Report on Manuscript #11
Note 1:
My research was almost complete on the small religion, or cult, but I have in my possession what I named Manuscript #11, which brought new light or even more darkness.
The report is from a Christian priest of the time whose name was not revealed, but based on other reports and documents from the time, it was possibly the so-called Father Benevenuto. I will try to summarize the old priest’s accounts of the events in a cohesive way, as even he could not make sense of his words.
Report:
The year was 1823, the winter weather caused people to go to their homes early to hide from the cold, so the priest’s sermons in that period were being held in the afternoon, and soon after people returned to their homes.
One night, a few hours after the sermon, the Father heard some noises outside the church, saw torch lights going everywhere and then went to check what happened. It was reported by some people that two young twin girls had not returned home after mass. So the small population of the village went looking for them in the freezing forest that surrounded the place. The priest helped for a while, but according to his own words, perhaps it would be better to return to pray and ask that the girls be found safe.
The priest tells little about what happened in the days that passed, he just summarizes that for days people gathered at the church to ask for the return of the young women, but as 8 days passed, this no longer seemed possible. Everyone was very sorry, as the girls were very loved by the community. His parents remained shaken and avoided talking about it. But there came a point where everyone unfortunately accepted the worst, the girls wouldn’t come back as they were probably dead somewhere in the forest. Naturally, many speculations were made about the cause of the disappearance and probable death, but none of them made sense.
Then 13 days passed, the community’s routine had been reestablished, people went to mass in the afternoon and returned to their homes when the sun began to set.
But at the end of mass on that thirteenth day, people were pleasantly surprised to find both girls standing in front of the church entrance.
The community rejoiced enormously, great shouts of joy and praise could be heard. The priest blessed the girls and the people returned to their homes. The next day a big party was held to celebrate the girls’ return, and at this celebration they would tell what had happened to them.
The priest says that the girls went up on a small improvised stage, people remained silent, curious to hear the story.
The girls said that night, 13 days ago, they left mass feeling a great peace, an indescribable joy, and on the way home they saw a faint light coming from the forest. They didn’t know how to describe it, but they knew that that light was God. They headed towards the light, which became stronger as they got closer, to the point that when they were a few meters away the light became so intense that they became part of that light, the light no longer blinded them, otherwise they could see everything, they could see the people of the village sleeping in their houses, they could see the birds sleeping in their nests, the wolves lying in wait for their prey in the darkness, they could see creatures that they didn’t even know existed, they could see that below their feet there were beings that they could not even describe, beings that are not in the Holy Book, beings that not even the oldest person in the village knows about. They could also hear, they heard the crying of children from the neighboring village, they heard the prayers of their parents, they heard the slanderous thoughts coming from neighbors who defamed them, saying that they fled with young wanderers. They felt everything, they tasted the lunar fog, they smelled the grass that had just been born, they felt on their skin every vibration that a cicada made from miles away. They knew they were in the presence of God and that He had selected them for a purpose.
The priest says that the people of the village were motionless, listening more intently than listening to his sermons.
One of the girls pointed to a boy in the crowd, a boy who had been born with some deformities in his legs, which made it impossible for him to walk. They asked some people to bring him to the small stage. The girls put their hands on his legs and the boy gave a loud scream that took everyone from their positions to help the poor boy. When the boy himself told them to stop and wait. With little difficulty, the boy stood up on his own two feet in front of the crowd that witnessed the miracle.
The priest said that at that moment he felt rewarded for all his years of religious work. He saw for the first time a real miracle.
In the following days, something became routine in the community. At every mass, the girls performed some type of miracle, from the simplest ones like making lights appear throughout the church, to the more complex ones like curing illnesses or even “flying like angels”, in the priest’s words.
This went on for several days, maybe weeks it seems. Until one afternoon of faith, during the girls’ demonstration of miracles, a person stood up from the congregation and asked if they could bring back dead loved ones. Everyone looked at each other, and immediately a buzz began to echo throughout the church. The priest said he wanted to intervene, as that would be sacrilege, but at the same time he was curious to know what the girls would say. And the unexpected happened, one of the girls, the one he calls Sonia said no, and almost at the same time the second girl, the one he calls Selma, said yes. They looked at each other with a look of disagreement. There was a general uproar in the church, people screaming in tears to bring their father, mother, brother, sister, grandmother and even horse back to life. To contain the crowd, the priest had to intervene and say that the mass had ended and that the following day they would deal with the matter. His intention was to talk to the girls, which was not possible, because as soon as he said that, they were no longer there. They just disappeared without anyone noticing.
