ARREST OF A MONK.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 302, 14 May 1913, Page 8

ARREST OF A MONK.

DEPLORABLE CONDITION OF HIS FOLLOWERS. A Renter message from St. Petersburg states that the monk innoceiu.u.-.. whose exploits Uave just reached a cii.mix, lias received shorter shrift Uiau ma predecessor lliodor. He has been arrested by the Archangel Government after escaping from the monastery to which he had been exiled from Bessarabia owing to his fanatical and immoral propaganda. It is reported that he lias been slightly wounded by a bayonet thrust. He has evidently an extraordinary personality, as 800 adherents, many of them women and children, followeu inm to Archangel. They regarded him as the personilication of Christ, ignorantly mistaking the Onega, near to which river Innocentius was banished, for "Omega," in the passage, "I am Alpha and Omega,' in the .Revelation of St. John. Innocentius was joined by his followers after his escape from the monastery, and they started across the snow to seek the New Zion, all bare-headed and chanting hymns. A few of them were in carts and others on foot. Their condition soon became deplorable. The temperatnre was below zero, and they were all frostbitten and starving. Some of them died during the pilgrimage. A detachment of rural guards was despatched to aid them, and also a Red Cross party from St. Petersburg.