Old Believer Church in Vereya. Vereya. Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church (ROC)

But the holidays did not end there for one of the most cozy churches near Moscow.

This weekend, the Verei Old Believer community celebrated the 200th anniversary of its temple. The ceremonial events on October 1-2 were attended by His Eminence, Metropolitan of Moscow and All Rus' Cornelius, Bishop. Evmeniy Kishinevsky and all Moldova, clergy and laity.

We sincerely congratulate the Verei community and rector Father John Mikheev on their anniversary!

Vereya is the “ancestral residence” of the Mikheev priestly dynasty, whose cumulative experience of serving God and people has long exceeded its two hundredth anniversary!

Bishop Evmeniy with his family on Rogozhsky in 2005 in a photograph by Oleg Khokhlov

According to historian S.S. Mikhailov, of all the parishes in the Moscow Region, only three Old Believer churches never had services interrupted during the years of repression. However, of these, only the temple in Vereya has survived to this day. The second temple - in the Kornevskaya community near Pavlovsky Posad - burned down in the 1990s (restored in stone), and the third temple - in Orekhovo-Zuevo - was demolished in the 1960s.

On the occasion of the celebration, we are finally publishing a wonderful report from the portal "Moscow region without politics", prepared Yuri Vladimirovich Komarovsky - Director of the Vereisky Museum of History and Local Lore.

Vereya. Church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Story

During the years of Soviet power, the Old Believer Church was subjected to severe persecution. In the USSR, the Old Believers were viewed as a reactionary religious movement. By the mid-1930s. almost all churches and prayer houses were closed, all church and public institutions were liquidated, priests and priests were repressed.

Of the fifty Old Believer churches and chapels in Moscow by the end of the 1930s. There were only two churches left, but in Vereya the Old Believer church continued to operate.

October 1-2, 2016 This year, the Church of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos in Vereya celebrates its 200th anniversary. Tradition says that until 1812 in the city of Vereya there was a wooden prayer house in the name of the Nativity of Christ. There are no records preserved about the time of construction of the prayer house. In 1812, during the Napoleonic invasion, it burned down.

Interior decoration Vereisky Church on Trinity

In 1816, the Old Believers built a new stone prayer house, which has survived to this day. The builders and donors were merchants Boris Petrovich Tomilin, Daniil, Mikhail, Sergei and Andrey Ivanovich Glushkov, Ivan and Georgy Ivanovich Shevelev and Georgy Ivanovich Martyanov. In those days, Old Believers were not allowed to build churches or perform divine services, but the government turned a blind eye to the unspoken existence of new Old Believers' chapels. Therefore, it was necessary to build a simple house in appearance; not even a cross was placed on it. The house was divided into three parts: the altar, the temple for worshipers and the vestibule. An iconostasis was erected, and in the altar there was a throne.

“In the thirties in the mountains. More likely it is a stone prayer room, built like a church and belonging to the entire local Old Believer society. There were fugitive priests with her. In the thirties there was priest Ivan Petrovich Sergievsky, a fugitive from the Aleksandrovsky district of the Vladimir province, whose placement in the Rogozhskoye cemetery was lobbied by the government officials from Moscow Old Believers.”

During the reign of Emperor Nicholas I, persecution of Old Believers intensified again. This time was the most difficult for the Old Believers of Vereya. Although there was a prayer room, priests were forbidden to serve in it. To correct the requirements, it was necessary to invite priests from other places, which was associated with great risk. Requests were carried out furtively in houses. If the local authorities found out about this, the priest had to go into hiding without finishing the required services to save himself from arrest.

The magazine “Word of the Church” from 1917 tells about the following incident. Once the priest Fr. was invited to the funeral service. Theodore (later Bishop Theodosius of Borovsky). And then during the service the police suddenly appeared and wanted to arrest him. But thanks to the resourcefulness of those present, the shepherd was able to be hidden at the end of the funeral service, for which the Old Believers then had to serve a prison sentence.

