Evagrius de Pont[[506]] says, that a holy hermit named Thomas, and surnamed Salus, because he counterfeited madness, dying in the hospital of Daphné, near the city of Antioch, was buried in the strangers' cemetery, but every day he was found out of the ground at a distance from the other dead bodies, which he avoided. The inhabitants of the place informed Ephraim, Bishop of Antioch, of this, and he had him solemnly carried into the city and honorably buried in the cemetery, and from that time the people of Antioch keep the feast of his translation.
John Mosch[[507]] reports the same story, only he says that it was some women who were buried near Thomas Salus, who left their graves through respect for the saint.
The Hebrews ridiculously believe that the Jews who are buried without Judea will roll underground at the last day, to repair to the Promised Land, as they cannot come to life again elsewhere than in Judea.
The Persians recognize also a transporting angel, whose care it is to assign to dead bodies the place and rank due to their merits: if a worthy man is buried in an infidel country, the transporting angel leads him underground to a spot near one of the faithful, while he casts into the sewer the body of any infidel interred in holy ground. Other Mahometans have the same notion; they believe that the transporting angel placed the body of Noah, and afterwards that of Ali, in the grave of Adam. I relate these fantastical ideas only to show their absurdity. As to the other stories related in this same chapter, they must not be accepted without examination, for they require confirmation.
Footnotes:
[[503]] Tertull. de Animo, c. 5. p. 597. Edit. Pamelii.
[[504]] Chronic. Turon. inter opera Abælardi, p. 1195.
[[505]] Bolland. tom. ii. p. 315, 13 Januar.
[[506]] Evagrius Pont. lib. iv. c. 53.
[[507]] Jean Mosch. pras. spirit. c. 88.