An interesting piece of news from Word Press states that archivist Ignazio Perruci was hired by the Vatican to research about 6,000 documents in its vaults.

Among the documents unearthed were four sheets of parchment dated 31AD containing the text of a story written by the famous Roman historian Marcus Velleius Paterculus. Velleius is known for his history of the Trojan War. He is, however, more renowned for the history of Rome from the death of Caesar in 44BC to the death of Augustus in 14AD.

In the documents found in the Vatican archives, Velleius gives a detailed account of his return journey from Parthia to Rome in 31AD. He describes various episodes, including a visit to a temple in Melitta, which is already being ascribed by experts to Mdina, Malta.

The part that has really excited historians, however, is the one where Velleius describes an episode which he witnessed in the city of Sebaste (modern day Nablus, in the West Bank).

The author first describes the arrival of a great religious leader in the town with a group of followers. According to Velleius the leader’s name was Jesous de Nazarenus.

In the town, the leader visited the house of a woman named Elisheba, who had just given birth to a stillborn child. The leader picked up the dead child and uttered a prayer in Aramaic.

To the crowd’s surpirse, the baby came back to life almost immediately, crying loudly like a healthy newborn.

The importance of this discovery, which has yet to be analysed and verified by independent experts, is the account of a great miracle by Jesus by a reliable witness who is well known to history, and, for us Maltese, the inclusion in it of his journey to Malta.