For a few days the girls did not perform miracles and did not attend church. Until a little girl appeared happily in the center of the village, playing with her dog and shouting “Hail, Selma, the saint” The priest says that the little girl had buried her dog 3 days earlier after it died from being bitten by a snake. Naturally, that news brought great interest from the villagers. People stood in front of the girls’ house for a day and a night, waiting for them to speak out and bring their loved ones back to life.
The priest, intending to contain the hysteria, invited the girls to the church for a conversation. Only Selma appeared.
The priest asked her if she had brought the dog back to life, and she nodded. The priest asked her how she did it, she made a face like she had no idea. The priest was about to explain to her that this was against biblical teachings, but the girl began speaking without any possibility of interrupting.
In the priest’s words he says that she explained to him what happened that night of her disappearance, she did not see the same things that Sonia had reported on the day of her return. She says that when she approached the light, she was overcome by darkness, total pitch black. She could also see the villagers, but she saw those who were stealing, raping, drinking, and worshiping pagan gods. She saw a crow with 3 eyes, watching. She saw the wolf ferociously tearing apart its prey, which was screeching in suffering. She also saw the creatures that her sister described that live beneath the earth, but the creatures also saw her, they looked directly at her, from their damp and cavernous dwellings. She also heard the neighboring village, but the child’s cries were of suffering. The impure thoughts made her laugh. Finally, she concludes that the gift given to them was not divine.
The priest is disconcerted, says some prayers to Selma and asks her to get rid of these profane thoughts and that she is prohibited from carrying out any type of act such as resurrecting the dog. He writes that she seemed uncomfortable with the order given to him.
A few days passed without any kind of miracle or any interaction between the girls and the village. However, just like a wind that suddenly comes over the mountains, a great plague ravaged the village’s wheat field. In the blink of an eye the same thing happened with the polantation of carrots and corn. Without any indication, the pigs began to die in a mysterious way and almost completely rot within a few hours. The cows no longer gave milk, when they tried to milk, only a dark liquid with the smell of sulfur came out of their teats. Cats began to appear dead, putrid and without eyes on the roofs. Dogs barked day and night, until they simply fell still, dead. Crows flew over the village like heavy clouds all day looking for food from the dead. It didn’t take long for some children to appear with some marks on their skin, as if they were large inflamed blisters. Adults would suddenly fall to the ground while doing their daily tasks. Elderly people woke up dead, in strange positions and with horrifying features, some with their tongues cut out. The priest in a few words summarizes that “damnation had arrived in the village, and God had abandoned them”.
During this period, people naturally went to ask the girls for help, but they said they didn’t know what to do, they weren’t able to help, it seemed like their gift wasn’t working, their miracles weren’t working, they had lost their gift. The villagers who still lived gathered in the church, praying to God. Some tried to flee the village, but as soon as they left there they died in their carts for no apparent reason.
One night the priest received a visit from Selma at church. He says that when she knocked on the door, the crickets stopped chirping, the dogs stopped barking, the owls stopped hooting, and the night became completely silent, just to hear what she had to say.
Selma approached the church altar, looked at Christ on his cross. He turned to the priest and in his words “I understand, finally”.
The next day it was possible to see that the crops were recovering, the animals were beginning to behave naturally, children’s blisters appeared with scabs, scared elders woke up in disbelief, and it seemed that the divine punishment was over.
The priest called a mass at the church, but announced that it would be at night.
That night the priest announced that God had punished them for heresy, that for many weeks they worshiped a false miracle, that for several days they stained the Bible with their greed and lust through heretical spectacles. He then asked the girls to go up to the altar, took the Bible in his hand, took a knife from inside it and in his words “I purified Sonia of her heresy”.
Note 2:
Below is a term transcribed exactly as described in the manuscript in the words of Father Benevenuto.
“The people of the village finally had peace. The people found in the hands of Mother Selma the salvation they were looking for so much. She who brought back the prosperity of our village, will also bring healing to the world. Just as she brought back to us the beloved ones, she returned to the earth those who did not understand the greater purpose. All hail Mother Selma, all hail the Saint.”