A pastor in Mozambique reportedly died after attempting to emulate the biblical story of Jesus Christ’s 40-day fast.
According to reports, Francisco Barajah, the 39-year-old was rendered with emergency aid after going 25 days into his attempted 40-day mission without food or water.
The BBC reported that Barajah who’s the founder of the Santa Trindade Evangelical Church, died in a hospital in Mozambique’s capital, Beira, on Wednesday, shortly after being given treatment.
Reports say that medical aid had proven futile for the pastor by the time he was being tended to as his digestive system had begun breaking down and he was diagnosed with acute anemia; – when the body doesn’t have enough healthy red blood cells to carry sufficient oxygen, as per the BBC.
It’s understood that family members and followers noticed his extreme loss in weight and that Barajah had fallen sick after his 25th day on his fast, and insisted that he be admitted to the hospital.
It’s further understood that despite the hospital staff’s best attempts to introduce his body to rehydrating nutrients, his organs were already in such a bad state that eating proved an uncomfortable experience for Barajah, reported Noticias Online, a Portuguese-language news outlet in Mozambique.
Barajah died at the hospital, BBC reported.
His brother, Marques Manuel Barajah, said Barajah had entered into extreme fasting despite suffering from low blood pressure, adding that Barajah objected to the medical diagnosis, the outlet added.
Experts remain at loss as to exactly how Barajah survived for 25 days without water.
The Guinness World Record for the longest amount of time a human has survived without food and water is 18 days when an Austrian teenager was put in a holding cell in 1979 and forgotten by police.
Barajah isn’t the first devout Christian who perished while attempting Jesus-like activity.
The insider reports that in 2006, a 34-year-old woman in east London died after going 23 days without food or water while trying to mimic Christ’s fast.
