Berecingum Convent, near London, England — 675
Circling light
A large light came down over praying nuns At Berecingum (Barking) convent, circled their location, and flew up. The description suggests that the light came from a welldefined object: “For one night, after matins had been sung, and those handmaids of Christ had gone out of their chapel to the tombs of the brothers who had departed this life before them, and were singing the customary songs of praise to the Lord, on a sudden a light from heaven, like a great sheet; came down upon them all, and struck them with such amazement, that, in consternation, they even left off singing their hymn. “But that resplendent light, in comparison wherewith the sun at noon-day might seem dark, soon after, rising from that place, removed to the south side of the monastery, that is, to the westward of the chapel, and having continued there some time, and rested upon those parts, in the sight of them all withdrew itself again to heaven, leaving no doubt in the minds of all, but that the same light, which was to lead or to receive the souls of those handmaids of Christ into Heaven, also showed the place in which their bodies were to rest and await the day of the resurrection.” We note that, although the “great sheet” of light could have been caused by a meteor, the later behavior of the phenomenon (rising and circling) seems to exclude this explanation.
Source: W. Raymond Drake, Gods and Spacemen in the Ancient East (New York: Signet, 1968), 106. The original source has not emerged. Case: W001