A pastor who wanted to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ has died after he fasted for 40 days.
Francisco Barajah, founder of the Santa Trindade Evangelical Church in Mozambique, attempted to emulate what Jesus Christ is said to have done in the Bible.
But after 25 days without food or water, the 39-year-old had lost weight to the point where he could not stand up.
He was taken to hospital in the city of Beira, at the insistence of relatives and followers and then was diagnosed with acute anaemia and failure of his digestive organs.
He was rehydrated with serums and an attempt was made to introduce liquid foods, but it was too late and and he died on Wednesday.
The pastor was also a French teacher in the town of Messica in the central province of Manica, bordering Zimbabwe.
Members of the Santa Trindade Church said it was common for the pastor and his followers to fast, but not for that long.
The Bible's Gospel of Luke say that after his baptism, Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where he fasted for 40 days.
then in the Gospel of Matthew, in the New Testament of the Bible, it says: "At that time Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights and afterwards was hungry."
The story sees Jesus being tempted by the devil, but he perseveres and passes the test.
It says in the bible: "He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry."
The pastor's brother, Marques Manuel Barajah, said he had fasted, but he challenged the medical diagnosis about his death.
"The truth is that my brother suffered from low blood pressure," he said.
In 2015, a Zimbabwean man died after 30 days, local media said and in 2006, a British coroner found that a woman died half-way through a similar fast in London.
Rosaline Gilbert, 29, was found dead at her Hackney home by her neighbours after she attempted a fast. However tests revealed she had an underlying blood condition which killed her, rather than her religious starvation.
Her mother, Gloria, 66, said: "She fasted a lot. This time she wanted to fast for 40 days and 40 nights like Jesus."
According to Medical News Today, a well-fed male weighing around 70 kilograms could survive between one and three months without eating.
However people typically die after around three days without drinking any fluids.
