SAINT TO COUNCILLOR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20366, 21 September 1929, Page 2 (Supplement)

SAINT TO COUNCILLOR.

PETER THE " HOLY MAN."

A NEW CALL TO HONOUR

STORY OF A BROKEN OATH.

Father Peter, the " holy man".of the Serbian village of Dokmir. has recently concluded his revivalist career by receiving a second " call"—this time to become a parish councillor, a post which io of* great importance in that country. On the occasion of his translation to this more worldly sphere of activity an authenticated account of his first " call" has* been given to the Press. Father Peter's father, some years be fore ho (lied, rnado his son swear to bury hun under a certain oak tree; but the 6olcmn oath was not kept. The result was that tho first time Peter passed the tree he was struck dumb; and dumb lie remained for a year and a day. On this last day, a Saturday, tho female saint of tho Eastern Church, " Petka Para skeva," appeared to Him to tell hrm his sin was small, but his punishment was to bo great. J

Peter was to down on the ground like a hedgehog, and walk " on his chin and his knees" until the day of Saint Panterius,' which he was to take as his saint day. and celebrate by fasting. .On this day he was to frawl under the tree and pray for forgiveness, and be a model of repentance to all the village. All this was fulfilled, and there are innumerable witnesses' who claim to have seen old Peter, huddled up like a hedgehog, going about the village "on ehin and knees," until, on Saint Pantelius' day, he straightened up again. He was a terrible example of what divine punishment may be, not only to the Dokmiriana, but to the peasantry for some 20 miles round, and ho was considered a saint until his recent " call" to municipal honour. With this " call" has apparently come a conviction that his life must begin anew in all respects, and it is reported that, with most single-minded disregard for his holy fame, ho has now, a parish councillor, divorced himself from his wife and taken Bnotber in her stead.