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Saint John and the Bed Bugs
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The apocryphal “Acts of John” by the second-century “novelist” and heretic Leucius Charinus make for an interesting read. The various “acts” of Leucius contain errors and were never accepted by Catholic Christians. However, these various works of Leucius Charinus do confirm certain apostolic traditions that conform to Catholic tradition (e.g. Thomas going to India, John being boiled in oil but surviving, etc.)
I was scanning the “Leucian” Acts of Saint John the other day, and I came across an interesting hiatus in the narrative. Saint John, spending the night in a deserted inn, is attacked by bed bugs. Saint John commands the bugs to leave him alone. His companions laugh at the circumstances. It’s a quaint little story and so I include here for your pleasure:
Now on the first day we arrived at a deserted inn, and when we were at a loss for a bed for John, we saw a droll matter. There was one bedstead lying somewhere there without coverings, whereon we spread the cloaks which we were wearing, and we prayed him to lie down upon it and rest, while the rest of us all slept upon the floor. But he when he lay down was troubled by the bugs, and as they continued to become yet more troublesome to him, when it was now about the middle of the night, in the hearing of us all he said to them: I say unto you, O bugs, behave yourselves, one and all, and leave your abode for this night and remain quiet in one place, and keep your distance from the servants of God. And as we laughed, and went on talking for some time, John addressed himself to sleep; and we, talking low, gave him no disturbance (or, thanks to him we were not disturbed) Acts of John, 60.
Again, the Leucian Acts of John are not be trusted; however, I wonder whether such an odd hiatus could might bear some historicity since it is such a strange event and it has nothing to do with the general narrative. We’ll never know.
Saint John, pray for us.
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