Old rites before 1800 The reforms of Patriarch Nikon did not become established immediately. Although in Moscow, under Nikon, services were already conducted according to the new rite, in the provinces many bishops who had signed the conciliar decrees in favour of the reforms along with Nikon quietly sabotaged their own decisions so as not to provoke unrest among their flocks. In the provinces, services were mostly conducted according to the old rite. Intermediate forms were also common. Even after the anathemas of the Moscow Council of 1656 and the Grand Moscow Council of 1666–1667, according to whose decisions those who practiced the two-fingers blessing were declared
heretics, cases of the coexistence of the old and new rites within the ruling Church still occurred. Pyotr Chubarov noted: "It is known that even in the second half of the 17th century in many places in actual liturgical practice, especially on the periphery, old and new books and rites coexisted. Many believers attended ordinary Orthodox parishes but kept to the two-fingered sign and old rites". Such tendencies, as the researcher notes, were extremely persistent. The fact that at the beginning of the 18th century there were people who permitted the old rite in the official church is attested by the decree of the
Holy Synod of 28 February 1722, which required the elimination of the mixing of old and new rites: "Those who, although they submit to the Church and receive all the church sacraments, yet make the sign of the cross with two fingers… shall be recorded as schismatics, regardless of anything". Nevertheless, in the mid-18th century Bishop of Astrakhan
Ilarion (1731–1755) permitted clergy in his diocese, due to the large number of Old Believers living in the region, to conduct services according to pre-reform books. According to documents of the Astrakhan Spiritual Consistory, the
Terek Cossacks "remained almost until the mid-18th century in unity with the Orthodox Church and in submission to the Bishop of Astrakhan, while at the same time maintaining, together with their priests, not only privately but also ecclesiastically, the old rites according to old printed books". An analogous situation until the 1780s also existed among the
Yaik (Ural) Cossacks, who maintained old rites and orders in their churches while remaining under the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan of Kazan. A known conflict arose between the host and the Metropolitan of Kazan Luka (Konashevich), during which the Cossacks gave written responses to the bishop, indicating that the books in the Mikhail-Archangel Cathedral were old printed ones. Luka was compelled to ordain the Cossack Maxim Pavlov, who crossed himself with two fingers, as a protopope for the host, and to abandon the establishment of a spiritual administration in
Yaik Gorodok. Nevertheless, these were for the most part isolated actions by individual bishops that had no effect on the overall situation. The union of Old Believers with the Orthodox Church issue was raised during the reign of
Catherine II. In 1762, Metropolitan of Novgorod
Dimitry (Sechenov) and Bishop of Pskov
Gedeon (Krinovsky) admitted the possibility of leaving the old rites to the "schismatics". To support this idea they put forward the following arguments: "first, it is desirable in the Church to have full agreement of its members in all questions, not only in faith but also in rites; second, … with unity of faith it may be … permitted in the Church, out of condescension to the conscience of the weak, the use of various rites, provided they have an orthodox signification; third, the permission for Old Believers to use the so-called old rites cannot be at variance with the anathema of the Council of 1667, because it was pronounced 'not against rites and not because of rites.' And fourth, the use of old rites by those devoted to them can be salvific only in union with the Church: receiving permission to use their rites, such persons are obliged 'in all else' to be of one mind with the Orthodox Church — not only with regard to its hierarchy, accepting it, but also with regard to rites, 'by no means reproaching them.'" In 1763, the Procurator-General of the Holy Synod Ivan Melissino addressed Catherine II with a similar idea. In his document
Proposals Concerning the Schismatics, he wrote that the Old Believers not only desire to draw closer to Orthodoxy, but assert that they have not deviated from it, that all their distinction consists only in church rites, which they perform, as they say, according to ancient custom. Melissino further remarked that the Old Believers' conditions could be accepted if they were to be loyal subjects, if they undertook nothing contrary to religion or civil laws. Their rites could be permitted, "those not contrary to Orthodoxy, as well as the old books," they could be allowed to build churches and given priests who would serve "according to agreed rites" and report monthly to the bishop on the conduct of the "schismatics of each parish… in addition to the above-mentioned indulgence one could also do the following: no longer call them schismatics, but replace this name with another more fitting to them, such as dvoidantsy; they would no longer have the anathema proclaimed against them". Outside of Ukraine, in the same year, the Old Believer merchants of
