Mozambican pastor dies while attempting Jesus Christ’s 40-day fast
Members of the Santa Trindade Evangelical Church in Mozambique have been left in shock following the death of their pastor who had tried to fast for 40 days.
Pastor Francisco Barajah, who is the founder of the church, died at a hospital after he was admitted in critical condition.
According to BBC Africa, going for 25 days without food or water, the 39-year-old pastor had lost weight to the point where he could not stand up.
Family members and his church followers then decided to rush him to hospital where he was diagnosed with acute anaemia and digestive organs failure.
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He was rehydrated with serums and an attempt was made to introduce liquid foods, but it was too late and and he died on Wednesday
The deceased pastor was also a French teacher in the town of Messica in the central province of Manica, bordering Zimbabwe.
Members of the Santa Trindade Church said it was common for the pastor and his followers to fast, but not for that long.
His brother Marques Manuel Barajah said the pastor had fasted, but he challenged the medical diagnosis about his death.
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“The truth is that my brother suffered from low blood pressure,” he said.
It is not the first report of such a deadly attempt to imitate Christ’s 40-day fast in the desert as described in the Gospel of Matthew.
In 2015, local media in Zimbabwe reported the death of a man who had fasted for 30 days.
Several years earlier, in 2006, a British coroner found that a woman died half-way through a similar fast in London.
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