Ten in the church porch

Ten people went into a church porch one eve to see who would die that year, as a correspondent told the Athenian Oracle. He lost his nerve and left at eleven, but the other nine swore that an hour later the church doors flew open and the minister, with those who were to die, appeared in order; six of them died within six weeks, in the same order. Brand placed the story with the watching in church porches on the eves of St Mark and St John the Baptist.