great fire was lighted up, into which friar Thomas endeavoured to throw himself; but a Saracen held him back, saying:  “You shall not do so, old man, as you may have some spell or contrivance about you, for preventing the fire from hurting you, and you must allow another of your people to go into the fire.”  Then four of the Saracens seized upon friar James, intending to have thrown him into the fire, but he requested permission to walk in of his own accord, to shew his devotion to the faith.  This, however, they refused, and threw him in headlong.  The fire was so large and fierce that he could not be seen; yet his voice was heard from the midst of the flames, calling upon the name of the Glorious Virgin.  When the fire was totally consumed, friar James was seen standing on the embers, unhurt and joyful, with his hands raised to heaven in form of the cross, and himself praising and glorifying GOD, who had thus manifested the greatness of his faith; and nothing whatever about his person, not even his clothes or his hair, was found in the slightest degree injured by the fire.  Upon this, all the people began to cry aloud, “They are holy! they are holy! it is sinful to do them any injury, for we see now that their faith is good and holy.”  To this the kadi objected, saying that he was not holy, notwithstanding he remained unhurt amid the fire; but that his tunic, being fabricated from the wool of the land of Habraa, had protected him:  That he ought therefore to be thrown naked into the fire, and they should then see whether or not he would be consumed.

After this, the wicked Saracens, by direction of the kadi, made a fire twice as large as the former; and, having stripped James quite naked, they washed his body, and anointed him abundantly with oil, besides pouring a great quantity of oil upon the faggots which composed the fire; and when the fire was fully kindled, they threw friar James into the midst.  Friars Thomas and Demetrius, retiring from among the people, remained on their knees praying to GOD, with many tears.  Friar James, however, came a second time unhurt from the fire, and the people again cried out that it was sinful to injure these holy men.  Upon this the Melich, or governor of the city, called friar James to his presence, and causing him to put on his garments, said to the friars, “We see, brothers, that by the Grace of God ye have suffered no harm from us:  wherefore we are convinced that ye are holy men, and that your faith is good and true; we advise you to take yourselves away out of this land as quickly as possible, as the kadi will do his utmost to destroy you, because you have confounded his arguments”.  At this time, likewise, the people were full of astonishment and admiration of what they had seen, and were so filled with wonder at the miracle, that they knew not what to believe, or how to conduct themselves.  The melich ordered the three friars to be carried across a small arm of the sea, into a village at a moderate distance from the city, where he ordered them to be lodged in the house of an idolater.