Antonio Chiarello when he suddenly flew across the garden in which they were walking and came to rest on top of an olive tree. Chiarello was amazed to see that the branch that bore Joseph's weight was hardly as thick as a man's finger.

Not content with "solo flights," Joseph began to take other people wit him. His first "passenger" was the father confessor of the Convent of Santa Chiara in Coper tino. During a festival, Joseph grasped his fellowpriest by the hand and rose up with him into the air.

One of the most extraordinary demontrations of Joseph's strange gift occured when he cama upon ten laborers who had collapsed exhausted upon the ground after hauling a huge cross of solid walnut.

 Joseph asked, "What is the matter, my matter, my children?" The men explained that they were so tired that they found it completely impossible to drag the great cross the last yards to the spot on the crest ofa hill where they had to erect it.

The monk took off his cloak and ordered them to stand aside. "I am here! he cried, rushing towards the cross. Then, as though it weighed only a few pounds, he flew with the cross carrying it right over their heads, and set it down in the hole that had been prepared for it

 Even on his deathbed, on September 17th, 1663, Joseph amazed everyone-including his doctors-by rising from the bed and flying as far as the little chapel of the monastery.

 The story of his ability to fly was vouched for scores of times, by the most eminent and respectable of witnesses. All were satisfied that he used no mechanical tricks. Joseph went to his grave taking his secret with him.

ghost fish

If you find the fish scare......

Swallowded by a Whale-and He Lived!

In the pale light of an Arctic summer afternoon, a boat was lowered from the deck of the whaling ship Star of the East and set out towards a school of sperm whales that was cruising nearby.

  Thirty-five -yearrr-old James Bartley was steering, six men were rowing, and another four were preparing harpoons. Behind them, Star of the East edged in to pick up the whales they caught.

  It was to be the last short trip before the whaler, stocked with blubber sailed for Egland. The 1891 season had been her most successful. And it was to be capped by one of the most incredible experiences in the history of the sea.

  So improbable did the incident seem that the captain and the entire crew of Star of the East later thought it necessary to tell under oath how James Bartley was swallowed by a whale.

  By late afternoon the harpoon team had killed one whale and wounded another. Bartley steered towards the wounded whale and three men prepared to spear it again.

  Suddenly the whale turned. Seizing the prow of the boat in its jaws, it shook it the way a dog shakes a bone, splitting the vessel in half.

  The sailors dived into the water and were picked up by another boat from Star of the East. James Bartley was the last to jump. As he leaped over the stern, the whale made a quick turn in the water, opened its mouth and caught him. The huge jaws closed tigghtly over the man.

  The next day, a dead whale floated to the surface of the ocean, a harpoon stuck in its side. The whale was hauled aboard Star of the East, and for two days the men worked to remove its blubber.

  When the job was finished, it occurred to one of the sailors that the only whale that had been harpooned and not caught during recent trips was the one that had eaten Bartley.

  The men decided to cut up the whale. As they opened the stomach, to their amazement and horror the outline of a man showed through the tissue. Carefully slicing the muscles away, they uncovered the missing sailor, unconscious but still alive!

  Carefully they got the man out and placed him on the deck, rubbing his limbs and forcing brandy down his throat. Working on him in relays, the sailors slowly restored his circulation and Bartley recovered at least partial consciousness.

  He seemed delirious and repeatedly cried out that he was "in a fiery furnace." After several days he recovered. By the time the ship returned to England he was able to make a statement about his terrible experience. This is what he said:

  "I remember very well from the moment I jumped from the boad and felt my feet strike some soft substance.

  "Ilooked up and saw a big-ribbed canopy of light pink and white descending over me, and the next moment I felt myself being drawnwards, feet first. I realized I was being swallowed by a whale.

  "I was drawn lower and lower, a wall of flesh surrounding me and hemming me in on every side, yet the pressure was not painful and the flesh easily gave way before my slightest movement.

  "Suddenly I found myself in a sack much larger than my body, but completely dark. I felt about me and my hand came in contact with several fishes, some of which seemed to be still alive because they squirmed in my fingers and slipped back to my feet.Soon I felt a great pain in the head and breathing became more and more difficult. At the same time, I felt a terrible heat, and it seemed to consume me, growing hotter and hotter.

  "My eyes became coals of fire in my head. I believed every minute that I was about to die.

  "There was an awful silence in my prison. I tried to rise, to move my arms and legs, to cry out. All action was now impossible but my brain was abnormally clear, and with a full comprehension of my awful fate, I finally lost consciousness."