Moscow and the
Volga arranged similar legalization of the Upper-Isaac
Skete (compound) in the
Irgiz Rivers area of
Saratov Governorate. Having learned of Nikifor's experiments in the South and the legalisation of the Irgiz community, Nikodim, with an agreement of many
Popovtsy of the
Starodub area, began to contact civil and ecclesiastical authorities with regards to the possibility of "legalising" the priests of the Popovtsy. After a number of rejections, he gained the support of
Count Peter Rumyantsev-Zadunaisky in 1783. In the same year, his petition to Empress
Catherine II of Russia was forwarded to the
Holy Synod. In April 1784, by which time Kalmykov had died, the Empress issued a
rescript, granting priests to Old Believers and allowing them to officiate according to the old rites, but not providing for any bishops. Disappointed, Nikodim fell sick and died at the age of 39. The new inspirer of the ideas of the "newly blessed agreement" after the monk Nikodim was the protopope Andrei Ioannov, who had himself converted from Old Belief to Edinoverie; he became known as the author of the first work after
the Search of Dimitry of Rostov — the
Historical Account of the Schismatics, compiled on the basis of rare primary sources. The attitude of the Holy Synod towards the old rites themselves when establishing Edinoverie parishes remained extremely negative; for example, Archbishop Nikiphoros Theotokis, who with the consent of Empress
Catherine II consecrated the first Old Believer church on 18 June 1780 and was directly establishing the connection between the Old Believers and the Synod, wrote a
Circular Epistle to the Old Believers in which he explained to them that not only did all their rites and ceremonies originate from the heretic Martin the Armenian, but all their subsequent teachers had been non-Orthodox persons: "Such were the teachers and instructors of your sect, the very mention of whom brings shame and disgrace, because they were Armenians and Jews, who, having found simpleton ancestors of yours, seduced them and, having led them away from the straight path, brought them into the pit of perdition, advising them to consider as virtues such deeds as were formerly performed by the impious pagans who burned their sons and daughters in honour of their gods". But since the Old Believers were ready for union and recognised the priesthood and sacraments performed by the new-rite clergy, the new-rite bishops were ready to receive the Old Believers out of condescension. That is, the old rites were at that point regarded by the Synodal Church not only as not equally honourable, but not even as Orthodox. In August 1785, a government decree was promulgated, providing for the organization of "Old Believer" churches within the established Church, although they still were not to have their own bishops or any sort of organizational centre. Nevertheless, this point is usually considered the start of the Edinoverie scheme. On 21 July 1865 ,the former non-okruzhniky Bishop of Tula Sergiy and Archdeacon Kirill (Zagadaev) also joined the Orthodox Church on the terms of Edinoverie. In 1867, Bishop of Tulchin Iustin (Ignatiev) and the hierodeacon Feodosy followed their example. Of great significance was the reception of the monk Pavel Prussian together with 25 disciples, which took place on 25 February 1868. The reception into Edinoverie of such "prominent figures of Old Belief" had far-reaching consequences. The newly received monks formed the brotherhood of the Nicholas Edinoverie Monastery that opened in Moscow. Through the labours of Pavel Prussian and his pupil, the priest of the Pskov Trinity Church and dean of the Edinoverie churches Konstantin Golubev, a printing house was established in Pskov where the journal
