BOILING HOLY WATER.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9397, 18 March 1909, Page 2

BOILING HOLY WATER.

Twenty-two further oases of cholera have declared themselves at the Widows’ Heme attached to the Srdolny Institute in St. Petersburg. The leading medical authorities in the capital take a very pessimistic view of the cholera prospects in the spring. They say that whatever precautions may be adopted, St. Petersburg will continue a hotbed of infections’diseases so long as there is no pure drinking water and the system of drainage is not modernised. Precautions have been adopted to prevent unboiled water being drunk on the occasion of the Feast of the Epiphany. In the churches where boiled water was not available the clergy* were instructed to enjoin their congregations not to drink the water, even after it had been blessed until they bad had it boiled at home. An unusual circumstance marked the usual ceremony nf blessing the water taken from the Neva.

Near the hole in the ice from which ;,the water had been drawn a platform was erected, on which reposed a huge copper tank filled with boiled water.

The bishop dipped his cross in the tank, and after receiving bis benediction the water was distributed among the devout worshippers. A strong force of police was stationed on the banka of the Neva to prevent any water being taken direct from the river.