Old Believers

Old Believers
староверы
Two Old Believers from Nikolaevsk, Alaska, in traditional dress
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, also called 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".

The leaders of the Old Believers, including Avvakum Petrov and Ivan Neronov, were originally members of the Zealots of Piety. This group of church reformers gathered around Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and the tsar's confessor Stefan Vonifatyev in the late 1630s, and also included the future Patriarch of Moscow Nikon. Upon Nikon's elevation to the patriarchal throne, he and the tsar hoped to revitalize the Russian Church through the ecumenical Eastern Orthodoxy of the Greek Church, introducing various Greek reforms to the liturgy. Old Believers believe these reforms to be heretical, believing the pre-reform rites to be the authentic practices of the early church. Old Believer theology is characterized by this strict adherence to pre-reform traditions, as well as the belief that the reformed church's heresy is coeval with the arrival of the Antichrist.

As a result of this eschatological belief, as well as the church and state's mass persecution of the Old Believers, many fled to establish colonies and monasteries in the wilderness. No bishops opposed Nikon's reforms (besides Paul of Kolomna, who was banished to a monastery), so the Old Believers had no ability to ordain new priests, meaning the anti-reform priesthood would quickly vanish. This dilemma led to the split among the Old Believers into the Popovtsy (the priested ones) and the Bespopovtsy (the priestless ones); the Popovtsy accept priests ordained by the reformed Russian Church, while the Bespopovtsy reject any priest ordained after Nikonite reforms.

The widespread persecution of Old Believers came to an end with Tsar Nicholas II's Edict of Tolerance in 1905. The total number of Old Believers at the beginning of the 20th century is difficult to estimate, as many still feared persecution for admitting their faith, but contemporary sources put the total between 10 and 20 million. Persecution was renewed in the Soviet era, ending during Gorbachev's perestroika reforms of the Soviet Union. In the early 21st century, the number of Old Believers is estimated to be between 2 and 3 million, mostly in Russia, Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, and the United States.

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