Istina was published, serving missionary purposes. A school was opened for "children of the Edinoverie clergy," whose aim was "to prepare capable persons to fill Edinoverie church staffs." A similar school was subsequently established at the Nicholas Monastery, where "Father Pavel personally directed the studies of the young people". Hegumen Filaret. 1897. A new phase in the development of Edinoverie began at the turn of the 1850s–1860s. This period was characterised by the curtailment of mass repressions against Old Believers and the reduction of state support for Edinoverie, which led to a mass departure of "insincere" Edinoverie adherents. At the same time, important changes took place in the leadership of Edinoverie communities, whose representatives from the 1860s began to fight for the rights and improved status of Edinoverie adherents. This was expressed in the creation in 1864 of a project for the establishment of an Edinoverie episcopate, which was rejected by the authorities. Within Edinoverie circles, a search for confessional identity began (some came to see themselves as a distinct religious-cultural group with common interests), complicated by the "borderline" position of Edinoverie between official Orthodoxy and Old Belief. The search for identity and the consolidation of Edinoverie adherents was aided by the emergence of leaders who by personal example and through numerous polemical and missionary works proved the possibility and necessity of accepting Edinoverie. The major centres of Edinoverie in Russia intensified their activities to expand the rights of Edinoverie adherents, as they felt themselves in "too narrow a framework," that is, in changing certain points of the "Rules" of 1800 that contained a number of discriminatory norms, such as the prohibition on passing from "new-ritualism" to Edinoverie and the ban on Edinoverie priests administering Holy Communion to "new-ritualists." In 1877, Edinoverie adherents gathered "from various parts of Russia" at the
Nizhny Novgorod Fair addressed the
Holy Synod with a petition in which they indicated the necessity of "granting the Edinoverie Church greater rights in its action upon the schism and for more complete unity with the Orthodox Church, and petitioned for a review and correction of certain points of the Edinoverie Rules of 1800". In the following year, 1878, a similar petition was received from the Moscow Edinoverie adherents. In response to these petitions from Edinoverie adherents, a "special decree" of the Holy Synod was drawn up in 1881, confirmed by the highest authority on 4 July of the same year. These decisions expanded the rights of Edinoverie adherents: they were permitted to enter into marriage with Orthodox Christians and to be married either in an Orthodox or an Edinoverie church, as well as to baptise children and perform Orthodox rites in either an Edinoverie or an Orthodox church. But a proviso was made that the Orthodox could turn to an Edinoverie priest for rites not always, but only in "extreme necessity, in a case of death, where it was impossible to find an Orthodox priest and church," and it was particularly emphasised "that such recourse should in no way serve as grounds for enrolment of the Orthodox person in Edinoverie." Only those who had avoided fulfilling the sacraments of the Orthodox Church for more than five (instead of the former ten) years could pass to Edinoverie, but only "with the special permission of the diocesan bishop regarding each such person individually." The Synod, at the request of the Edinoverie adherents themselves, also confirmed in the "Decree" point 16 of the "Rules" of 1800, which forbade disputes, discord, and abuse on the part of Edinoverie adherents and Orthodox Christians regarding the observance of different rites and different books used in worship. The Synod expressed the hope that "the Edinoverie adherents themselves will refrain from any reproach of services conducted according to the corrected books and rites and will not shun communion with all children of the One, Holy, and Apostolic Church in prayer and sacraments, nor hinder their priests from doing so. But in the same way, all Orthodox children of the Greco-Russian Church in their turn, when visiting Edinoverie churches, are obliged to observe both respect for the statute and order of those churches and the reverence befitting the holiness of the temple". The Synod made a proviso in the spirit of Metropolitan Platon's ruling, that "the establishment of Edinoverie churches followed out of condescension by the Orthodox Church, for the ease of the return of those who had separated from it to the bosom of the Church". These concessions changed little in the existing position of Edinoverie. As Ioann Mirolyubov noted: "Views on Edinoverie as a temporary institution aimed ultimately at the unification of rites, with a categorical refusal to recognise equal possibilities in the use of both rites, were expressed quite openly right up to the manifesto of 1905". The belated and minimal measures of the state and church with regard to Edinoverie could not improve the situation, while Old Belief, receiving new concessions from the government (the law of 1883), grew stronger. Despite such deprivation of rights, Edinoverie continued to expand: in 1896, 256 Edinoverie churches were counted, and the number of Old Believers who had joined it in that year constituted 55.3% of the total number of those who joined the Russian Orthodox Church.
