Russian Orthodox traditionalists who rejected the reforms instituted in 1666. Although persecuted, they survived, established their own hierarchy in 1848, and were recognized by the state in 1881.
In the context of Russian Orthodox church history, the Old Believers (Russian: старове́ры or старообря́дцы) separated after 1666 - 1667 from the hierarchy of the Russian Orthodox Church as a protest against church reforms introduced by Patriarch Nikon. Old Believers continue liturgical practices which the Russian Orthodox Church maintained before the implementation of these reforms. Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church from 1652 to 1658) introduced a number of ritual and textual innovations with the aim of achieving uniformity between Russian and Greek Orthodox practices. Nikon, having noticed discrepancies between Russian and Greek rites and texts, ordered an adjustment of the Russian rites to align with the Greek ones of his time. These traditionalists became known as "Old Believers" or "Old Ritualists".
The reforms of Patriarch Nikon
By the middle of the 17th century Greek and Russian Church officials, including Patriarch Nikon, had noticed discrepancies between contemporary Russian and Greek rites. They reached the conclusion that the Russian Orthodox Church had, as a result of errors of incompetent copyists, developed rites and missal texts of its own that had significantly deviated from the Greek originals. Thus, the Russian Orthodox Church had become dissonant from the other Orthodox churches. This council officially established the reforms and anathematized not only all those opposing the innovations, but the old Russian books and rites themselves as well. As a side-effect of condemning the past of the Russian Orthodox Church and her traditions, the messianic theory depicting Moscow as the Third Rome appeared weaker. Old Believers present the following as the most crucial changes:
| Old Practice | New Practice | |
|---|---|---|
| Spelling of Jesus | Исусъ | Іисусъ |
| Creed | рождена, а не сотворена (begotten but not made); И в Духа Святаго, Господа Животворящаго (And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord, the Giver of Life) | |
| Sign of the Cross | Two fingers, straightened | Three fingers, straightened |
| Number of Hosts in the Liturgy | Seven Hosts | Five Hosts |
| Direction of Procession | Sunwise | Counter-Sunwise |
| Alleluia | Аллилуия, аллилуия, слава Тебе, Боже (Alleluia, alleluia, glory to Thee, o God) | Аллилуйя, аллилуйя, аллилуйя, слава Тебе, Боже (three times alleluia) |
Notes on other differences appear below. Modern readers may perceive these alterations as trivial, but the faithful of that time saw rituals and dogmas as strongly interconnected: church rituals had from the very beginning represented and symbolised doctrinal truth (see the section on Justification of Old Belief below). The Old Believers fiercely rejected all innovations, and the most radical amongst them maintained that the official Church had fallen into the hands of the Antichrist. Under the guidance of Archpriest Avvakum Petrov (1620 or 1621 to 1682), who had become the leader of the conservative camp within the Old Believers' movement, the Old Believers publicly denounced and rejected all ecclesiastical reforms. The State church anathematized both the old rites and books and those who wished to stay loyal to them at the synod of 1666. From that moment, the Old Believers officially lacked all civil rights. The State church had the most active Old Believers arrested, and executed several of them (including Archpriest Avvakum) some years later in 1682. Many Old Believers fled Russia altogether. However, Old Believers became the dominant denomination in many regions, including Pomorye (Arkhangelsk region), Guslitsy, Kursk region, the Urals, Siberia etc. A compact 40,000-strong Lipovan community of Old Believers still lives in neighboring Kiliia raion (Vilkovo) of Ukraine and Tulcea County of Romania in the Danube Delta. By the 1910s, about 25% of the population in Russia said that they belonged to one of the Old Believer branches (census data).
Government oppression could vary from relatively moderate, as under Peter the Great (reigned 1682 - 1725) (Old Believers had to pay double taxation and a separate tax for wearing a beard) — to intense, as under Tsar Nicholas I (reigned 1825 - 1855). The Russian synodal state church and the state authorities often saw Old Believers as dangerous elements and as a threat to the Russian state. The Old Believers gained the right to build churches, to ring church bells, to hold processions and to organize themselves. It became prohibited (as under Catherine the Great (reigned 1762 - 1796)) to refer to Old Believers as raskolniki (schismatics), a name they consider insulting. People often refer to the period from 1905 until 1917 as "the Golden Age of the Old Faith". One can regard the Act of 1905 as emancipating the Old Believers, who had until then occupied an almost illegal position in Russian society. Nevertheless some restrictions for Old Believers continued: for example, they had no right to join the civil service.
