Russian Superstition.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7862, 3 July 1905, Page 2

Russian Superstition.

IwhiM V ollce *nd officials, ■whilst doing their utmost to keeD jthe people in ignorance and darkness either openly < encourage or tactily ■lt unit everything that tends to further this policy. Only, an hour's jour, ney from st Petersburg, in the town of Kionstadt, which is visited by, thousands of Englishmen, Germans, and other nationalities, there is not r f rep " t ?f miracle worker Father John, of Kronstadt, but a peasant woman name Kisclova, who ""J* Wl . th Swat pomp and cercmonj' has declared that she is vii t own motller again on earth." Kiseloba receives her worshippers in a darkened room, where she sits up- 1 on a throne 'of several "ikons" or holy pictures, covered with a mantle like the Virgin Mary is supposed to have worn. Her throne is illuminated with small electric lamps, which cast a brilliant, dazzling light over the woman sitting on the throne, this spectacle has an overpowering effect on everyone, and, more espec,><w .oa ,*hfi'i£WKaaf> pefcsaflts, who are so aftecteT that .they fall on t V e lf k ? ccs imploring the assistance of the ,'heavenly Queen." It is now yeals slnce tllis impostor t l c T menCcd her activity in Kronstaat. (But when a certain 'merchant got a stroke from emotion owing to beholding the "mother of Qod" on her thriiie, the police thought it hi eh. tunc to interfere and expel the wofnT Ji'u' 1 } 16 - town- She n ow livwL! I Kolpin ',." ear st - Petersburg where she continues to deceive the ignoiant peasantry. Fattier John who is considered one nri P hoIy '- of th * Orthodox pnestf m Russia, is attetoptinc to defend the imposter in the colums of the Petersburg Listock against the "TlicTMnth 44 a s e r- be '.'f made against Hie (Mother of God" by the indienant| journalists of St, Petersburg, father John says that the accused is • not an imposter, but a sick, slandcrt' • I l ' nocettt woman, and so that she stadl shp' i !f i h lead pe °l )le in K'ronboui IJrll S » Se ?v t t0 olanin -' Shortly 3,ftcr this h&DDoiicd 1 »; h "«r attended service in the 1%01,Sl %o I ,S , t \ Aadrew Kron?i, j/ end , ed b y » crowd of girls dichlicd m white, who sang: " HonwoAh ? 0U1 : to tbe queen of the ' woim, W h o , s now on the way to her th r ' Liule mhcr O T t peasant women cross themselves ami wcqp, whilst beggars in rags Lst e » of F'ftnrt' P to . c ® ssioll ! for alongside - s , ,? there go two silf a " 6 Fath£ 0 , di f ribut9 P^ s 01 r 0." nf L, , - Jo , hll , may also b» f shows onlv / S, i s incident snows only too wel? hoa the sunerin Kmntt t scem take P'aca roi.ii '• ll ,s cas P to imazine L occur ?u m thc interior ofsusth,e Peasants are still mora ignorant and superstitious 4