Edinoverie in the early 20th century In the early 20th century, Edinoverie changed qualitatively. It became a phenomenon of all-Russian character, and increasingly influenced the spiritual life of Russian society. Moreover, the time had come for a cardinal change in views on the history and causes of the 17th-century church schism: in the theological academies, professors such as N. I. Subbotin at chairs of the history and refutation of the schism were replaced by historians who possessed not only remarkable scholarly talent but also the aspiration to uphold scientific objectivity — professors
N. F. Kapterev,
E. E. Golubinsky,
A. A. Dmitrievsky, and others. In 1900, there was a big centennial jubilee celebration: in all Edinoverie churches a festive epistle of the Holy Synod was proclaimed publicly, in which Edinoverie adherents were named "sons of the Orthodox Church", while in provincial cities Orthodox bishops celebrated episcopal services in these churches according to the old rite; the entire former view of Edinoverie as a temporary institution, created out of condescension and exclusively for missionary purposes, however, remained unchanged. The position of Edinoverie adherents was rendered even more ambiguous by the decree of Emperor
Nicholas II On the Strengthening of the Principles of Religious Toleration of 17 April 1905, which among other things cancelled punishments for "apostasy" from Orthodoxy to other confessions; as a result, Old Believers who had gained freedom found themselves for the first time legally in a more advantageous position than Edinoverie adherents, who remained under the strict control of the Synod. In these circumstances, Edinoverie adherents made efforts to consolidate Edinoverie and with particular urgency raised the question of an Edinoverie bishop and the lifting of the "anathemas" against the old rites. The leading apologist and most energetic personality of Edinoverie in this period was the priest Simeon Ivanovich Shleev, who from 1905 was the prior of the Nicholas Edinoverie Church in Saint Petersburg, which became a centre of attraction for all of Russian Edinoverie. The patron of Edinoverie adherents became the prominent hierarch of that era, Archbishop of Volyn
Anthony (Khrapovitsky). As Ioann Mirolyubov noted, this time "can be called a time of the consolidation of Edinoverie, a time of finding and deepening its own self-consciousness. It was rich in events, presentiments, and expectations, and it can even be called in its own way a romantic time for Edinoverie adherents". A significant turn occurred for Edinoverie: it definitively became a kind of "elite," relatively consolidated form of Orthodoxy, having a comparatively small number of followers who were devoted adherents of the idea of the unity of the Russian Church with a diversity of rites, conservatives in their political convictions. Among Edinoverie adherents, intellectuals came to the fore: scholars, thinkers, educated priests. The number of Edinoverie parishes in this period continued to increase intensively: in 1908–1914 alone, the number of churches grew from 420 to 541. Protopriest Simeon Shleev at the Local Council in September 1917, noted that by that time the
Russian Republic had 600 Edinoverie parishes. The number of Russian Edinoverie adherents at the time of the Council may have been more than 500,000 persons. The main events in the history of pre-revolutionary Edinoverie were: in 1906 the 4th Missionary Congress in Kyiv and in 1907 the 6th Division of the Pre-Conciliar Presence, which declared "the equal honour of the old and new rites". In 1909, the Moscow Edinoverie Congress convened, gathering more than a hundred deputies from clergy and laity. The representative of the Synod at the Edinoverie Congress was Archbishop of Vyborg and Finland Sergius (Stragorodsky). From 22 to 30 January 1912 in
Saint Petersburg the First All-Russian Edinoverie Congress was held, chaired by Archbishop of Volyn
Anthony (Khrapovitsky). The agenda of the Congress included: a review of the rules of Edinoverie; questions of worship in Edinoverie churches; questions concerning the organisation of the Edinoverie community and the general governance of Edinoverie in Russia; the question of the anathemas of the Moscow Councils of the 17th century; the problem of attracting into the bosom of the so-called Orthodox Church Old Believer
beglopopovtsy and representatives of other agreements. Special attention at the Congress was paid to the declaration of the principle of church
conciliarity, which found a wide response among the Orthodox public of the time. On 31 January 1912, a group of Congress deputies was received by
Nicholas II. At this meeting Metropolitan Anthony raised the question of the official designation of Edinoverie adherents as
«orthodox Old Believers». From 23 to 29 July 1917, in the Edinoverie Saviour Transfiguration Church in
Nizhny Novgorod, under the chairmanship of Archbishop of Ufa Andrew (Ukhtomsky), the Second All-Russian Edinoverie Congress was held, gathering 216 delegates, at which among other matters delegates to the forthcoming Local Council were elected and candidates for the proposed episcopal sees were nominated.
