Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1917-03-26
IBy Associated Pressl

n
ceremony Of -Anathema" against
Elephtherios venizelos. former prime
minister OF Greece, is still continuing
in the lesser towns OF Old Greece
Every Sunday in villages scattered
here and there over the country,
where the ceremony has not yet taken
place, the people come together, gene
rally under the leadership OF the local
priest. and go through the age-oid,
semireligious act of calling down d.
vine wrath upon @Elephtherios Veni-
zeios who has imprisoned priests and
! who has plotted against the royal
house and against the country" as
1.-The wording of the anathema runs.
The anathema ceremony Is by no
means an unusual one in Greece today
especially in the outer islands and the
rural districts. II is so usual indeed
that the word anathema" akpears
in the current Greek English converse
tion books, under the heading OF COM
mon religious terms Nor is it the
first time that Venizelos has been
mathematical. According to General
Vases, who worked simultaneously
with yenizelcs for the freedom of
Crete the ceremony was pronounced
against Venizelos by the Cretans some
20 years ago.
4 On the present occasion the cere-
monies have been more widespread.
Few villages now remain in Oio
Greece where the anathema against
the Cretan has net been pronounced.
with all the forms of the days when
Alcibiades. having deserted the Athen-
fans for their Spartan enemies some
twenty-three centuries ago, was
stoned in spirit after his departure.
In each instance the clergy of the
Greek church have not only sanction
ed but taken active part in the cere-
monies.
The first OF this series of anathemas
against Venizelos was pronounced in
Athens. The spot, set for the cere-
mony was the immense military exer-
else field of the garrisons of Athens.
The government formally. forbade
the ceremony the day before, fearing
disturbances, and it was thought that
1.-THE ceremony would be abandoned.
4 At daybreak, however, peasants from
their African and Boeotian farms be-
gan to flock into town, each carry.
ling a stone from his own soil tucked
laway among the accordean pleats OF
the white skirts that the Greek pea
SAINTS wear upon occasions Of cere.
niony Many br0ugli their wives and
children. the women all carrying their
own stones and frequently the
lchildren also.
BY noon the streets of the capital
Witnessed an unending procession of
peasants and poorer folk bound in the
! direction of the Kypselis quarter
where the exercise field Is located.
| On the Patissia road. which leads to-
the field house was i'm process Of
constrnction and piles of stones were
heaped in the yard to be used in
building. AS the people passed. those
who bad forgotten to bring stones
took each one from this pile. In a
quarter Of an hour but one was left.
i The building contractor who had been
trying in vain to protect his property
shrugged his shoulders, hoisted the
remaining rock onto his back and join
ed the march, to pronounce an
lspathema of his own partly against
IYenizelos but probably partly also
against these who had stripped his
yard
Immediately following luncheon, the
weather Athenians began to appear
in Carriages On the. seat Of each
smart turnout was a small stone and
each coachman had ,one for himself
hidden between his feet, Ladies Of
the best Greek society clutched in
lwhite-gloved hands a vanity box-and
d rock. The Archbishop of Athens
in full eanonicals drove in carriage
which was followed by procession
lof other carriages bearing the mem
bers of the Holy Synod of the Greek
4 church As the prelates passed
Through the crowd the men uncover
ed and all bowed their heads to re-
lceive the blessings of the priests. In
one carriage the venerable bishops
of Corytsa and Larissa sat together,
gentle old men with whitening boards,
who raised their hands constantly in
la sign of the cross above the people
lcrowaing against the wheels of the
vehicle.
Il Finally, the carriages could go no
4 farther; the crowd was too dense.
The aged priests dismounted, the
people pushing back to make path
for them. As each prelate stepped
from his carriage, the hand that had
been distributing blessings fumbled
under the flowing black gown and
drew from its folds stone to cast
upon the pile being erected to the
anger of the Greeks against their for.
mer favorite, Venizelos.
| The pile of stones Of which each
man had cast one, pronouncing at the
same time the words: Katara kai
anathema' courses and anathema)
was already higher than a mans head
when the Archbishop mounted It.
| Standing well above the crowd, he
pronounced the stigma of the church:
Accused be Eliphtherios Venizelos
who has imprisoned priests and plot
ted against the royal house and the
country. He cast his stone on the
/. L his Atf4Io SoTnn instant