Old Believers

Old Believers
староверы
Vasily Surikov's Boyarynya Morozova (1887), depicting the defiant Feodosia Morozova during her arrest. Her two raised fingers refer to the dispute about the proper way to make the sign of the cross.
AbbreviationOB
TypeEastern Orthodox
ClassificationIndependent Eastern Orthodox
OrientationRussian Orthodoxy
PolityEpiscopal
GovernanceBelokrinitskaya and Novozybkovskaya hierarchies (Popovtsy)
StructureIndependent councils (Bezpopovtsy)
Popovtsy
Bezpopovtsy
Region15 or 20 countries
LanguageRussian, Church Slavonic
LiturgyByzantine Rite (Russian modified)
FounderAnti-reform dissenters
Origin1652/1658–1685
Tsardom of Russia
Separated fromRussian Orthodox Church
Other name(s)Old Ritualists
Old Believers
(including Lipovans, Molokans)[needs update]
Regions with significant populations
Russia400,000 (2012 estimation)[1]
Latvia34,517 (2011 census)[2]
Romania23,487–32,558 (2011 census)[3][4]
Lithuania18,196 (2022 census)[5]
Armenia2,872 (2011 census)[6]
Estonia2,290 (2021 census)[7]
Moldova2,535 (2014 census)[8]
Kazakhstan1,500 (2010 estimation)[9]
Azerbaijan500 (2015 estimation)[10]

Old Believers or Old Ritualists[a] are Eastern Orthodox Christians who maintain the liturgical and ritual practices of the Russian Orthodox Church as they were before the reforms of Patriarch Nikon of Moscow between 1652 and 1666. Resisting the accommodation of Russian piety to the contemporary forms of Greek Orthodox worship, these Christians were anathematized, together with their ritual, in a Synod of 1666–67, producing a division in Eastern Europe between the Old Believers and those who followed the state church in its condemnation of the Old Rite. Russian speakers refer to the schism itself as raskol (раскол), etymologically indicating a "cleaving-apart".

  1. ^ Ol'ga Filina (2012-08-27). "Верю — не верю". Коммерсантъ (in Russian). Kommersant. Retrieved 2017-05-22.
  2. ^ "Tieslietu ministrijā iesniegtie reliģisko organizāciju pārskati par darbību 2011. gadā" (in Latvian). Archived from the original on 2012-11-26. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
  3. ^ "Recensamantul populatiei" (PDF) (in Romanian). p. 9. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
  4. ^ "What does the 2011 census tell us about religion?" (PDF). Retrieved 21 January 2019.
  5. ^ "Population by religious community to which they attributed themselves". p. 166. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
  6. ^ "Table 8.11 Population (urban, rural) by Age and Religious Belief" (PDF). p. 138. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
  7. ^ "At least 15-year-old persons by religion, sex and place". Retrieved 21 January 2019.
  8. ^ "Population and the demographic structure1" (PDF). Retrieved 21 January 2019.
  9. ^ "Kazakhstan: Russian Old Believers Cling to Faith amid Uncertain Future". Retrieved 21 January 2019.
  10. ^ "Azerbaijan is a model of coexistence for the world". Retrieved 21 January 2019.


Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).