After 1861, the policy towards the Old Believers gradually began to soften. In 1874, a law was issued on the recording of Old Believer marriages in metric registers, and since 1883, Old Believers were allowed to hold services in closed spaces. At this time, the Old Believer prayer house was converted into a temple. In 1875, trustee Tomilin carried out repairs to the temple: the pillars supporting the beam in the temple were changed, the roof was painted.

Ivan, Ilya and Philip Egorovich Khomutinnikov invested a lot of work and money into decorating the temple and building a house for the priest. At the same time, from the heirs of the brothers K. and I. Glushkov they acquired an invaluable treasure: the Life-giving Cross of the Lord with 69 particles of the relics of holy saints.

On Trinity in Vereya in 2011

From 1891 to the end of the 1930s. The priest Stefan Fedorovich Labzin, who came from the peasants of the Vladimir province, served in the church. The period of his ministry saw the heyday of the Intercession Church, which came after the publication of the Decree on Tolerance on April 17, 1905. On June 10, 1907, the Old Believers of Vereya submitted a petition to include their community in the established register.

Priest Stefan Fedorovich Labzin at the beginning of the service in the Intercession Church in Vereya. 1891 Photo from the archive of the descendants of Fr. Stefan

On July 3, there was a response that the community was registered, and on July 22, the first general meeting of the Vereisk community took place, at which the hereditary honorary citizen Nikolai Andreevich Glushkov was elected chairman, and the local manufacturer, peasant of the village of Timofeeva, Vyshegorodskaya volost, Vereisky district, Dmitry Nikiforovich Chuvashin, was elected as the head of the temple. , who worked a lot for the temple.

O. Stefan (center) with parishioners of the Intercession Church. From the collections of the Verei Museum

The benefactors of the Church of the Intercession are merchants K. Glushkov, F. Khomutinnikov, I. Glushkov. 1913 From the collections of the Verei Museum

On February 2, 1907, an application was submitted for permission to build a bell tower. The construction was carried out according to plan and under the supervision of the architect Nikolai Georgievich Martyanov, who offered his work free of charge. Funds were collected from benefactors. On October 5, 1908, a gilded cross made at the factory of the trading house “Andrei Zakhryapin’s Sons” was raised.

On September 14, 1908, after a prayer service, the foundation stone of a new three-tier bell tower at the church was performed. On August 30, 1909, the general meeting of the community decided to purchase the bells, which were purchased at the Finland factories with funds raised by parishioners. The hereditary honorary citizen Alexander Petrovich Guskov helped a lot in the purchase of bells with his own funds. He donated three bells from the bell tower of the temple in the village of Simbukhovo, where his estate was located and where he was the headman, and also acquired 800 fathoms of land for the Intercession Church.

O. Stefan Labzin with mother Irina Alexandrovna. From the collections of the Vereisky Museum of History and Local Lore

Of great interest is the correspondence of Fr. Stefan Labzin with his uncle, Bishop of the Ural and Orenburg Ancient Orthodox Church Arseny (in the world - Anisim Vasilyevich Shvetsov). Bishop Arseny is one of the outstanding figures of the Old Believers, a spiritual writer, and publisher. Back in 1887, he created a printing house and a workshop for the production of hectographed publications, which were actively distributed in Nizhny Novgorod, especially during the Makaryevsky fairs. In 1898, Bishop Arseny was elected locum tenens of the Moscow Archdiocese, temporarily managing the affairs of the Old Believer Church. In 1906, thanks to Bishop Arseny, the first private Old Believer printing house in Russia, A.V., was created in Uralsk. Simakova. Bishop Arseny was one of the most thorough and prolific writers. He compiled an excellent practical guide to the study of church rules, published a lot of liturgical literature, and republished “Pomeranian Answers” and “The Book of the Antichrist.” In 2008, at the Council of the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church, a decision was made to glorify Bishop Arseny as a saint, universally revered among all Christians.

An outstanding figure of the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church, Saint Arseny (Shvetsov), Bishop of the Urals and Orenburg

At the anniversary exhibition at the Vereisky Museum of History and Local Lore, letters from Bishop Arseny Fr. Stefan. They are very warm, written with fatherly feelings, and contain teachings and advice on a variety of topics.