Modern situation
In 1971 the Moscow Patriarchate revoked the anathemas placed on the Old Believers in the 17th century, but most Old Believer communities have not returned to Communion with other Orthodox Christians.
Estimates place the total number of Old Believers remaining today at from 1 to 10 millions, some living in extremely isolated communities in places to which they fled centuries ago to avoid persecution. One Old-Believer parish in the United States has entered into communion with the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia.
Old-Believer churches in Russia currently have started restoration of their property, although Old Believers (unlike the nearly-official mainstream Orthodoxy) face many difficulties in claiming their restitution rights for their churches. Moscow has churches for all the most important Old Believer branches: Rogozhskaya Zastava (Popovtsy of the Belokrinitskaya hierarchy official center), a cathedral for the Novozybkovskaya hierarchy in Zamoskvorech'ye and Preobrazhenskaya Zastava where Pomortsy and Fedoseevtsy coexist. Ordinary Old Believers display some tendencies of intra-branch ecumenism, but these trends find sparse support among the official leaders of the congregations.
Nowadays Old Believers live all over the world they scattered mainly due to persecutions under the Tsars and due to the Russian Revolution of 1917.
Old Believer Denominations
Although all Old Believers groups emerged as a result of opposition to the Nikonian reform, they do not constitute a single monolithic body. In fact, the Old Believers feature a great diversity of groups that profess different interpretations of the church tradition and often are not in communion with each other.
Popovtsy
Since none of the bishops joined the Old Believers (except Bishop Pavel of Kolomna, who suffered execution), apostolically ordained priests of the old rite would have soon become extinct. Two responses appeared to this dilemma: the “priestist” Old Believers (поповцы (Popovtsy)) and the non-priestist Old Believers (беспоповцы (Bespopovtsy — literally "priestless ones")).
The Popovtsy represented the more moderate conservative opposition, those who strove to continue religious and church life as it had existed before the reforms of Nikon. They recognized ordained priests from the new-style Russian Orthodox church who joined the Old Believers and who had denounced the Nikonian reforms. In 1846 they convinced Amvrosii Popovich (1791 - 1863), a deposed Greek Orthodox bishop whom Turkish pressure had had removed from his see at Sarajevo, to become an Old Believer and to consecrate three Russian Old-Believer priests as bishops. Not all priestist Old Believers recognized this hierarchy. The priestist Old Believers thus manifest as two churches which share the same beliefs, but which treat each other's hierarchy as illegitimate. One can refer to the Russian part of this denomination as the Belokrinitskoe Soglasie (the "Belokrinitsky Agreement") or as the Russian Orthodox Old-Rite Church. Okruzhniki (extinct) Neokruzhniki (extinct) Novozybkovskaya hierarchy or Russian Old-Orthodox Church Beglopopovtsy (extinct, now the Russian Old-Orthodox Church) Luzhkane, also known as Luzhkovskoe soglasie (extinct). they preached the imminent end of the world, asceticism, adherence to the old rituals and the old faith. Novopomortsy, or "New Pomortsy" - accept marriage Staropomortsy, or "Old Pomortsy" - reject marriage Fedoseevtsy – “Society of Christian Old Believers of the Old Pomortsy Unmarried Confession” (1690s- present); the name comes from the Russian net "no", since they have "no" sacraments, "no" churches, "no" priests etc.
Edinovertsy
Edinovertsy (единоверчество) - Agreed to become a part of the official Russian Orthodox Church while saving the old rites. First appearing in 1800, the Edinovertsy come under the omophor of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate or of the Russian Church Abroad. One can call them "Old Ritualists", but they do not count as "Old Believers" in the standard sense.
