[1][2][3] With a total of 64 temples, over forty reading rooms across the world and thousands of members, it remains the only religion established in Belgium whose notoriety and success has reached outside the country.

The purpose of life is to release oneself from the cycle of reincarnation through a moral progression aided by "fluids"—all human actions, acquired by silent prayer and the harm caused by diseases and enemies.

Registered as organism of public utility in Belgium and as religious association in France, the religion is directed by a college composed of the most active members called desservants.

Louis-Joseph Antoine was born on 7 June 1846 in Mons-Crotteux, Belgium at a place called "In the Chapel",[6] the youngest of a large family,[6][7] which belonged to the Roman Catholic Church.

[14] After marrying Jeanne Catherine Collon on 15 April 1873,[15] while he was a hammerer,[12] he became the father of a son, Louis Martin Joseph, born in Hamborn, Prussia on 23 September 1873, and baptized five days later in the Catholic Church of St.

He began to be influenced by the writings of Allan Kardec and, through his friend Gustave Gon, was initiated in 1884 in Spiritism in attending Spiritist meetings to Tilleur,[27] alongside his wife and his nephew Pierre Dor.

In his report, the prosecutor stated that Anthony was very cooperative, that his treatments were "simple" and that it was certain that he obtained many recoveries but only under suggestion; he noticed his "absolute sincerity", but also asserted his activities could be "a danger to public health".

[37] Meanwhile, on 25 December 1900, approximately 180 people attended the inauguration of a new building located at the corner of Tomballes and Bois-du-Mont streets that Antoine had purchased earlier the same year, and then decorated with portraits of Allan Kardec, the cure of Ars and Dr.

[42] In 1902, his group The Vine Growers of the Lord, although solicited, did not participate in the creation of a Spiritist Federation, then in 1905, the members did not attend the preparatory meeting of the Congress in Liège and refused the 0.25 franc contribution.

[61] From May 1909 to Easter 1910, Antoine did not appear in public, and lived alone to practice fasting and prayer, and the worship was assumed by one of his followers,[62] Florian Deregnaucourt, who also published the Antoinist literature.

At the meeting of 11 June 1911, the council proposed the publishing of a newspaper titled The Unitive (L'Unitif) which was released in September of the same year, with a printing of 400,000 copies for the first issue, and 6,000 subscribers.

To seek to prevent any misappropriation of the charism of Antoine within the movement after his death, the Antoinist journal L'Unitif published articles which presented Catherine as the legitimate successor and also redefined precisely the limits of the healers' role.

[91] The authority of Catherine was challenged just after her death by the Belgian branch of the movement, which has withdrawn the religious changes she made: removal of photographs in the temples, deletion of baptism, marriage and communion, opposition to the translation of Antoine's works.

[93] In Belgium, the growth of the religion quickly begin to slow down, even to decline, as indicated by the fact that no temple has been built since 1968 and that several of them are currently unused because of a lack of dressed members and/or money.

[98] Antoinist doctrine provides another interpretation to the original sin in the book of Genesis: Adam began to follow Eve, who had placed her confidence in a serpent, symbol of matter.

The religion attaches great importance to freedom of conscience and free will, which renders it attractive and promotes a diversity of beliefs among the followers who can refer simultaneously to other religious traditions.

[101] Some believers see Antoine as an incarnation of God; others, who continue to practice Catholicism, consider him a prophet equal to Jesus Christ; others, who adhere to New Age doctrines, perceive him as a spiritual figure.

[106] As good fluids are supposed to be transferable, the Antoinist dress used during the worship is often placed on the bed of a suffering person to help his recovery; similarly, some faithful put a request on a paper in a box under the platform so that the wish happens, others buy a photo of Antoine at a ceremony to be protected.

After the service, some people—regular faithful or visitors—may ask to consult a healer in one of the small rooms of the temple—although the desservant who lives in the apartment adjacent to the temple is always available to receive suffering persons.

For this purpose, the healer has to discover the origin of the consultant's problem, which is, in Antoinist beliefs, always linked to a person's own history, and to understand that he should bear the consequences of what was done in a preceding life.

These rituals have no particular meaning in the religion and are not considered sacraments;[133] they are performed only at the request of followers, including young people, who want to provide a religious dimension to the important moments of their lives.

At the entrance, there is a porch where various writings of the religious movement, the internal regulations (in France only), the list of the places of worship and the holidays, as well as photos of the Antoine couple and of the various temples, are exhibited behind display windows.

[147] There are four categories of Antoinists: desservants who perform worship, people who wear the religious clothing, regular faithful who attend the service every week, and occasional members or visitors.

The followers have mostly modest social status, such as miners and artisans,[180] and are generally people interested in spirituality, but who are at odds with the Catholic Church or display a skeptical attitude towards traditional medicine.

[192] According to Bégot, the success of Antoinist healing in the early 20th century can be explained by the fact that "it offered an alternative to the legitimate institutions of control of body and soul", i.e. the Catholic Church and medicine.

[212] In the early 2000s, membership of an Antoinist mother in Valenciennes was used by her former husband to remove from her the custody of their son; the decision received attention from media and was criticized by the French sociologist Régis Dericquebourg as being unjustified.

They heal through prayer, but as long as they do not prevent people from getting proper treatment by legal means..." In addition, the Renseignements généraux stopped monitoring the religion given the absence of any problem.

"[219] Similarly, Dericquebourg, who deeply studied the religious group, concluded that Antoinism is not a cult: it "has no totalitarian influence on its members, and do not dictate their behaviour to get in the world; it is not exclusive [and] shows no hostility towards social systems".

[225] Secretary of the French episcopate for the study of cults and new religious movements Jean Vernette also deemed the group a "healer church" and "a new religion of Spiritism, Theosophy and elements of Christianity".

[27] In an encyclopedia about sects, the journalist Xavier Pasquini qualified Antoinism a "genuine Theosophical religion", and stated that it "does not ask for money from its followers, and does not practice excessive indoctrination".