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DREVLEPRAVOSLAVIA OLD RITE RUSSIAN ORTHODOXY |
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| Home | OUR HOLY FAITH | THE CHURH AND HOUSEHOLD OF GOD | THE CHAPEL | THE ICON CORNER | THE GLORIOUS MARTYRS | ST SERGIUS OF RADONEZH | |
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In the Nicene creed, the basic statement
of Christian belief , we declare that we believe 'in one, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.' Indeed, the Lord Jesus Himself told
His disciples that the gates of hell would not prevail against the Church. The Holy Church was confirmed by the outpouring
of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. Strengthened by this Divine Grace, the apostles
fulfilled the Lord's command, preaching the Holy Gospel to the nations and baptising them in the name of the Father, and of
the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. By the Grace of God, generations of Christians have
coninued this work and two of them, the Holy Equals of the Apostles Kyrill and Methodius preached the Holy Faith in the Slavic
lands. Their own disciples continued this work of evangelisation, but it was not until 988 that the Christian faith was recognised
in Kievan Russia. In this year following the example of his grandmother St Olga, Vladimir the Great, Great Prince of Kiev
received Holy Baptism, followed by his subjects. Thus begins the flowering of the faith in Holy Russia. In the mid 11th century the western papacy fell
away from the unity of the Catholic and Apostolic Church, which would now be called Orthodox (right believing). Yet,
the Eastern Roman Empire, cented in Constantinople, continued to preserve True Chritianity. Kievan Russia was part of
this family of Christian nations, preserving the Holy Orthodox expression of the Catholic and Apostolic faith of Christ's
Church. Throughout occupation and overlordship by pagans,
then Muslims, Russia clung to the Orthodox faith. Through the attempted invasion of Russia by the
Teutonic knights and Swedes , Russia preserved the faith, defending the Church from those blessed to destroy it the Pope of
Rome. The piety and sanctity of Russia was ingrained in
the daily lives of Orthodox Christians. When the unity of the Church was attacked in the 17th century many people chose the
path of persecution and martyrdom in defence of this Old Orthodoxy - the faith of Holy Russia. So, Old Orthodoxy, the Christianity
of the Old Believers, was not a new phenomenon that arose in the 17th century, but a continuation of the original Orthodox
faith of Holy Russia. When Patriarch Nikon and his reformers
rejected the beautiful piety and tradition which had shaped Russian Orthodoxy from its very beginnings, the Old Orthodox,
known by the state as Old Believers, zealously defended the living faith that their forebears had received from Byzantium
at the end of the 10th century.
After the horrors and insecurity of
the 'Time of the Troubles' following the reign of Ivan the Terrible, God-fearing men and women sought to re-instil the Christian
ethos in the life of the nation. A group of churchmen, known as the 'Zealots of Piety' sought to purify the Churrch and the
religious life of the nation, making the Gospel the inspiration and guiding factor in all peoples' lives. They sought a Christian
renaissance after the troubles, looking for a return to a pure Orthodox faith. Orthodox Christianity had tranformed a collection
of pagan tribes into a Christian civilisation. In this Christian civilisation signs and symbols of the faith could be seen
everywhere, in both the towns and countryside alike - the crosses on the domes and cupolas of Churches across the land, in
the icons that dominated every aspect of life, in the words of the Holy Liturgy, in the spiritual songs of the people, in
the calendar which wove everyday life and the feasts of the Church together, and above all in the words of the Gospel. There was no need to invent anything
in this revival of the Orthodox Christian Faith. Zealots such as St Avvakum looked back to the Ancient Piety as the force
which could resurrect Holy Russia. Native Christianity had matured and could tranform the lives of the people as it had transformed
the lives of their ancestors and of the nation. Some of the main figures amongst
the 'Zealots of Piety' were to be the first leaders of the Old Orthodox believers who refused to renounce the traditional
Russian Orthodox ways of worship and living. They deeply loved and valued the path to God which is represented by
True Russian Orthodox spirituality. They looked back and recognised the uniqueness of Russian Christianity and its spiritual
tradition. Men such as our holy father St Avvakum, burnt alive at Pustozersk for his defence of our faith were men of the
people, devout clerics and monastics who took on the prophetic mantle, giving their lives for all that they held
sacred. Our holy father Pavel, bishop of Kolomna questioned the reforms, was banished and according to Old Believer
history was also burned. Our holy mother the nun Feodosia, in the world the Boyarina Feodora Morozova, was tortured for
the faith and died as a result. Both rich and poor, high and low suffered at the hands of the state and the the state Church
in their defense of traditional Russian Orthodoxy.
Taking the attitude that all that was
Greek was right, Nikon replaced venerable Russian traditions with those of the Greek Church, not understanding that greek
liturgical life had changed since the introduction of Christianity in Kievan Rus in the 10th century and that some of the
'authentic' Greek practices which he introduced were very recent innovations. He obsessively questioned foreign hierarchs
about insignificant details, showing paranoia about every detail of liturgical life and piety that made the Russians different
from the Greeks.
The result of the witness of the first Old Believers was a new age of persecution.
Believers were tortured, mutilated, burned, frozen buried alive, drowned and subjected to horrible torture and death. At the
head of the persecutors of the people of God was a Romanov Tsar, a man whose descendents would continue to persecute the Old
Orthodox Christians until they too met a bloody and violent end.
The Old Ritualists faced difficulty as those clergy ordained before the
schism died out. The Holy Bishop Pavel of Kolomna died and the of the bishops faithful to the old piety, none were left. Many
Old Believers accepted priests from the state Church. They came of their own volition, read the confession of belief and were
annointed with the holy myron consecrated before the schism. This was the outward sign of their acceptance of Old Orthodoxy.
Other Old Believers rejected this and went into a priestless existence, at first intensly monastic, but later divided by the
propblem of marriage in a world without clergy. Although these believers were plunged into schism after schism and gave rise
to some unorthodox groups, there were nevertheless many very holy men and women amongst them. The Vyg monastery in the Olonets
region was a great beacon of faith, culture and learning - an embodiment of Old Russian Orthodox monasticism. Men such as
the Denisov brothers were spiritual giants who left an enduring mark on Old Russian Orthodoxy.
The acceptance of St Amvrosii as a valid Orthodox bishop by the Belakrinitsa
Old Believers implied the existence of valid episcopal and priestly orders outside the fold of Old Orthodoxy, even of the
position of New Rite clergy was irregular and needed regularising by the anointing with the ancient chrism. The same implications
are evident in the action of the Novozybkov Old Believers in their acceptance of Archbishops Nicholas and Stefan. The same
recognition led to the creation of the 'edinovrie' or united faith parishes, by which Old Believers - through necessity -
accepted the ministrations of bishops of the state Church. Since there was no episcopate within the Old Belief, it was necessary
to accept episcopacy from 'outside'. Old Believers have been united to the Moscow Patriarchate since 1800. The
Nekrasov cossacks who left tsarist Russia and settled in Turkey were served by Old Rite clergy provided by the Ecumenical
Patriarchate and there is an Old Rite vicariate within the Russian Church Abroad, served by His Grace, Bishop Daniel of Erie.
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