In a letter dated September 4, 1892, Bishop Arseny writes: “Blessed Priest Stefan Fedorovich! You, reporting that on the occasion of a pestilence, a miraculous icon of the Most Holy Theotokos of Mozhaisk was brought to your city, and that all the inhabitants of your city, both followers of the ruling Church and our Old Believers, came out to meet it and carried it around the city, and all together to God prayed, and then carried in a row to houses, which our Christian Old Believers also accept and serve prayer services through the priests of the ruling Church, will this be in accordance with the rules of the Holy Fathers? In response to this, I will tell you the following: that resorting to God with a request for salvation from the dangers that threaten us is a pious and praiseworthy thing. And this also includes accepting a miraculous icon into your home. Mother of God and honor it as one has the zeal to do so. But then it would be quite good if this honor could be done without the participation of prayer with non-Orthodox people.”

Following the advice of Bishop Arseny, Fr. Stefan forbade his parishioners to “receive Great Russian priests and monks with icons at prayer services, and even more so to pray with them,” which caused disagreement among the Verean Old Believers: “The parishioners do not listen to me.” In response, the bishop wrote: “Concerning your disorder, I will say one thing - do not be upset by anything. At least the earth turned upside down and the sky down. But know that long-term habits suddenly never change, just like old illnesses. And if now they do not listen to you on the basis of their previous habit, but over time, perhaps, they will joyfully accept this instruction of yours.”

Letter dated July 13, 1894: “You write that one of you has become drunk and how to pray for him? It is very inconvenient to solve this issue behind the eyes, because there are different degrees of drunkenness with wine: one drinks heavily to the point of insensibility... the Church no longer makes any commemoration of this. But another, although he is a heavy drinker, dies in his feelings and repents, although not before the priest, of his drunkenness. For such people, if they have previously attended confession, they perform funeral services in absentia, it is customary for us to do so in private. But others do not drink wine out of binge, but as if usually such blows happen, and they suddenly die; funerals sing about such people even over the body.”

Crosses about. Stefan Labzin. Property of the descendants of Fr. Stefan

Letter dated April 7, 1900: “I have now received your letter dated April 3, and I sincerely regret that you are being locked up in prison. I feel sorry for you and your family. But what will we do when the will of God has determined this? For the heart of the Tsar, and, consequently, of his superiors, is in the hand of God. According to our true faith, we should rejoice at the sorrows that befall us here, and not be sad about them. But, of course, due to the weakness of our faith, although we will grieve a little, I think God is merciful and will not make this a great sin for us. But still, don’t be too despondent, for despondency in moderation is a mortal sin. But start reading Divine books in prison, ask the prison warden to allow you to bring books for reading. Irina Alexandrovna, be generous, don’t grieve too much about Fr.’s imprisonment. Stefana, this illness is temporary, time will pass, and you will forget all this grief.”

It is possible that Fr. Stefan was taken into custody for underground publishing activities, of which there are only hints in the correspondence. There is no doubt that Fr. Stefan assisted Bishop Arseny in printing books. When the author of these lines found the relatives of Bishop Arseny and Fr. Stefan in Vereya (Galina Ivanovna Avdanina, Stepan Stepanovich Avdanin), then Stepan Avdanin brought part of the printing equipment to the Vereya Museum and remembered that as a child he played with a font with Old Church Slavonic letters. It is surprising that this equipment has been preserved, albeit partially, because having it was no less dangerous both during the years of Soviet power and during the months of the occupation of Vereya by the Nazis.

Part of the printing equipment of the underground Old Believer printing house in Vereya. From the collections of the Verei Museum

Only thanks to Fr. Stefan was preserved and published after the death of Bishop Arseny, his work “The History of the Existence of the Priesthood in the Old Believer Church of Christ,” which the bishop handed over to Fr. Stefan for safekeeping. Letters from Bishop Arseny to a variety of people Fr. Stefan collected and published in 1912, something also saw the light in “Old Believers” for 1909, he published “The Childhood and Life of Bishop Arseny of Ural and his Letters to Various Persons”, “The Voice of Russian Literature in Defense of the Old Believers” and “Memoirs of Vikenty Lirinsky”.

