Old Believers: who are they fanatics or heroes?

Surely, many of us have heard about the Old Believers. Frequent mention of them in literature and journalism. Perhaps the most vivid cinematic narrative about them is contained in the epic directed by Alexander Proshkin's "Mikhailo Lomonosov", where the events of those years are described very clearly and truthfully. But do everyone know why the Old Believers appeared, or, as they are also called, the Old Believers? Who are they?

Origins of the Old Believers

Long ago, in 1650, Patriarch Nikon, then managing the Russian Church, conceived a change in the ritual traditions adopted at that time in Russia. The purpose of such transformations is the averaging of the Russian and Greek traditions. This progressive, in general, reform caused a split in the Russian Church and marked the beginning of the Old Believer currents. The stumbling block was mainly the discrepancy in the key tradition of imposing the cross of the cross, the then accepted direction of the procession of the procession and some others.

Old Believers - the history of martyrdom

Not all Russian Christianity accepted these innovations. Many openly opposed the innovations imposed on them and were subjected to persecution. Among those who staunchly defended drevlepravoslavnoe piety, were the monk Epiphany, Deacon Fyodor, priest Lazar and Protopop Avvakum. They were exiled to Pustozersk (Arkhangelsk region). All but Habakkuk, were cut tongues and severed right hands, so that they could not preach in words or in writing. They spent a long fourteen years in a damp pit, but they did not renounce their faith. Finally, on April 14, 1682, they were taken to the square where a log house for burning had been prepared and executed. All four staunchly and happily accepted their fate, remaining to the last faithful to their ideals.

Miracles of fortitude were also shown by monks of the Solovetsky Monastery, who for eight years stood the siege of the tsarist troops. When on January 22, 1676 the defense fell and the troops broke into the monastery, they tortured and executed about four hundred people: they hanged someone, somebody was cut off, someone was drowned in an ice-hole. Only fourteen people survived by a miracle. The bodies of the dead were almost unburied for almost half a year, until the king ordered that they be delivered to the land. After the monastery was populated by new monks who accepted the Nikon reforms. However, not only these Old Believers experienced the resentment of the church. Who were they by social status?

Although most of them are ordinary people and priests who refused to accept a new faith, among them were people close to the royal court. In the fall of 1675, Princess Yevdokia Prokopievna Urusova and Boyaryna Theodosia Prokopevna Morozova, relatives who had refused to accept a new faith, died of torture and starvation. Sisters were in the royal court, but for the sake of faith they despised fame and fortune and were martyred.

The wave of executions rolled for a long time in Russia, exact data, of course, no, but researchers argue that as a result of Nikon's repression killed more than a million people. In December 1666, Patriarch Nikon was convicted and exiled to Ferapontov Monastery, in his place was appointed a new patriarch - Joasav II, who continued the reforms of his predecessor.

Modern Old Believers. Who are they?

In our time, no one is persecuted for religious beliefs. The Old Believers of Siberia and other regions of Russia live quietly and, as a rule, apart, by their settled way of life. Their life is based on religion, mutual assistance and constant work. They do not try to remake the world and convert everyone into their faith. They just live as they think is right, not caring about the opinions of others. Therefore, it is not so easy to answer the questions: "Who are the Old Believers? Who are they: religious fanatics, heroes, crazy?" Everyone has the right to decide for himself, but in any case, these people both in Nikon's time and now deserve respect for being firm in their faith. And most of us do not have enough of this!