Fathers

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What the Fathers say

1 Samuel 28:14

Eastern Fathers

Justin Martyr

And that the souls survive, I have shown to you from the fact that the soul of Samuel was called up by the witch, as Saul demanded. And it appears also, that all the souls of similar righteous men and prophets fell under the dominion of such powers, as is indeed to be inferred from the very facts in the case of that witch. Hence also God by His Son teaches us for whose sake these things seem to have been done, always to strive earnestly, and at death to pray that our souls may not fall into the hands of any such power.

Dialogue with Trypho, Chapter CV ↗

Western Saints

Augustine of Hippo

I see no objection to saying that each mind has another body [sōma pneumatikos] when it leaves this solid one, and so the mind always has a body to animate, and in it crosses over, if there is any place to which necessity compels it to go, since, indeed, the angels themselves cannot be enumerated if they are not counted by bodies, as truth itself says in the Gospel: "I could ask my Father to send me twelve legions of angels"; and also since it is evident that Samuel was seen in the body when he was raised by the incantation of Saul, …

Letter 158 ↗

Hippolytus of Rome

The question is raised, whether Samuel rose by the hand of the sorceress or not. And if, indeed, we were to allow that he did rise, we should be propounding what is false. For how could a demon call back the soul, I say not of a righteous man merely, but of any one whatever, when it had gone, and was tarrying one knew not where? But he says, how then was the woman dismayed, and how did she see in an extraordinary way men ascending? …

Hippolytus Exegetical Fragments ↗