A NOTABLE MAN.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 317, 7 January 1909, Page 4

A NOTABLE MAN.

FATHER JOHN OF KRONSTADT. Father John of Kronstadt, whose death is just reported, possessed extraordinary influence throughout Russia, but two years ago his sway declined very considerably. He was an opponent of the institution of government by popularly-elected representatives, an.l denounced the Duma as an unheultiiy growth. A correspondent of The Times, in one of a series of articles on "Russia Ittvisited," sketches the power and the I fall of Father John of Kronstadt. The correspondent writes: "When 1 was in Russia some years ago, Father John of Kronstadt, reputed mystic saint and thaumaturge, seemed to be as popular -and as powerful throughout the Empi'.'e as even th* Tsar, and when revolutionary disorders broke out some thought that he had but to 'speak t'-ic word only' in order to exorcise the demon of discontent by which the body politic was possessed. I have frequen'lv met Father John since then, in his o'wn house at Kronstadt, in my rooms at St. Petersburg, when I had rooms [here, and in sick chambers t u which ire had been culled I" oiler what proved to be -the fervent, effectual prayer of a righteous man.' I have heard him oreacb. and he always seemed to lie-

■o strive to substitute personal religion for a dogmatic and ecclesiastical system. "1 have discussed with him his leput■ed power as a worker oi miracles, and he invariably replied with simplicity and sincerity that man can do nothing, but that through man completely surrendered to God all things could be done by God. With such a creed a man must go far, and must go far if he has the qualities of a martyr as well as those of a saint. I knew that Father John was of most delicate and sensitive fibre; ■ but 1 was not without hope that bis : meek and lowly temper would rise into firmness and grandeur when popular I passion or bureaucratic tyranny dcuiand'ed t.bat deep should answer unto deep. L-But when the hour came I looked, and there was no man. On a previous occasion in connection with the Jewish 'porgem' at Kishinell, Father John hail discovered the 'fatal disposition to funk a crisis,' and when great rioting broke out in Kronstadt and all looked- to him to still the passions of the mob, the priest of Kronstadt—Hed. Up to that time, in spite of many calumnies, for which some credence had been lion by ais own indiscretions and the greater indiscretions of his friends, the influence, of Father John had been incalculable. From that moment the whole Empire

turned against him as completely as Florence tiiKied against Era Girolanio Savanarola when that priest and his monks refused the ordeal of fire.''