Monday, January 13, 2003. Posted: 07:01:44 (AEDT)

Haemorrhoid sufferers are flocking to a church in central Portugal in the belief they will be cured by exposing their afflicted behinds to the statue of a local saint.

The suffering faithful in Murtosa, 250 kilometres north of Lisbon, attribute St Goncalo with the power to cure the condition, the Jornal de Noticias reported.

The 13th-century priest also has a reputation for curing acne and helping women find husbands.

Antonio Amador, a local doctor and member of the church, told the paper that turnout was still strong but that "before the numbers were even greater".

Amador said that several years ago a young woman with severe acne wanted to pray nude in the church but that the local priest would not allow it because he was "a bit conservative".

St Goncalo has a loyal local following. Every June, during a festival in his honour in the northern town of Amarante, unmarried men and women exchange penis-shaped cakes as tokens of their affection.

-- Anonymous, January 13, 2003