Two Christian women who were fasting unto death to unite with Jesus on Good Friday were rescued by Tamil Nadu police. They firmly believed that they were under the influence of some evil spirit and that they had to die on Good Friday to get rid of the ‘bad blood’ in their veins.
Neighbors of a house in Manapparai, Trichi, called the police as they hadn’t seen the residents in a month. The house had started smelling bad, and the neighbors became suspicious. When police went to the house, they found Arockiammal(57) and Margaret Anthonyammal(30) two Christian women in a semi-conscious state. Margaret, an M.Sc graduate and a teacher, is the former’s niece.
Margaret’s mother, Savariammal, had died young, and Arockiammal, a spinster, raised her. They told police that Margaret’s dead mother’s spirit was tormenting them and that her dad had set an evil force upon them. They believed that their blood became impure, and to make it pure again, they had to ‘unite with Christ’ on Good Friday.
To achieve it, they started fasting without food for 40 days. When police went to inspect, they were in a semi-conscious state. Coconuts coated with turmeric were scattered throughout their house, and Margaret’s uncle Maria Arul confirmed that they were indeed fasting to ‘unite with Christ’ on Good Friday.
In a similar incident in the same Manapparai in October 2021, 2 Christian women stayed with their mother’s corpse, believing that she was not dead and that by praying to Jesus, she could be resurrected.
In January 2021, a pastor forced the Christian family of a policewoman to live with her corpse by brainwashing them that she could be resurrected if they prayed sincerely. The woman was ill, and the pastor had stopped the family from giving her medical treatment by saying that Jesus would cure her.