Pastor, 39, Dies While Attempting to Fast for 40 Days Like Jesus

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An African pastor has died after trying to fast for 40 days, mimicking the successful attempt by Jesus Christ in the New Testament of the Bible.

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Francisco Barajah was the pastor at the Santa Trindade Evangelical Church and died in a hospital in Mozambique, at just 39-years-old. He made it 25 days without food or water before his organs began to fail and he required urgent medical care, according to the BBC.

During the process, he had lost so much weight an strength that he reportedly could not stand nor bathe. Once hospitalized, Barajah was given serums to try to get him rehydrated, but it proved to be too little, too late. Part of that involved giving him liquid meals — but given the state of his organs, trying to digest food caused a great deal of pain.

Fasting is a common practice at the church, members told the BBC, but never for as long as Barajah was attempting, they added.

The Bible doesn’t explicitly state that Jesus went without water during his 40-day fast. According to the gospels of Matthew and Luke, Christ was “hungry” and “ate nothing.”

Barajah was diagnosed with acute anemia and failure of his digestive organs before dying, BBC reported.

“Barajah isn’t the first devout Christian to die in an attempt to fast like Jesus,” Insider wrote. “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.”

Read More: Priest Says He Went to ‘Hell’ After Near-Death Experience

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