U o. Stefan and his wife Irina Alexandrovna had five children: sons Semyon, Peter, Stepan, Vasily and daughter Natalia. Three sons defended their homeland on the fronts of the First World War and served as ordinary soldiers.

Son o. Stefan Vasily Labzin in the active army during the First World War (pictured on the right). From the collections of the Verei Museum

Descendants of Fr. live in Vereya. Stephen and Mother Irina are relatives of the holy Bishop Arseny of Ural. For three generations already, sons are called Stepans in honor of their grandfather, great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather. Great-great-grandson Fr. Stefan Stepan Avdanin, like his famous ancestors, loves literature, he has an excellent library, he knows how and loves to bind books. Families carefully preserve photographs, books and documents, some of which were kindly provided for exhibition at the museum and for this publication.

O. Stefan Labzin, mother Irina and daughter Natalia. Photo from the archive of Fr.'s descendants. Stefan

Those who come to an Old Believer church for the first time are fascinated by ancient icons and books, a special chant, and the unusual use of ladders and supports during the service. The Old Believers remain the last living island of pre-Petrine Rus' in modern world. That is why television showed interest in the Old Believer Church of the Intercession of Vereya, filming a story about the Old Believers and repeatedly showing it on the Kultura TV channel. In this program, the brother of the rector of the Intercession Church, Sergei Mikheev, spoke about hook singing and the traditions of the Old Believer community of Vereya.

“Old Believer singing is unique: it is performed in eight voices, each of them has its own motive,” said Sergei Mikheev, “It is sung not according to notes, but according to hooks, this is the ancient musical alphabet.” The hook letter has remained unchanged for many centuries. It is not intentionally simplified. Hook singing that sounds unusual to the ear modern man, carries not only history, but also spirituality, making you listen with attention and trepidation to ancient stichera - prayers glorifying the saints. Books with hooks today can be found in museums and ancient repositories, but there are few people in Russia who can sing this ancient music “from sight.” It is very valuable that in the Church of the Intercession singing is performed using hooks, and there are young people who master this technique.

Mountain-Rising Hill – the range of ancient Russian church singing

You can learn about the history of the schism, the differences between the modern Russian Orthodox Church and the Old Believer Church, the traditions carefully preserved by the Old Believer community of Vereya and much more by visiting the exhibition that opened at the Vereya Museum of History and Local Lore. The exhibition is dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the temple.

When praying, parishioners of the Church of the Intercession, like all Old Believers in Russia, use a ladder - a type of rosary, a type of rope. The lestovka is a braided leather (or, in later times, rag or leatherette) tape sewn in the form of a loop. Its parts symbolize the evangelists, apostles, angels, gospel teaching, etc. A ladder is used to make it easier to count prayers and bows, allowing you to focus on the prayers. In addition to the usual 109-step staircase, there are staircases of 150 steps, the so-called “Virgin Staircases”. The production and artistic decoration of ladders was and remains one of the traditional Old Believer crafts.

Lestovka. From the collections of the Verei Museum

The lestovka has four triangular (in honor of the Holy Trinity) paws, sewn in pairs, which mean the four evangelists. The sheathing around the paws is an evangelical teaching. Inside, between the upper paws, seven small patches (movements) are sewn as a sign of the seven Church Sacraments: Baptism, Confirmation, Priesthood, Eucharist (i.e. Communion), Confession (Repentance), Marriage, Blessing of Anointing (Unction). Where the ladder is connected, that is, above the upper legs, there are three steps (or bob) on both sides. The ladder itself has three more large steps, and all these steps together make up the number nine - in honor of the nine ranks of angels. It is customary to hold the ladder in your left hand, moving through its “steps” from “earth” to “sky”, performing a prayer at each “step”. In this case, the fingers of the left hand are folded in the same way as the fingers of the right to make the sign of the cross.

