CONGREGATION OF ONE.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 135, 9 June 1926, Page 10

CONGREGATION OF ONE.

MAN CONTROLS FUND OF £3000.

In the little village of Samnaun in the canton of Grisons near the Tyrolese frontier, a curious state of religious affaire has risen among the few hundred inhabitants. About eighty years ago the villagers, who were equally divided into Catholics and Protestants, decided to construct a church which should be at the service of each religion on alternate Sundays. After the church was built an ancient bell was bought and a cemetery constructed near the church. As the years passed, the Protestants emigrated or died, but the Catholics increased and to-day there remains only one Prostcstant in Samnaun. He is an old man who inherits the right of having the church and cemetery at his disposal once in each fortnight, and also controls the fund of 12.000 dollars subscribed by his ancestors for the upkeep of the church and the. parson's pay. The Catholic villagers naturally want the old man to waive his rights and let them have access to the church every Sunday, but lie refuses. "When I am dead you can do what you like, but only a person of my relision will enter the church with mc as long as I possess the keys.' , he says.

On his Sunday the old man enters the church alone, rings the hell for a few minutes, mounts the altar, reads a passage from the Bible, and then descends to his pew where he prays, and then walks out of the church, locking the floor. Tt is stated that some years ago this villajrer engaged a parson to preach, but ho refused on learning that ho would have a congregation of only one person.