This communication will focus on Irenaeus' report on the cultual gatherings organized by a supposed disciple of Valentinus, Mark the ‘magician', around the middle of the 2nd century CE. By shedding new light on Iraeneus' sources and his rhetorical and polemical strategies, I will make the attempt to reconstruct what actually took place in such occasions, encompassing as much as banquets as ecstatic practices, which were openly characterized as ‘prophetic'. Thanks to first-hand accounts collected by Irenaeus himself, I will be able to offer an accurate description of the symptoms of ecstasy, as they were experienced, related and then transmitted during such meetings.
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