Differences between the Old Believers and post-Nikonian Russian Orthodoxy
Old Believers use two fingers while making the sign of the cross (two fingers straightened, three folded) while new-style Orthodoxy uses three fingers for the sign of cross (three fingers straightened, two fingers folded). Old Ritualists generally say the Jesus Prayer with the Sign of the Cross, while New Ritualists use the Sign of the Cross as a Trinitarian symbol. Old Believers reject all changes and emendations of liturgical texts and rituals introduced by the reforms of Patriarch Nikon. Thus they continue to use the older Church Slavonic translation of the sacred texts, including the Psalter, striving to preserve intact the "pre-Nikonian" practices of the Russian Church. Old Believers only recognize performing baptism through three full immersions, and reject the validity of any baptismal rite performed otherwise (for example through pouring or sprinkling, as the Russian Orthodox Church has occasionally accepted since the 18th century). Old Believers in principle oppose ecumenism, despite many instances of good relationships and collaboration with other Eastern Orthodox churches.Old Believers and new-style Orthodoxy have a lot of small, but essential differences in their respective church services. Old Believers chant the alleluia verse after the psalmody twice, not three times. Old Believers do not use polyphonic singing, but only monodic, unison singing. Old Believers practise several different types of znamennoe singing: znamenny raspev, stolpovoy raspev, pomorsky raspev(or khomovoe singing), demestvenny raspev etc. Old Believers use only icons of old Russian or Byzantine iconography; Old Ritualists do not accept photographic or printed reproductions of icons in their worship. Old Believers do not kneel while praying, but in comparison with new-style Orthodoxy, they perform more bows and prostrations, see zemnoy poklon). While making prostrations, Old Believers use a special little rug called a podruchnik, placing their hands on it. On average the Old Believers' services last two to three times longer than in new-style Orthodoxy. In general, the Old Believers insist on following the rubrics to the letter, and refrain from shortening the Psalter readings and hymnography. While saying repetitive prayers, Old Believers use a special type of beads called lestovka. Old Believers who have ordained priests use a more strict preparation before Communion — with very strict fasting within the week before Communion. Old Believers do not venerate saints that appeared in Orthodoxy after 1666. On the other hand, many Old Believers' ecclesial bodies have canonized a number of saints who are not being recognized by the Russian Orthodox Church, e.g. Old Believers use cast (silver, bronze) and carved (wooden) icons as well as painted ones. In Old Believer circles the practice continued and became very popular, since Old Believers had often to hide their religious implements.
Old Believers also have unique daily-life practices. They consider shaving one's beard a sin — though some modern denominations of Old Believers show more tolerance towards shaven chins.
Validity of the Reformist Theory: sources of Russian traditions
Vladimir officially converted the Russians to Christianity in 988, and the people had adopted Greek Orthodox liturgical practices. This explains the differences between the modern version of the Typicon, used by the Russian Orthodox Church, and the pre-Nikonian Russian recension of Jerusalem Typicon, called Oko Tserkovnoe (Rus. This pre-Nikonian version, based on the Moscow printed editions of 1610, 1633 and 1641, continues to be used by modern Old Believers.
However, in the course of the polemics against Old Believers, the "official" Russian Orthodox Church often claimed the discrepancies (which emerged in the texts between the Russian and the Greek churches) as Russian innovations, errors, or arbitrary translations. Kapterev demonstrated - for the first time to the wider Russian audience - that the rites, rejected and condemned by the Nikonian reforms, were genuine customs of the Orthodox Church which suffered alterations in the Greek usage during the 15th-16th centuries, but remained unchanged in Russia.
Remarkably, the scholars who opened the new avenues for re-evaluation of the reform by the Russian Church — Kapterev and E.E. Their research revealed the official theory regarding the old Russian books and rites as unsustainable. Zenkovsky has described Kapterev's as [...] the first historian who questioned the theory about the “pervertedness” or incorrectness of the Old Russian ritual and pointed out that the Russian ritual was not at all perverted, but had on the contrary preserved a number of early Old Byzantine rituals, among them the sign of the cross with two fingers, which had been changed later on by the Greeks themselves, in the 12th and 13th century, which caused the discrepancy between the Old Russian and the New Greek church rituals.
Justification of Old Belief
The Old Believer schism did not occur simply as a result of a few individuals with power and influence. Those who broke loose from the hierarchy of the official State Church had quite divergent views on church, faith, society, state power and social issues.
Both the popovtsy and bespopovtsy, although theologically and psychologically two different teachings, manifested spiritual, eschatological and mystical tendencies throughout Russian religious thought and church life. Nevertheless, the Old Believers sought above all to defend and preserve the purity of the Orthodox faith, embodied in the old rituals, which inspired many to strive against Patriarch Nikon’s church reforms even unto death.
