PRIEST’S CURSE

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 986, 31 May 1930, Page 14

PRIEST’S CURSE

CHURCH AND STATE CLAbH IN SERBIA Church and State have come ljk* painful conflict in the parish of t» tatia, near Tchatchak, *in Serb* Father Pakhomie, a monk detaues from the monastery of Studenitza t care for the souls of Ostatia, has bee* sentenced by the common courts 15 days of repentance, and to ** bound over never to hold a care souls again. The story of the d**’ rel is as follows: Father Pakhomie was a poor marand is doubly so now. He possess* in the form of a thousand dinar noire (worth just under £4). a trilling of savings, which he kept in his o oak chest in his one little room ® • to that of the Os aria parish tier He came home one day to find the* savings gone. He then proceeded assist the police in their work of tection by posting a notice on uk municipal boards: CURSE On the 22nd day of March of year I shall pronounce a cur 9e ;-r the church of Ostatia concern the money stolen from my cß ®v in my dwelling. Let the th| et turn the money. You saould n ■ of you forget that a priest’s is much more effective than a c : pronounced by parents or god-re"| tions. I give the parishioners this parish due warning, Let * s just remember what awaits after the curse. Pakhomie. The curse, actually pronounced jjjj following Sunday, ran: "He who' my money, God grant no lamb »* in his flock, no one speak in his B to the ninth generation. serpentsabout in his belly, and he be t to stone! ” But this is an unbelieving S e tion, and in spite of the tur£ ®, ,jj homie is without his savings: an police have added injury to im-- 1 So far no one in Ostatia has t : into stone.