ROMANIA: A Romanian Orthodox monk faces excommunication after crucifying a young nun he says was possessed.
The lifeless body of Maricica Irina Cornici (23) was found chained to a cross in a cold chamber in the monastery in north-west Romania last Wednesday.
She had been denied food and water for three days but is believed to have died of asphyxiation as a result of the cloth forced into her mouth.
On Saturday her body was dressed in a black habit and headscarf, a crucifix put in her hands and a portrait of Our Lady on her stomach for the funeral Mass.
It was presided over by by Brother Daniel, the abbot in the Tanacu monastery, who performed the "exorcism" with the assistance of four nuns.
"She was sick and possessed. We said several Masses to end the spell. From a spiritual point of view we did exactly the right thing," said Br Daniel.
"God has performed a miracle for her, finally Irina is delivered from evil," he said at the funeral on Saturday. "It was God's will that she died. I don't understand why journalists are making such a fuss about this. Exorcism is a common practice in the heart of the Romanian Orthodox church and my methods are not at all unknown to other priests."
Ms Cornici grew up as an orphan in a children's home in the western city of Arad. Police say she entered the monastery three months ago to visit a friend but decided to stay.
Police reports say the monastery inhabitants reported Irina's erratic behaviour, believed to be schizophrenia.
One nun said Irina "had to be punished" after starting a fight with Br Daniel during Sunday Mass.
"They all said she was possessed and they were trying to cast out the evil spirits," said Michaele Straub, a police spokeswoman.
As thunder clapped overhead, the coffin was carried silently into an annex of the monastery chapel on Saturday. A nun told journalists that Irina's body could not be laid out in the main church as she was "possessed".
The Romanian Orthodox Church, one of the eastern orthodox churches, has about 20 million Romanian members making it second in size only to the Russian Orthodox Church.
The church's senior cleric in Bucharest declined to condemn the killing. "I don't know what this young woman did," Patriarch Bogdan Teleanu told Agence-France Presse.
The local bishop's office of the church had begun an investigation. Ms Straub said police were investigating.