At the end of the 19th century, 12-year-old Sarah Jacob became a national phenomenon. People from all over Britain travelled by train to Pencader in Carmarthenshire and walked two miles to reach the farm of Llethr-neuadd to see her.
Dressed like a bride in silk as she lay on her bed, with a wreath of flowers on her head, visitors would marvel at the alleged miracle before them. It is said that one visitor remarked: "Her eyes shone like pearls, as alert as my own… She had rosy cheeks and looked like a lilly amongst thorns."
Sarah Jacob was known as the 'Welsh Fasting Girl' and appeared to have not eaten or drunk for nearly two years. At a time when the religion-versus-science debate raged and Darwinism was challenging traditional beliefs, people of the Victorian Age really believed that they were witnessing a miracle through young Sarah and that the 'great doctor' or God would look after her. But her short life came to a sad end.