Soviet period The
Local Council of 1917–1918 was of great significance for Edinoverie. By this time Edinoverie adherents had more than 600 active churches, some of which still impress with their size and magnificence (for example, the Nicholas Cathedral in Saint Petersburg, now the
Arctic and Antarctic Museum), 9 male monasteries, 9 female monasteries, 1 female monastic community (in Tver), 90 monks, 170 nuns, more than 170 male novices, and more than 480 female novices. On 22 February (7 March) the Council, in replacement of the former "Platonian" Edinoverie rules, adopted a Decree on Edinoverie consisting of 19 points. According to this Decree, Edinoverie parishes were considered a part of Orthodox dioceses and were governed by special Edinoverie bishops, dependent on the diocesan bishop. The Conciliar Decree confirms the obligatory principle of electivity of all church-serving and sacred-serving positions, including episcopal ones (points 6 and 9). The books and rites used by Edinoverie adherents were named Orthodox, and their equal honour with those in general use was attested by the absence of any obstacles to the passage of children of the Russian Orthodox Church into Edinoverie parishes and vice versa. The possibility was fixed of an ordinary parish passing to the old rite, and likewise in the reverse direction, for which the expression of the wish of four-fifths of all full-rights parishioners was required. The only thing that could not be resolved at the Council was the examination of the question of lifting the anathemas against the old Russian church rites, although this had previously been included in the Council's programme. On 3 (16) June 1918, the protopriest Simeon Shleev, tonsured into monasticism with the name Simon, was consecrated Bishop of Okhta according to the old books in the Trinity Cathedral of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in Petrograd. His consecration was led by Patriarch Tikhon. In the early 1920s, the state of Edinoverie changed sharply. The consequences of the Revolution and the Civil War fell most severely on the Edinoverie parishes of Moscow and Saint Petersburg. The most active parishioners of these communities had for the most part been subjected to the deprivations of wartime and could no longer take an active part in the life of All-Russian Edinoverie. An irreplaceable loss for Edinoverie adherents was the martyr's death of the first Edinoverie bishop, Hieromartyr Simon of Okhta, killed in August 1921 in Ufa. Following Bishop Simon, the following were consecrated: Bishop of Mstyora Ambrose (Sosnovsky) (1918–1926), Bishop of Volsk, then Mstyora Iov (Rogozhin) (1927–1933), Bishop of Bogorodsk Nikanor (Kudryavtsev) (1921–1923), Bishop of Kerzhenets Pavel (Volkov) (1922–1929), Bishop of Kushva Irenaeus (Shulmin) (1923), Bishop of Satka Pyotr (Gasilov) (1922–1924), Bishop of Satka Rufin (Brekhov) (1925–1930), Bishop of Satka Vassian (Veretennikov) (1926–1937). The fears of certain ecclesiastical and secular persons that after the establishment of the Edinoverie episcopal institute the Edinoverie parishes would become isolated and possibly even form an independent or autonomous Edinoverie church proved unfounded. Ioann Mirolyubov noted that "the majority of Edinoverie bishops in reality turned out to be bi-ritual. In some cases, a bishop consecrated as an Edinoverie bishop for a time became entirely or in a combined capacity a new-rite bishop; in other cases — exactly the reverse". Thus "while maintaining different church rites within it," the Russian Orthodox Church "revealed its true confessional unity". From 19 to 22 June 1927, in
Nizhny Novgorod the Third All-Russian Edinoverie Congress was held. According to some information, 142 delegates from approximately two hundred Edinoverie parishes throughout the country were present. The majority of the Congress's decisions were not implemented due to repressions against the clergy and the faithful, up to their physical destruction, and the mass closure of churches. By the end of the Soviet era only a few Edinoverie parishes remained unclosed (in the village of Maloye Murashkino in
Gorky Oblast, two parishes in
Latvia, and in the village of Zlynka in the Kirovograd Diocese of the
Ukrainian SSR).
