Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1910-04-30

A'ohAhsAA HA a. monastery III INC govern
ment of kazan. Peasants fiocked
there by the thousand, only 10 find
that the monks were so drunk that
they could not hold a service or say
mass. So they went home again and
the head OF one of the communes sent
notice OF what had happened to the
synod. one convent in the government
OF Moscow is so lax that the nuns go
not to supper with monks from
neighboring monastery. When a girl
enters this particular institution her
friends shake their heads and say she
has gone there 10 be able to have "a
good time In this kind Of institution.
as Archlmandrite Flavian, who is try
ing to get people 10 interest them
selves in the work Of reform says. the
religion is OF a purely physical nature
and has nothing to do with conduct. II
consists In staying in church so many
hours day gossiping In an undertonc
and making the sign Of the cross al
prescribed Intervals
one great difference In the religious
lives Of the Slav and the Anglo-Saxon
strikes foreigners. In England or
America, when a parish priest or clor-
gyman takes to drink or leads an inn
moral life his church is empty and his
parishiOnors forsake him In Russia
they still flock TO his church and insist
upon his reading the lessons and cele-
brating mass They viii put his head
under a pump 10 sober him and put on
his vestmeuts
Among other things the roformcrs
wish TO make the priests take more
time over hearing confession and see
that their fioclls come more often. Now,
as many as eight people viii bc heard
and shriven within 10 or 10 minutes
But in spite Of these abuses. there is
ample proof Of the existence Of many
good monks and nuns.
PATHETIC STORY.
One story OF an old monk. Father
Seraphin, is pathetic iu the extreme.
For more than 40 years he has lived In
the monastery OF the Holy Trinity in
Moscow. a year or two back young
girl who attended the church attrcted
his attention. lie fen in love with her
ana determined 10 marry her The 9TH
or brethren In the monastery tried 10
dissuade him, saying he was too old to
begin a new life. but he would not
listen He begged TO be allowed to
leave the place and take his money
with him. SO he got his freedom and.
going to the girls parents asked for
her hand When they heard he had
some money they assented The day
fixed for the wedding arrived but when
the eN-monk went 10 church the bride
was not there. She had gone away with
younger lover and taken the poor old
mans money with her. So he walked
sadly back TO the monastery ana asked
to be taken in.
And whore Is your money asked
the archimandrite. The old man con-
fessod he had none and the archiman-
drito guessing what had become Of II
took him back and gave him the same
position among the brethren which no
had before
THE SIMPLE LIFE"
Many Russians have a great love Of
the true monastic life ! know of "a
very rich and beautiful woman who
married a man OF the world But
though they were very fond Of each
other at first the wife soon wished she
had gone into a convent She tasted
assiduously and even when they CAV.
large dinner parties al which their
guests were served with the most cost
~ wines and foods, she, clad I'm "a siu-
pie black dress. would eat nothing but
a piece OF sailed herring and a potato
Her husband grew very angry az THE
but she WoIld not stop and before ions
he said that In she must live Ike q
saint he would leave her. She left
home after this, taking the two chill
lren with her. and took a bare room
where she lived with them. The chill
iren would not go back TO their father
though he offered them beautiful
home, but preferred 10 be with their
mother. Although the boy had been
entered for one Of the most aristocratlc
schools In Russia she took him TO a
'horisters' school attached 10 ST
Isaac's cathedral in ST. Petersburg
where he learned to sing side By side