FAITH HEALING SECT ESTABLISHED IN BELGIUM

    Brussels, Jan. 8. – A new religion known as Antoinism has been brought into prominence in Belgium by the presentation of a petition to parliament for the legal recognition of the new cult.
    Antoinism was founded a few years ago by a coal miner named Louis Antoine, who is now celebrated as "Antoine, the Healer." His followers claim that they number 160,000, of whom 300, including his wife, are "adepts."
    Mrs. Guillaume, a middle-aged American lady who came specially from New York to be treated by Antoine, says she has been practically cured of the chalky rheumatism, which formerly compelled her to walk on crutches. She is herself an "adept" now, with power to heal by faith, she says. Antoinists literally worship their leader. They believe that he knows all the world's happenings, though he never reads newspaper.
    Antoine, whose home is at Jemeppe-lez-Liege, is now sixty-five, and confines his healing to ceremonies in the church he has built. They are the simplest services ever invented. They take place at 10 a. m. on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday – there are none on Sunday.
    At 9 a. m. the congregation assembles, and an "adept," M. Deregnacourt, who is the publisher of the sect's literature, takes his place at a desk under the raised platform. There is silence till 9:30. Then he announces that "operations" will take place at certain hours on certain days.
    He continues sitting perfectly still, not a muscle moving, and his eyes fixed straight before him, until the stroke of 10. when everyone rises and the Parent One enters through a side door and slowly walks up the steps to the rostrum, wearing a black cassock. Antoine, who has long, iron-gray hair to his shoulders, and a long beard, faces the people for a full minute without moving, and then lifts his right hand towards the people and holds it extended for another minute, and that is all. He walks slowly out again. Those two minutes are the service. The adept remarks: "Everyone whose faith is strong enough must be cured." The church empties silently.
    If cures do not take place it is because – so it is said – the patients have not enough faith. Antoine's second-sight extends to America, Mrs. Guillaume says, for he told her that her husband had hurt his back in New York, and a week later came a letter from her daughter confirming it and adding that he had quickly got better. Mrs. Guillaume was told by Antoine that she need not worry about her husband's accident, as Antoine was in fluidic communion with him.
    Antoine cannot sleep much at night. He rests for two hours and then walks in his garden, which has electric lamps fitted up all around the walls. For six months Antoine has not spoken to anyone at all. People come at all hours with all sorts of ailments and appeals.
    The "Good Mother," as Antoine's wife is called, or the housekeeper, or some other "adept," stands in front of the applicant and, turning her eyes upwards, slowly waves her hand in the air, which means that she is invoking Antoine, the Healer. The patient then goes off smiling, cured by deputy. There is nothing to pay.
    It is three years since. Antoine walked in the street. He lives on vegetables only, and prepares them himself. When it is necessary to speak to him a telephone is used. Subscriptions are made for the maintenance of the church, but it was built partly with $4,000 he had saved himself. The badge of the sect is "the tree of knowledge of the sight of evil," represented by a white tree on a black ground.

Herald Democrat, January 9, 1911