RUMANIA’S RASPUTIN.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 73, 8 January 1936, Page 8

RUMANIA’S RASPUTIN.

MAN THEY CANNOT ARREST. Eighty thousand peasants in Bessarabia, the province of Rumania which adjoins Russia, are following a new Rasputin. They refuse to pay taxes to any but him. They have beaten off gendarmes and troops .sent out after them. The new, .Rasputin is a young man, Nicholas Climoviteh. He was ordained by a Bolshevist bishop, so the Rumanian Church authorities refuse to acknowledge him. Quite recently, when the Government of King Carol decreed that Rumania should adopt the Julian calendar, the new Rasputin roused the countryside. When troops were sent out to arrest him he disappeared with the aid of his devoted followers, most of them women. Now he is opposing the prefect of the district, the general of gendarmerie, the public prosecutor, and two battalions of King Carol’s infantry. His cult is spreading so fast that the Government recently sent a senator and an alienist to examine one of the most porfervid disciples. They reported that lie was perfectly sane. Nicholas Climoviteh declares that be has had three visions. In each a wise patriarchal did man appeared and warned him to tell the King that misfortune would befall the country if certain changes were not immediately introduced. The King has ordered Climovitch’s arrest. The situation is grave because the troops do not ivant to wound the peasants, who believe a saviour has come among them. They declare he can hold a live coal in his hand without feeling any pain, pass through a closed door, and reveal things which arc happening miles away. They want to follow him to Bucharest and enthrone him there as bead of the Church.