Paranormal record / 1098
Antioch. 28 June 1098. The crusaders were trapped inside the city they had just taken, besieged by Kerbogha, atabeg of Mosul. After three days of fasting, they marched out to fight. Then riders appeared. "There came out from the mountains, also, countless armies with white horses, whose standards were all white." The crusaders did not know who they were. Then they recognised the leaders. Saint George. Mercurius. Demetrius. The warrior saints had come to their aid. The author of the Gesta Francorum was certain: "This is to be believed, for many of our men saw it." It is one of the earliest battlefield mass apparitions written down by men who were there.
The First Crusade took Antioch in early June 1098. Then Kerbogha, atabeg of Mosul, arrived with a relief army and trapped the crusaders inside. They prepared to break out the way men prepare for a miracle. Three days of fasting. Processions, confession, communion, alms.