PEOPLE MURDERED FOR RELIGION.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 101, 27 April 1912, Page 17

PEOPLE MURDERED FOR RELIGION.

"THE- MOST EXTRAORDINARY SECTS IN THE WORLD. It was reported from St. Petersburg the other day that thirty female members of a Moravian community at Lodz, who had formed themselves into a new sect, endeavoured to pursuade a man of the name of Kowalski, whom they regarded as their Saviour, to allow himself to be crucified so •that they might be enabled, by his resurrection, to prove the truth of their tenets. Kowalski naturally refused to be tested in this manner and shut himself up in his house. His 'followers" stormed -his abode, and only the timely arrival of the police saved him from assasinatlon-

Russia jrtM»t»gng many strange sects, and it was not so very long ago since that the police authorities discovered that about a dozen persona bad apparently- been burned alive lv a number of funeral pyres which had been erected on a plot of ground within the province of Viartka. Inquiries proved that the remains found were those of members of a religious sect known as the "Votyakl," who believe in human, sacrifices.

•Some time previously a man named Kowalewski was arrested in Tyraspol, a town In South Russia, on the suspicion of having caused the death of no fewer than thirty-two persons, the bodies of whom were found buried in the neighbourhood of his dwelling. Kowaleski was head of the "Bjeguny" sect, a body of men and women who have the belief that if a few of their members die by their own hands or those of others their deaths will expiate tbe sins of the world.

In a large house In one of the fashionable quarters of St. Petersburg a remarkable sect of Devil-worshippers took up their ahode, and, according t» the -'Rnssfeoye Shanya," the .members are drawn almost exclusively from the smartest people In the capital, including many high officials. It is said that masses with weird ceremonial are celebrated at the headquarters of the sect, those attending wearing fantastic costumes and going through an elaborate service.

In Mexico there is a small community known as the "Holy Flagellants," and the j things the men and women do to themselves I through religious zeal are as terrible as , they are extraordinary. Once a year, on ' one of their feast days, they carry a man I or woman, one of their number, on a cross '. with two swords, sharpened to a keen edge, j so attached that they cut his or her sides : at almost every movement of the bearers. ' Sometimes the martyr dies from loss of | blood, but more often he or she is maimed 1 for life. Many of the "Flagellants." it Is j said, carry heavy bundles of cactus on their naked backs, while others scourge themselves with wires and chains until they | faint with the pain. j .The "St. John Christians," a sect con- j sitting of several thousand men and women. \ live In villages along the lower reaches | of the Tigris and Euphrates. Their C.cd i Is the Pole Star, and occasionally the head j priest holds a midnight service in the open. ! With his face turned towards the Pole j Star, be throws a white pigeon into the air. I muttering a prayer at the same time, j Killing another pigeon, be sprinkles its j blood on numerous wafers, which are then ' handed round for the congregation to con-' Bnme. I The "Holy Men of Benares." the sacred ■ city of India, lire in extreme emaciation, never standing or walking, but sitting with their legs crossed and the soles of their ' feet tamed upwards. ! The "True Believers." of Southern and Western Kansas, adopt the ceremony or washing one another's feet every night aud morning. They also practise a strange rite known as the "Holy Kiss." They stand in . a circle, men and women alternating. The \ highest of the "True Believers" commences the kissing, which is carried right round I the circle.