Eastern Orthodox Christians who resist reforms of Nikon in 1652–1666
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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.
Abbreviation
OB
Type
Eastern Orthodox
Classification
Independent Eastern Orthodox
Orientation
Russian Orthodoxy
Polity
Episcopal
Governance
Belokrinitskaya and Novozybkovskaya hierarchies (Popovtsy)
Structure
Independent councils (Bezpopovtsy)
Popovtsy
Russian Orthodox Old-Rite Church
Russian Old-Orthodox Church
Lipovan Orthodox Old-Rite Church
Edinoverie
Bezpopovtsy
Pomorian Old-Orthodox Church
Novopomortsy
Staropomortsy
Fedoseevtsy
Filippians
Region
15 or 20 countries
Language
Russian, Church Slavonic
Liturgy
Byzantine Rite (Russian modified)
Founder
Anti-reform dissenters
Origin
1652/1658–1685 Tsardom of Russia
Separated from
Russian Orthodox Church
Other name(s)
Old Ritualists
Old Believers (including Lipovans, Molokans)[needs update]
Regions with significant populations
Russia
400,000 (2012 estimation)[1]
Latvia
34,517 (2011 census)[2]
Romania
23,487–32,558 (2011 census)[3][4]
Lithuania
18,196 (2022 census)[5]
Armenia
2,872 (2011 census)[6]
Estonia
2,290 (2021 census)[7]
Moldova
2,535 (2014 census)[8]
Kazakhstan
1,500 (2010 estimation)[9]
Azerbaijan
500 (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".
^Ol'ga Filina (2012-08-27). "Верю — не верю". Коммерсантъ (in Russian). Kommersant. Retrieved 2017-05-22.
^"Tieslietu ministrijā iesniegtie reliģisko organizāciju pārskati par darbību 2011. gadā" (in Latvian). Archived from the original on 2012-11-26. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
^"Recensamantul populatiei" (PDF) (in Romanian). p. 9. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
^"What does the 2011 census tell us about religion?" (PDF). Retrieved 21 January 2019.
^"Population by religious community to which they attributed themselves". p. 166. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
^"Table 8.11 Population (urban, rural) by Age and Religious Belief" (PDF). p. 138. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
^"At least 15-year-old persons by religion, sex and place". Retrieved 21 January 2019.
^"Population and the demographic structure1" (PDF). Retrieved 21 January 2019.
^"Kazakhstan: Russian Old Believers Cling to Faith amid Uncertain Future". Retrieved 21 January 2019.
^"Azerbaijan is a model of coexistence for the world". Retrieved 21 January 2019.
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OldBelievers or Old Ritualists are Eastern Orthodox Christians who maintain the liturgical and ritual practices of the Russian Orthodox Church as they...
Russian Orthodox Church, while small minorities were OldBelievers and Orthodox Christian believers who either did not belong to any church or belonged...
institutionally the Ancient Russian Ynglist Church of the Orthodox OldBelievers–Ynglings (Древнерусская Инглиистическая Церковь Православных Староверов–Инглингов...
of the following: Alaskan Creoles, an ethnic group native to Alaska OldBelievers, a community of religious Russians who settled in Alaska's Kenai Peninsula...
with Greek customs), were among the reasons for the schism with the OldBelievers whose congregations continue to use the two-finger sign of the cross...
Church during the second half of the 17th century, a large number of OldBelievers held that Peter the Great, the Tsar of the Russian Empire until his...
hand, and in some cases even in old Russian, Old-Believers-style monastic garments (with a peculiar klobuk, and an old-fashioned cast bronze cross), as...
the OldBelievers movement. Across Russia, OldBelievers were harshly persecuted. One such oldbeliever was Avvakum "the leader of the oldBelievers". Alexis...
splitting of the Russian Orthodox Church into an official church and the OldBelievers movement in the mid-17th century. It was triggered by the reforms of...
metropolitanates. There are from 500,000 to one million OldBelievers, who represent an older form of Russian Orthodox Christianity, and who separated...
of the latter to the hostile Soviet regime. Another group called the OldBelievers, separated in 1666 from the official Russian Orthodox Church as a protest...
organizations. Associated Gospel Churches of Canada (AGC) Believers' Church in India Believers Eastern Church Brunstad Christian Church The Christian Community...
Thus, they are often designated "Old Ritualists" (Russian: старообря́дцы, staroobryadtsy), as opposed to "OldBelievers". The Russian word edinoverie may...
The Believers, a 1987 neo-noir film by John Schlesinger The Believers: Stories from Jewish Havana, a 1994 American documentary short film The Believer (2001...
of the OldBelievers, in the broadest meaning of the term—including a variety of folk religions—pointed out by Bernshtam, and these OldBelievers were a...
Lykov family (Russian: Лыков, romanized: Lykov) is a Russian family of OldBelievers. The family of six spent 42 years in partial isolation from human society...
church and a sect that called themselves the OldBelievers, Catherine passed an act that allowed OldBelievers to practice their faith openly without interference...
Orthodox Church. His autobiography and letters to the tsar and other OldBelievers such as Boyarynya Morozova are considered masterpieces of 17th-century...
non-Orthodox religions. This created a "Golden Age of Old Faith" for the previously persecuted OldBelievers until the emergence of the Soviet Union. In the...
circulated widely and miracles were attributed to Morozova by OldBelievers. Many OldBeliever communities continue to venerate her as a martyr. Nevertheless...
the OldBelievers; in that country, it is an oft-cited dictum that "although Russia was baptised, it was never Christianised". The movement of the Old Believers...
Lipoveni; Ukrainian: Липовани; Bulgarian: Липованци) are ethnic Russian OldBelievers living in Romania, Ukraine, Moldova and Bulgaria who settled in the...
The OldBeliever is the third studio album by American band The Atlas Moth. It was released on June 10, 2014 under Profound Lore Records. "The Old Believer...
down before Christ Himself, our King and our God. (Bow.) Among the OldBelievers the usual beginning is preceded by the following, known as the "Prayer...
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