In the Russian emigration Almost from the very moment of its emergence, the
Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR) at an official level expressed interest in establishing friendly relations with the Old Orthodox Christians. At the First All-Diaspora Council of 1921, Metropolitan
Anthony Khrapovitsky in a special appeal called upon Russian Old Believers "in the diaspora" to forget past grievances and quarrels and to think about "union with the Church that is now not 'dominant' but persecuted by the enemies of Christ's faith". Metropolitan Anthony's favourable attitude towards the ancient rite largely determined the position of the ROCOR episcopate towards Old Believers. In 1964, the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Church Abroad elected Bishop Filaret (Voznesensky) as the new
First Hierarch. Since he did not hold metropolitan rank, the reader and iconographer Dmitry Alexandrov reproduced the ancient 15th-century liturgical rite according to which the solemn enthronement took place. This prompted the bishops of the ROCOR then and there to declare: "The so-called old rite is the ancient liturgical rite of the Russian Orthodox Church, which was in use before the liturgical reforms of the mid-17th century. The Church finds nothing reprehensible or heretical in it and blesses the use of this rite for those wishing to preserve the ancient books and ancient liturgical customs". In 1967, at the next Synod of Bishops of the ROCOR, a memorandum from the priest Dmitry Alexandrov on the mission among representatives of Old Belief was read out. The ROCOR episcopate, welcoming Old Believers who wished to draw closer to the Orthodox Church, instructed the Scholarly Committee attached to the ROCOR Synod of Bishops to study the question of the possibility of lifting the "anathemas" against the old rites. in Kurovskoye (
Moscow Oblast) church) On 4 June 1999, the Holy Synod of the Russian Church adopted a resolution in which it called upon diocesan bishops and clergy to take into account in their practical activity the all-church decisions lifting the anathemas against the old rites. The Synod called upon church publishing houses "to apply a critical approach to the reprinting of literature published before the Revolution, when under the influence of secular power Old Belief was criticised by incorrect and unacceptable methods". The Synod condemned "the forceful methods of overcoming the schism that had taken place in history, which were the result of the interference of secular authorities in the affairs of the Church". On 27 November 2000, in Moscow a conference was held on the theme "200th Anniversary of the Canonical Existence of Old Rite Parishes in the Bosom of the Russian Orthodox Church". The conference opened with a solemn
molieben in the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Moscow Kremlin, performed according to the old rite by the clergy of all Edinoverie parishes of the Moscow Patriarchate. At the conference it was resolved henceforth to call themselves "Old Rite parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church". Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexis II, who appeared at the conference with a welcoming address, gave a high assessment of the fact of the establishment of Edinoverie, through which many had returned from the church schism "…to the Father's house, and became beloved children of Mother Church, heirs of her gracious gifts". The Patriarch particularly emphasised that "the children of the Russian Orthodox Church must remember that the ancient church rites constitute part of our common spiritual-historical heritage, which should be preserved as a special treasure in the liturgical treasury of the Church". During this period Edinoverie was actively developing with new parishes creating, but at the same time their status remained undefined. Among many representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church, a negative attitude towards Edinoverie and the old rite in general inherited from pre-revolutionary times persisted. As
Metropolitan Kirill (Gundiayev) noted in 2004: "To this day in the everyday life of the Church we see almost no facts that would confirm the possibility of the full-fledged existence of two rites in the bosom of the Russian Orthodox Church, which appears to be the most important condition for the restoration of unity with Old Believers in the future. […] Frequently people striving towards Edinoverie find no understanding with us. We have had to hear no small number of sad testimonies of such incomprehension in recent years, both from representatives of Edinoverie adherents and from those wishing to become such. With such an approach, when Old Believer-Edinoverie adherents who desire unity with the Moscow Patriarchate are viewed at best condescendingly and at worst — with hostility, the development of Old Rite communities is extremely hampered and their viability is limited. […] A paradoxical situation arises. The Councils adopt resolutions to regard the anathemas against Old Believers and the derogatory expressions concerning the old Russian church rites as 'as if they had not been,' while at the local level the degree of awareness of the clergy about this is so low that the very decrees themselves become 'as if they had not been'". On 12 January 2013, for the first time in 350 years, the
Divine Liturgy was celebrated according to the ancient rite in the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Moscow Kremlin. The cathedral, which holds no fewer than 500 persons, was full, and among those praying were not only Edinoverie adherents but also many Old Believers. Protopriest Ioann Mirolyubov notes that Old Believers often transfer to the Russian Orthodox Church, but a uniform rite for the reception of Old Believers into the Church has not been worked out, and different priests receive them by all three rites, as each one wishes. On 30 May 2014 the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church resolved: On 24 March 2022, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church approved the Statute on the Old Rite Parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church. ==Old Ritualists in Communion with the See of Rome==