A PRECIOUS SAINT.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1410, 18 November 1886, Page 2

A PRECIOUS SAINT.

The capture of a brigand near Bcooigliere, a hamlet situated remote part of the Calabrian Highlands, has (says the Rome correspondent of the Dally News) revealed the existence in that region of an extens|v& sect, .remarkable alike for the wlldneia of ita tenets and the nefarious character of its practices. Its head is an ex-sergeant, Gibriel Donnell, who claims to be the Deity, and represents the Advent as still to come. Daring the last five years he has been organising this sect, which comprises nearly all the small farmers and shepherds of .the district. His gospel seems to be a sort of communism of the lowest and most sensual type. The clandestine meetings of the sect are alleged to be marked by orgies and obscene - rites, recalling the rorst features of Oriental paganism. Donnici’s own sister-in-law, for refusing to conform to these practices, was shut up in a cave and left there to die. This nearly led to the breaking up of the commnnity. a* TVinnici and his followers were arrested and tried for murder, bat' owing to the Imt oislbility of procuring witnesses against them they were acquitted. The sect has now been brought into farther notice by the capture of Sersfino Bruno, one of its leading members, or saints, as they are called. This worthy, after murdering a doctor, betook himself last April t > the woods, and with the connivance of his co-religionists flourished there as a highway robber The police having-' failed to track him, Brnno was arrested the other day by a local lan-owner, Count Oonverano. His capture occasioned great demonstrat'ons of grief at Booohigliere, wh ra hundreds of men and woman hang about this precious saint and kissed him rap nrously.