Outsiders have often depicted the Old Believers' movement as an obscure, fanatic faith in rituals that led to the deaths of tens of thousands of ignorant people. Old Believers hold that the preservation of a certain "microclimate" that enables the salvation of one's soul requires not only living by the commandments of Christ, but also carefully preserving Church tradition, which contains the spiritual power and knowledge of past centuries, embodied in external forms.
The circumstance that the church reforms of Nikon considered mainly liturgical texts and rituals, sometimes leads to a view of the Old believers faith as being extremely conservative, not able to develop, and preferring form to content. From an Old Believers' point of view, the idea of contents a priori prevailing over form appears simplistic.
Nevertheless, centuries of persecution and the nature of their origin have made some Old Believers very culturally conservative and mistrustful of anything they see as insufficiently Russian. Some Old Believers go so far as to consider any pre-Nikonian Orthodox Russian practice or artifact as exclusively theirs, denying that the Russian Orthodox Church has any claims upon a history before Patriarch Nikon.
However, Russian economic history of the late 19th and early 20th centuries reveals the Old-Believer merchant families as more flexible and more open to innovations while creating factories and starting the first Russian industries. This observation stands in apparent contradiction of the official doctrines of the Old Believers' faith, but centuries of struggle developed in them a habit of working and living without great concern for the State or for mainstream cultural influences. Old Believers also lent money to each other with a much lower interest rate than any financial institutions and individuals, which helped them to arrange a cross-financing network and to accumulate capital.
Similarities between Old Believers and Protestants
Although the Old-Believers movement arose as a reaction to a reform, not as a 'reform' itself, the views and the philosophy of the movement in some aspects strongly resemble Protestant philosophy (particularly Amish, Hutterites, Mennonites and other very socially-conservative denominations). This encourages some people to argue that the emergence of Old Believers forms a part of the pan-European Reformation processes. Commentators have pointed out similarities between Old Believers and Protestants as:
Both Old Believers and early Protestants positioned themselves as an alternative (correct alternative) to the official church. Since Old Believers treated Orthodoxy as a heretical church, they rather quickly developed a feeling of themselves as the only confession that can provide salvation to its members. However, the Old Believers never proclaimed predestination officially. About half of the Old Believers currently have no priests; Those branches of Old Believers movement that rejected priests appeared in the northern parts of Russia (mainly near Novgorod and Pskov) where even pre-reform Orthodoxy developed into a rather 'democratic' form, as opposed to the highly centralized and ceremonial Orthodoxy of the southern regions.Note, however, that the very philosophical basis of the Old Believers stood diametrically opposite that of Protestants. Old Believers attempted to save the old heritage, not to make a reform, or even to return to something 'more old'.
Note too that conservative Old Believers regard the word "protestant" as a theological obscenity, so a statement of similarity between these religious groups' philosophies may provide great offense.
References and select bibliography
In English:
Cherniavsky, M., "The Reception of the Council of Florence in Moscow" and Shevchenko I., "Ideological Repercussions of the Council of Florence", Church History XXIV (1955), 147-157 and 291-323 (articles)
Crummey, Robert O. The Old Believers & III, 49-66
Zenkovsky, S.: "The Old Believer Avvakum", Indiana Slavic Studies, 1956, I, 1-51
Zenkovsky, Serge A.: Pan-Turkism and Islam in Russia, Harvard U.P., 1960 and 1967
Zenkovsky, S.: "The Russian Schism", Russian Review, 1957, XVI, 37-58
In Russian:
Зеньковский С.А. “Russia’s Old Believers”, volumes I and II, Moscow 2006
Голубинский Е.Е. К нашей полимике со старообрядцами, ЧОИДР, 1905 / “Contribution to our polemic with the Old believers”, ČOIDR, 1905
Каптерев Н.Ф. Барнаул, 1999 (Russian) / Melnikov F.I., 1999 “Short history of the Old orthodox (Old ritualist) Church” Barnaul 1999
NB All these works come from scholars and scientists, none of them Old Believers, except for Melnikov (an Old-Believer apologist).
User Comments Add a comment…