What was the first recorded near death experience of a Christian claiming to have one?
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The earliest such account I am aware of can be found in the Gerontikon, sayings and stories of the so-called Desert Fathers of Egypt, compiled - it is thought - sometime in the 2nd or 3rd centuries. There is a summary of the story from the Gerontikon in the Evergetinos about a careless monk who became ill and approached death:
In the midst of his illness, he lost consciousness and his soul left his body and was taken off to be judged. There among the damned he found his mother. On seeing him, she said with astonishment, "My child, are you, too, condemned to this place of the damned? For what reason are you, who said to me, 'I wish to save my soul,' here?" The brother, shamed by all that he had heard, was struck with gloom, unable to answer anything his mother had said. Afterwards, he heard a voice that said: "At once, Out of here." He immediately woke from this ecstasy and unconsciousness and related with fear to those around him all that he had seen and heard, glorifying God, Who in every way seeks the salvation of sinners.1
As I said, there are probably accounts that date earlier than this, but this is earliest one I can find. There are many more such accounts in the Gerontikon and in the Orthodox Synaxaria.
1. Book I, Hypothesis VIII.F (from an English translation by the Center for Traditionalist Orthodox Studies, 2008; p.72)
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