1939-11-03 — Page 21

CHINA MAIL, NOVEMBER 341989

TO-DAY'S STRANGE STORY OF REAL PEOPLE

NO. 98-CARTAPHILUS

WHO CLAIMED TO HAVE LIVED 20 CENTURIES

By VINCENT TOWNE

In the year 1250, Matthew Paris, a medieval monk, wrote of a visit that he had received a few years before from an Armenian bishop who had told him a weird story. According to this account, the bishop had lately entertained at his table a mysterious wanderer, who, according to his own confession, was Cartaphilus, who had been keeper of Pilate's judgment hall, and who, on finding Jesus wearied from carrying the great cross and leaning for a moment against the wall of his house, had hurried the Savious away in punishment for

He Hurried The Savior Away.

did not again come to light until 1571, when the English Archbishop Parker

De Cergy, who had been French Ambassador to Venice, remembered having seen the same man at that court 50 years before, and recalled that he had then looked just as he did now at the court of Louis XV.

After leaving the latter court, this weird personage became the favourite companion of the Landgrave Charles of Hesse. Although his death Was announced in 1780. Grosley, an emi- nent savant of the British Royal So- clety, stated that he saw the same man in a French prison during the Reign of Terror, while Lord Lytton in 1860 met a character whom he be- lieved to have been the same man. There were also rumours that he was the mysterious "Major Frazier" who at the Court of Louis Napoleon ex-" pended the income from a vast for- tune of mysterious origin, and who: boasted of personal acquaintance with Nero, Dante and many other great men of history.

unkindness he had been condemned / had it published. Again in 1640 it he had directed Him to move on, and adventurers were Cartaphilus appear

by Him to stay on earth until his re- turn.

According to the wanderer, he had later been baptized by Ananias had taken the name of Joseph.

and

He

making of the Apostlosts Creed.

This strange record by good Brother Paris was put away for 300 years and

??

22

cording to his story, when Christ was resting from the burden of the Cross, which

Some believed that these modern, was. set forth in the "Pseudoxia Epi had then received the course: "I willing in other of his various roles. The denica" of Sir Thomas Brown, Knight stand here and rest, but thou shalt belief in such a personage doomed to M.D. of Norwich, England.

move on till the last day!" - Ever since those years the alleged The belief that somewhere in the vexed Christendom for 700 years. The defy the ravages of the centuries has wanderings and reminiscences of Car-world this condemned man was rest-basis of the belief is unknown. It was well remembered the Saints and the taphilus, condemned to live through lessly wandering persisted through- the theme of Eugene Sue's story, "The

the centuries, has haunted the minds out the 16th and 17th centuries. In Wandering Jew." of theologians and students of mysti- the latter it was believed that he cism. According to the learned monk, healed disease, and those who claimed Matthew, Cartaphilus' life was mir- to have met with him in their travels, aculously prolonged each hundredth quoted him as having been at Rome year, when he fell into a faint. After when it was burned by Nero; of hav- remaining unconscious for a time he ing witnessed the return of Saladin would then recover, to find his age after his Eastern conquests; of having restored to where it stood when he been in Constantinople when Salimen insulted Jesus.

had the royal mosque erected; of hav- In 1547, according to the devouting known Tamerlane, the Scythian and learned Bishop of Schleswig, and Scander Beg; of having been Ba- there appeared in the Hamburg jazet married in a cage by Tamer- Cathedral a man whose personality excited, the awe of the congregation. He followed the service with great reverence, bowing very deeply when ever the name of the Christ was men- tioned. He was a man of middle age -about 50-dressed in ragged clothes. It was recorded that "many of the no- bility and gentry who saw him cognized him as the one whom they had already seen in various places— England, France, Italy, Hungary, Persia, Spain, Poland, Moscow, Lieff- land, Sweden, Denmark, Scotland, etc."

9-21.

The bride knows the honeymoon has come to an end when the groom begins to heokle about the flood of blils due to arrive the first of the month.

re-

lane's soldiers; of remembering the Caliphs of Babylon and Egypt; of having traveled through the empire of the Saracens, and of having been in the Crusades, where he had known Godfrey de Bouillon. When asked if he had witnessed the sack of Jerusa- lem, he regretted that he had not, be- cause at the time he was in Rome at the court of Vespasian.

For Business Girls

Women engaged in business some- times find that the sedentary nature of their work tends to cause digestive and other health. disturbances,

In 1748 there appeared at the court In such cases Pinkettes are invalu- of Louix XV, the mysterious strangerable. These dainty laxative pilules who called himself the Count St. Ger-cleanse the food tract, enliven the liver. main, and who claimed to have lived prevent constipation, billousness and since the time of Christ, who recount-Pinkettes ensure daily regularity, cor- sick headache. Taken when needed, Being asked who he was, the stran-ed incidents of his acquaintance with rect bad breath and help keep the skin ger informed the bishop that he was great personages of all Ahasuerus, a shoemaker of Jerusal- epochs of time and who surprised his blemishes. Men, too, who value their intervening free from disfiguring pimples and em, who had been present at the cru-

hearers not only by his accurate health should know that.. cifixion and ever since had been wan-

knowledge of history, but his ability dering. The bishop found the new-

to converse fluently in comer strangely proficient in history, dead language in which he might be any live or especially regarding the Apostles. Ac-

addressed.

PINKETTES

KEEP YOU WELL.

PRESIDENT LINER

Sailings

TRANS-PACIFIC SERVICE

To

SAN FRANCISCO & LOS ANGELES Via Shanghai, Japan & Honolulu ROUND-WORLD SERVICE

To

NEW YORK & BOSTON Via Manila, Singapore, Penang, Colombo, Bombay, Suez, Port Said, Alexandria, Naples, Genoa and Marseilles.

** AMERICAN **

PRESIDENT LINES

ROUND-WORLD. SERVICE.””

"Also Agents for “TWA

The Popular Trans-Continental Air Line” 12, PEDDER ST.

TELEPHONE 28171;

LLOYD TRIESTINO

REGULAR FORTNIGHTLY SERVICE

OUTWARD: for SHANGHAI

HOMEWARD: for GENOA, NAPLES (London Overland)

via MANILA, SINGAPORE, COLOMBO,

BOMBAY & PORTSAID

For further particulars apply

LLOYD TRIESTINO

Queen's Bldg., Ground Fl, Tel. 32982

Tel. Add. “LLOYDIANO” P.O.B, 143

Agents, Canton-Messrs. Dodwell & Co., Ltd., Shameen