Entering the Church of the Intercession, you can see small pillows embroidered with multi-colored patches. These are assistants. When bowing to the ground, Old Believers rely on a handhold to keep their hands clean. When bowing to the ground, you should first put the hand-rest in front of you, then cross yourself, bow: place the outstretched palms of both hands on the hand-rest, both side by side, simultaneously bending your knees and tilting your head to the ground so that your forehead touches the hands on the hand-rest. The front part of the tool rest is made or decorated different types handicrafts: appliqué, embroidery, sewing from patches, etc. Some masters create such specimens that can safely be called a work of art. The ancient tradition of making and using handicrafts was preserved only by Old Believers and co-religionists. Like lestovkas, handicrafts can be either everyday or festive. Like ladders, hand guards are stored in the red corner.

Helpers. From the collections of the Verei Museum

There is another tradition of the Intercession Church, which, perhaps, is preserved only here. In the temple on the left side you can see two drawers. They contain memorial plaques from the second half of the 19th century. with the names of parishioners, benefactors of the temple, priests. Twice a year on major memorial Saturdays, all the tablets stored in the temple are read. The priest and several parishioners read the names of the deceased. However, it takes over three hours to read.

One of the memorial books kept in the Intercession Church since the mid-19th century

For 36 years (since 1968) he served as a priest of the Church of the Intercession in Vereya. Great-grandfather o. Evgenia, Simeon Fedorovich, headed the Old Believer community in the village of Rytovo, Vladimir province. Grandfather, Archpriest Pyotr Semyonovich Mikheev, served in Guslitsa, acting as dean of the Moscow region. Under Soviet rule, he was forced to hide in cellars and served a sentence in prison for his convictions. My uncle, Nikolai Mikheev, was a tank driver and died in the war.

During his ministry Fr. Evgeniy carried out the improvement and repair of the temple, restoration of icons. Father Eugene was loved not only by the parishioners of the temple, but also by many residents of the city. At the Consecrated Council of the Russian Orthodox Church, held on October 19–22, 2004, the widowed priest Evgeny Mikheev was elected a candidate for ordination to the rank of bishop. On November 17, 2004, he was tonsured a monk with the name Evmeniy, and on January 2, 2005, he was consecrated Bishop of Chisinau and All Moldova. In Moldova, Bishop Evmeniy received recognition from parishioners in a short time, which was noted by Metropolitan Cornelius, who arrived on an archpastoral visit to Moldova in November 2012.

Vladvka Evmeniy with his son Priest Alexei Mikheev in a photograph by Oleg Khokhlov in 2008

Currently, the rector of the Intercession Church in Vereya is the youngest son of Bishop Evmeniy, Fr. John. Tradition under the rector Fr. John became the Vereya-Borovsk religious procession, held annually in September in memory of the holy martyrs and confessors of the noblewoman Morozova and others like her. The procession of the cross begins in the morning at the Church of the Intercession, and ends with the Divine Liturgy and prayer service to the holy martyrs in Borovsk.

Father John Mikheev, rector of the Intercession Church in Vereya

The Old Believer Church is a living Church with its own laws, traditions and original culture, accepting into its ranks everything large quantity Orthodox Christians, including young people. In the first five years of serving as rector of the Intercession Church in Vereya alone, Father John baptized 100 people. Currently, the community of the Old Believer Church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Vereya has begun preparations for the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the temple, which is celebrated in 2016.

O. John is a bright man...

Icons are being restored, the iconostasis has been repaired, and work is underway in the temple itself. Work has begun and continues to improve the Old Believer cemetery, located in the western part of the city in a pine forest, approximately 700 meters from the existing city cemetery.

Improvement work at the Vereisky cemetery, initiated by Father John

Vereya is one of the key centers of Old Believers in the Moscow region. At the beginning of the 19th century, the New Believer monk Zosima Verkhovsky, the founder of two women’s monasteries, refused to found a monastery in Vereya, being wary of the possible influence of the local Old Believers on the nuns.

