PEOPLE MURDERED FOR RELIGION

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXVII, Issue 13675, 8 May 1912, Page 7

PEOPLE MURDERED FOR RELIGION

THE MOST EXTRAORDINARY SECTS IN THE WORLD. It was "reporti'd from St. Petersburg the other clay that thirty female members eil a Moravian community at End/,, who had formed themselves* into a new sect, endeavoured to persuade a man of the name of Kowalski, whom they rcgareleel as the-ir Saviour, to allow himself to be erneilicd so that they might be enabled, by in- resurrection, to prove the truth of tin ir tenets. Kowalski naturally refused to be tested in this manner and sueit him-oli up in his house. His "followers’’ stormed his abode, and only tin timely arrival of the police saved him Irorn assassination.

Russia shelters many strange sects, and it was not so very long ago since that the (dice' authorities discovered that about a d zen persons had apparently been burned alive in a number of the funeral pyres v. Inch had t en creeled on a plot of ground within the province of Viatica. luc|iiiries j lowd that the remains found were those of members of a religious seet known as the "Votyaki/' who believed in human sacrifices.

Some time previously a man named Kowale.ski was arrested in Tyraspol, a town in South Russia, on the suspicion of having caused the death of no fewer than thirtv-two persons, the bodies of \vh«.in were found buried in the neighItourhood of his dwelling. Kowahski was head of the ■‘Bjeguny” sect, a body oi 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 the sins of the world. In a large house in one of the fashionable quarters of St. Petersburg a remarkable K’et of Devil-worshippers took up their abode, and, according to the ■’Rnsskove Slianya," the members are drawn almost exclusively from the smartest pioj le in the capital, including many high officials. It is said that masses with wiir.l cc r, menial are celebrated at the he.ulq miters of the sect, those attending wearing fantastic costumes and going

through uu c''a!nr,ilo service. l;i M. \i-< tluiv is a small community ;i - the ‘ li ilv Flagellants,” and the things the nuni and women do to themselves through religious zeal are as terrible as they are extraordinary. Once a vea.', on one of their feast days, they carrv a man or woman, one of their number. on a cros? with two .swords, sharpened to a keen edge, so attached that they cut his or her sides at almost every movement of the bearers. Sometimes the martyr dies from the loss of blood, but more often he or she is maim'd for life. Many of the •‘Flagellantfi," it is said, carry heavy bundles of eactu on tlieir naked ba ,- ks, while others scourge themselves with, wires and chains until they faint

wiili the pain. The "St. John Christians”, a sect con-si-ting of several thousand men and women, live in villages along the hover ■■eiehi’s of the Tigris and Euphrates. Their Bod is the Polo Star, and occasionally me head priest holds a midnight service in the onen. With his face turned towards the Pole Star, he throws a white pigeon into the air, muttering a prayer at the same time. Killing another pigeon, he sprinkles its blood on numerous waters, which are then handed round for the congregation to consume. Tlie "Holy Men of Benares," the saend city of India, live in extreme emaciation. never standing or walking, but sitting with their legs crossed and the soles of their feet turned upwards. Tlie "true Believers" of Southern and Western Kansas, adopt the ceremony of washing one another’s feet every night ami morning. They also practise a strange rite known as tlie "Holy Kiss.” They stand in a circle, men and women alternating. The highest of the “True Believers" eommer.ees the kissing, which is carried right round the circle.