Alaskan Old Believers.
It’s only a slight exaggeration to say that I have spent the last three years drinking from the springs of Orthodoxy in a manner akin to the lucky winners in Stanley Spadowski’s Playhouse.
Invariably, you will find yourself swigging from Russian Orthodoxy, the 800 lb. bear under the dome. Our Melkite prayer book repeatedly quotes from St. John of Kronstadt, for example. And it’s all the better for it.
In exploring this area of Eastern Christianity, you will eventually be confronted with the history of the Old Believers. And it is a story that should be known.
“Imagine if Vatican II’s reforms had been enforced by the power of the State—complete with torture, exile and capital punishment.”
That’s my simplistic analogy for the changes imposed on the Russian Orthodox Church in the 17th Century by the Patriarch Nikon and his like-minded brethren. And while all analogies limp, the hitch in this one’s step here is not too-pronounced.
The Nikonian changes were premised on the idea that Russian liturgical books and practices—right down to how one does the sign of the Cross—needed to be purified. And by “purified,” Nikon & Co. meant “made to align with the-then current Greek versions,” which were claimed to be more correct than those that had grown from the Russian experience.
The reformers’ claims were and are disputable. But the important thing was that the Tsar agreed, and backed them up—with hideous force. The Raskol began, and the split between the Old Believers and the official Russian Church has not been truly healed to this day. For the Old Believers, Nikon and the Tsar were considered to be Antichrist and a servant of the same respectively, even if not The Antichrist. An apocalypse had certainly come, and it’s understandable why they thought so.
The Nikonians triumphed…but it is estimated that millions did not accept the reforms, fleeing to the fringes of the Russian Empire or outside of its grasp altogether. The Tsars eventually let up on the Old Believers, finally letting them live in peace. Unfortunately for them, those who stayed in Russia or nearby lands eventually fell into the grasp of the Communists, who managed to be far more hideous than the Tsars. Because that’s how communism works.
To quote a recent dystopian novel: He was a child of the Cold War, and he could carry a grudge.
Though greatly diminished by Communism, the Old Believers still exist in substantial numbers. However, they broadly exist in two groups: the Bezpopovtsy, who had no orders after their priests died and who refused to allow defecting clerics ordained after Nikon to celebrate the sacraments, and the Popovtsy, who managed to obtain valid episcopal orders—and thus complete sacraments. In this essay, I am focusing on the latter.
The Old Believers with priests are called either Old Rite or Old Ritualists, and they come from several sources. The largest are the Edinoverie, Popovtsy who reunified with the official Russian Church after the Tsars granted tolerance. They follow all of the older forms of the sacraments and spirituality of the pre-Nikonian Church. The Edinoverie are thus somewhat comparable to the FSSP, keeping in mind the caveat above.
Eventually, some of the Bezpopovtsy started to reconcile in various ways with the Russian Church. Most of them did not, and they themselves are split into factions. But one of the factions reconciled with the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR), and now have an episcopate and sacraments. This includes adherents in the United States. In Erie, Pennsylvania, the Church of the Nativity is an Old Rite parish of this line and it keeps the flame lit. They have a very helpful history of the Old Believer/Old Ritualist movement which I cannot recommend highly enough. Better yet, they are publishing English translations of Old Rite Russian Orthodox works. The quality of the translations and the actual physical product are superb. I keep a copy of the Gospel Commentary in my bedside book stack and read the weekly/feast day offerings. Compiled by Philotheus, a 14th Century Patriarch of Constantinople, the Commentary is a distillation of the commentaries of the Fathers, usually Chrysostom. As well as other sources: the Nativity of the Theotokos offered a condensed version of the Protevangelium of James. The Old Orthodox Prayer Book is another keeper.
Tolle, lege. And remember the sad fact that the worst enemies of Christians have often been other Christians.