The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-06-17

The Mysterious Rites oil
the Orthodox
Church.

ST PETERSBURG-Th religion Of
Of mysterious rites supposed to have
.sliDernatural power. The absolute lack
Of the spiritual, and the inordinate i'm
rortauce of the ceremonial. are mani
tested by the following instances,
which are only few of many that
might be quoted, a robber killed a
traveller and rified his baggage. but re-
Trained from eating a piece of cooked
meat which he found in the victims
belongings. because it happened to be
a fast day. An assassin about To at
trmpt the murder of an attache of the
Austrian Embassy III st. Petersburg,
went first Ia the church to commend
his undertaking to the protection OF
the saints. ON another occasion Whel
:. burglar was lootng a church he
found it hard to extract the jewels
from the frame Of one of the ikons.
The thief paused in his work to make
a prayer to a certain saint. Offering
to place a rouble's worth of tapers
before it's image if given assistance
in securing the vaIuables.
Ikons play an important part in all
the religious observances of the Rus
sian people. These sacred pictures
are found in every dwelling and in
every public house. They are even
seen in dining halls and railway sta
tons The ikon is usually half
length figure representing the Savior
the Madonna. or some saint. 1t IS
usually executed upon a yellow or gold
ground. varying in size from square
inch to several square feet. Frequent
ly the whole picture. excepting the
hands and face is covered with a metal
plaque so arranged as to outline the
form and have the effect of drapery.
These sacred emblems are often orna-
mented with pearls and other precious
stones of great value
WONDER WORKING IKONs.
There are two kinds OF ikons, or
binary and miracle working. Those
supposed to be of miraculous char
acter are kept in the churches. All
such have a mysterious origin mas
much as they are not believed to have
been made by mortal hands. a monk
or some Church official will have a
vision and then announce that a mirac-
uious ikon is to be found at a certain
place Sometimes ii will be buried, or
again it will be hanging from a tree.
The sacred treasure will be removed
to the nearest church. the news of its
discovery creating a sensation in the
community. Crowds of deyOut wor-
shippers congregate to PROSTATE them
selves before the Heaven-sent picture,
and many cases are reported where
sufferers have Eeen cured of disease.
one of the famous MadOnnas is kept
in church in Moscow. Whenever the
Car visits that city he usually goes
direct from the railroad station to pray
in the chapel where this particular
ikon is located. Rich parishioners
have the privilege of taking this mira
cIe-working picture to their homes. The
carriage containing it is always rec
0gnized because the driver is bare
headed. The people in the streets in
variably take off their hats as the sa-
cred possession passes. Wherever it is
taken short ceremony is performed
before il. after which it is carried
through all the rooms of the house. The
servants kneel on the floor so il may
be carried over them. a notable thing
concerning the travels of this famous
symbol is that whenever it is absent
from the chapel it is replaced by copy
SO nearly like the original that only
an expert can tell the difference. con-
SequentIE there = no interference Will
the devotions of the faithful. nor check
in the flow of contributions from the
worshipers.
CONVERTING THE Firms.
When the authorities of the Rus
sian Church determined to proselyte
the Firms little difficulty was encount-
cred because of the temperate demands
that We're made upon them. The prin-
cipaI requirement was that the new
converts should be baptised. and little
resistance was offered TO this perform
ance so long as it occurred during the