A Nigerian university student collapsed and died on Good Friday, April 15, while acting in a recreation of Jesus’s crucifixion. The student, Suel Ambrose, 25, was training to be a priest at the Clariantian University seminary in Nekede, southeastern Nigeria.
He was playing the part of Jesus’ Disciple Simon Peter in the school performance of “The Passion of the Christ” when he fell down during the scene where a Roman soldier’s ear was sliced to protect Jesus, according to the Mirror.
When Ambrose fell to the ground, people watching the play thought it was part of the act. “Initially when it happened we thought it was a joke, and that it was part of the drama,” eyewitness Micheal Eluwa told Vanguard. “It was when he could not get up that was when we knew it was a serious matter and he was rushed to a school hospital.”
Eluwa said that later when the case became worse, Ambrose was taken to the Federal Medical Center. “It was from there we heard he could not survive it,” he said.
The exact cause of the student’s death is yet to be revealed. University officials said they will speak about the tragic incident soon.