The Russian Old Believers

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Lietuvos Didžioji Kunigaikštystė (LDK; Grand Duchy of Lithuania; GDL); Tautos; The Grand Duchy of Lithuania; Nations.

ENThe term ‘Old Belief (Russian staroobryadchestvo, staroverie) refers to the churches and religious communities that do not recognise the reforms launched in the Russian Orthodox Church in the 17th century by Patriarch Nikon (1652-1666). The Old Belief is a peculiar eschatological variety of Russian Orthodoxy. From the established Russian Orthodox Church it differs not so much in its doctrine as in its rites and observances. The priestless Old Believers also have peculiar ecclesiastical structures of their own as well as their own interpretation of certain elements of the Holy Writ and the Tradition. The Old Believers traditionally cross themselves with two fingers, and they recognise only pre-reform icons, liturgical books and observances, and the eight-armed cross. The priestless Old Believers have no regular clergy (and no three-level hierarchy as the Orthodox Church has), and their liturgies and religious observances are conducted by ‘spiritual fathers’ (Russian dtikhovny otets or nastavnik) elected among the parishioners themselves. The early Old Believers were characterised by their hostility to all things secular, especially the State and a society ruled, as they thought, by the Antichrist, their refusal to entertain any contacts with ‘worldly people’ (with whom they would not eat, drink or pray together), their anxious expectancy of the ‘world’s end’, their rigid asceticism, their abidance by old traditions, rites and lifestyles, etc. The sociocultural changes of the 19th and 20th centuries as well as internal debates among the Old Believers led to a mitigation of their eschatological way of thinking, a relaxation of their ascetic way of life and a more conciliatory attitude towards things secular. An important difference in comparison with the official Orthodox Church is that among the Old Believers (especially the priestless ones) laymen may play a prominent role. [From the publication]