RISING IN THE AIR. The name of a belief (prevalent in the middle ages) that the bodies of holy persons were sometimes lifted up and suspended in the air during the con tinuance of a religious testacy. Calmet states in his work on Apparitions that this sin gular phenomenon might he produced by the fervor of the Holy Spirit; by the ministry of good angels; or by a miraculous favor of God, who desired thus to do honor to his servants in the eyes of men. Numerous instances are recorded in the Acta Sanetorum. St. Philip of Neri, in his religious eestames, was elevated in the air, sometimes to the height of several yards, almost to the ceiling of his room, and this quite involuntarily. He tried in vain to hide it from the knowledge of those present, for fear of attracting their admiration. St. Ignatius de Loyola was sometimes raised up from the ground to the height of 2 ft., while his body shone like light. St. Robert de Palentin rose also from the ground sometimes to the height of a foot and it half, to the great astonishment of his disciples and assistants. In the life of St. Dunstan it is stated that, a little time
before his death, as he was going up stairs to his apartment, accompanied by several persons, he was observed th rise from the ground; and as all present were astonished at the circumstance, lie took occasion to speak of his approaching death. In a recent biog raphy of Girolamo Savonarola, it is also stated that while that martyr was in prison, shortly before his execution, he was observed once, while In prayer, raised from the ground, and was seen distinctly suspended in the air for sonic short period.
These relations account for the frequency with which representations of saints are exhibited in an aerial position in mediteval paintings and works of art. This belief falls in with one of the alleged phenomena of modern Spiritualism (q.v.).