  The only lasting effect of the experience seems to have been a recurring nightmare in which he relived the sensations he felt in yhe whale's stomach. After his recovery, Bartley returned to sea and died in 1926 at the age of 65.

   The whole crew of the whaler gave their testimony on oath before a Justice of the Peace.

  Even so, M. Henri de Parville, scientific editorr of the Paris magazine Journal des Debated for four and a half years whether to publish the facts in his possession. Every item was checked and rechecked. Bartley was interviewed privately and his story compared with those of his companions. Finally convinced of the truth, de Parville published the story.

  Bartley became a celebrity. Doctors discovered had an extraordinarily strong constitution. Even so, to remain alive for nearly three days in a virtually airless prison made medical history.

  Bartley just failed to equal Jonah's feat centuries before. The Bible records that Jonah was in full possession of his faculties for four days while inside the whale.

The Case of the Cat Ghost

It lies in a special file in the paris headquaters of the French Society for Psychical Research-a photograph of a small boy in his Sunday best,

holding a pet kitten in his arms.

The kitten is small and white with huge, appealing eyes set in a tiny face.

It had been given to seven-year old Rene Leret in August 1954, and from that moment

on,the boy and the little cat were seldom a part.

Rene took the kitten to school-ot least until the teacher objected. It slept on his bed, often sat on his knees at mealtimes.

"If anything happens to that cat, I dread to think what Rene would do," Michelle leret remarked to her husband one night. "It would break the boy's heart."

But when that day came, there was no grief in the cottage on the edge of the village of Sampier, near Lyons in southeastern France. For it seemed that not even death could separate Rene Leret and his pet.

The events at Sampier, at first written off as a small childs fantasies, soon attracted the attention of France's top ghost hunters.

"I have studied well over 2,000 cases in the course of my career," wrote Dr.Gerard  Lefeve of the French Society of Psychical Research, "aand only five times have i failed to put the supernatural into natural terms. One of these was the case of the kitten at Sampier."

It was the first week of August in 1954 when Rene's uncle came to visit, bringing presents for everyone, including the tiny kitten for Rene. Immediately, the child christened it Jacques, and tookit with him everywhere.

But the friendship-at least in normal terms-was to last only a month. One Saturday morning the kitten suddenly dashed through the garden into the main road. An oil truck on its way from Lyons to Dijon dashed the life from the tiny scrap of fur.

The parents kept the boy away from the scene until all traces of the accident were removed. "You must not be too sad about Jacques," Michelle Leret gently told her son. "We will get you another little kitten to take his place."

"I don't need another one, Mother" the boy replied. "Jacques is here sitting by the window." He reached out to stroke the air a few inches above the window ledge.

 The parents regarded the action as a defense mechanism shilding Rene against the grief of losing his pet. Doubtless it would disappear in a couple of days.

 But it didn't. Jacques had to have his food put out as usual; the door had to be opened to let him in; the cushion on which he had slept had to be in its place on Rene's bed.

 one day, Charles Leret told his son gentlybut firmly that the pretense had gone on long enough. The child was bewildered: "But what do you mean? Jacques is here on the carpet-can't you see?"

 The next day the worried parents called a doctor and told him their child was suffering from hallucinations. But examinations-culminating in hospital tests-could find nothing mentally wrong with the child.

 Dr.Lefeve, hearing of the phenomenon, arrived at the village at the end of September. He had several long interviews with the child and his parents, and he carried out several routine tests. He found that when the child entered the room the temperature appeared to drop slighly-always a sign of a "presence."

Examining the inside of the front door; he found minute scratches around the bottom, apparently made by cat claws. Yet the door had been newly painted-after the cat had died.

  Then there was the photograph. Dr. Lefeve was in the Leret house when it came back from the local pharmacy. The folder containing prints from a roll of film taken by Charles Leret was opened and the contents casually examined. There were pictures of the house, the family and the garden.

  And there was a picture of Rene, taken near the garden gate. Charles Leret's hand shook as he handed the picture to the doctor. Rene, in his best clothes,looked strangely solemn. In his arms was a white kitten.

  "The parents were astonished," Dr. Lefeve recalls. Whan the photo was taken, there was no kitten or anything else in the child's arms. I examined the photograph and there was no doubt that the object was a kitten.

  "I asked the parents every question I could think of and they answered willingly and honestly, but they could not throw any light on the mystery."

  And no one ever has. For the picture of Rene Leret had been taken three weeks after Jacques the kitten had died.