A mysterious sect that came and swiftly left

A group of Danish citizens that settled for a while in a village outside Thessaloniki in northern Greece apparently belonged to a secretive Christian sect that is now accused of mistreating its followers, including by subjecting children and adults alike to corporal punishment.

The inhabitants of Melissohori remember a group of very polite and industrious individuals who bought two derelict houses and worked hard to refit them. The children, who also took part in the refitting, were homeschooled; the reason given was that at least some of them had suffered bullying back in Denmark.

The villagers had welcomed the Danish group in January 2019; they had been told that the new arrivals planned to settle permanently in the country and learn the language. Soon, they also started to observe behaviors that seemed strange; the Danes told different back stories to different...