Daily Mirror
(Wednesday, 14 December 1910)
Curious religious cult has been “discovered” in Belgium. It is called Antoinism and was founded by a coal miner named Louis Antoine, whose [seat?] at Jemeppe-lez-Liege. He is now known as “Antoine the Healer,” and his followers claim that they number 160,000. There are 300 “adepts,” including Mme. Antoine, who claim that they have the power to heal by faith. – (Daily Mirror photographs.)
CURED BY DEPUTY.
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. His little house is hidden away in the midst of a block of similar houses, and the spire of his church, which adjoins his home, rises high above the roofs.
Antoine lives on vegetables only, and prepares them himself. He is a veritable hermit. 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 £800 he had himself saved.
The badge of the sect is “the tree of the knowledge of the sight of evil,” represented by a white tree on a black ground. (Photographs on page 8.)
Daily Mirror,
Wednesday 14 December 1910