In the 18th-19th centuries, oppression of the Old Believers either intensified or weakened. During the period of the next relaxation, they were allowed to build chapels that did not have altars for serving the liturgy. Therefore, the Old Believers either opened secret prayer houses, or, whenever possible, built small churches, calling them chapels.

According to some information, until 1812 in the city of Vereya there was a wooden prayer house, consecrated in the name of the Nativity of Christ. There are no records of the time of this construction. In 1812, in order to prevent the advancing enemy from using property and food, the Cossacks set fire to shopping arcades; the fire destroyed many city buildings, including the Old Believer prayer house.

In 1814, the Old Believers built a new stone “chapel”, which has survived to this day. A small one-story brick building with one dome and a small bell tower was built deep in one of the central blocks of Vereya, west of the Kremlin. Special Effort The merchants Boris Petrovich Tomilin, Daniil, Mikhail, Sergei and Andrey Glushkov, Ivan and Georgy Shevelev, Georgy Martyanov contributed to the construction of a new house of worship. The street on which the prayer house was located began to be called Chapel.

Externally, the building looked like a simple house, and there wasn’t even a cross on it, but inside the house everything was done as it should be in a real church: the iconostasis, utensils, altar.

From 1824 to 1830 local icons were covered with rich silver frames. Three brothers, Ivan, Ilya and Philip Khomutinnikov, invested a lot of work and money into the splendor and decoration of the temple. At the same time, they acquired an invaluable treasure from the heirs of the Glushkov brothers: the Life-giving Cross of the Lord with 69 particles of the relics of the saints.

From 1894 to 1897 The temple was renovated and the iconostasis was altered.

In 1905, Emperor Nicholas II issued a decree on the opening of the altars of the Rogozhskoe cemetery, and the Old Believers were finally given freedom to have priests and openly perform divine services.

On July 22, 1907, the first meeting of the registered Vereiskaya community took place, at which the hereditary honorary citizen Nikolai Andreevich Glushkov was elected chairman, and local manufacturer Dmitry Nikiforovich Chuvashin was elected head of the temple. In January 1908, after permission was received, a dome and a cross were placed on the temple.

On February 2, 1908, a petition was submitted to build a bell tower. Once permission was received, the bell tower was built. Construction was carried out according to plan and under the supervision of the architect Nikolai Grigorievich Martyanov, who offered his work free of charge. Funds for the construction were collected by benefactors; headman D.N. Chuvashin donated bricks and also helped with funds. In 1909, 7 bells were purchased, of which the main bell weighed 137 pounds. The hereditary honorary citizen Alexander Petrovich Guskov assisted in the purchase of the bells, and he donated three bells from the temple in the village of Simbukhovo, where his estate was located.

In 1910, the house of clerks was built on Novo-Mozhaiskaya Street (now 1st Sovetskaya). In 1911, a gate overlooking Novo-Mozhaiskaya Street was built.

On October 30, 1916, the Verei Old Believer community solemnly celebrated the centenary of the temple and the twenty-fifth anniversary of the service of the rector Stefan Fedorovich Labzin in this temple.

The Church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary miraculously escaped the general repressions against churches, and it actually did not cease to operate in Soviet time. Since the construction of the temple, the interior decoration has undergone virtually no changes.

Divine services are held in the Church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Sundays and holidays:

the beginning of the evening service on the eve of the holiday is 16:00

morning service starts at 7:30

Sacraments and services (funeral service, confession, baptism, wedding and others) are performed free of charge on weekdays and Sundays by prior arrangement.

Address:

143330, Moscow region, Naro-Fominsk district, Vereya, st. 1st Sovetskaya, 15

Yu.V. Komarovsky “Orthodox Old Believer Church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary.” Series “Temples of Verea” (abbreviated)

The Old Believers arose more than three and a half centuries ago and are associated with the schism of the previously united Russian Church under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and Patriarch Nikon.

Church reform in Russia began in the spring of 1653 with the sole order of Patriarch Nikon to be baptized not with two, but with three fingers and the abolition of the traditional Russian bows to the ground (believers kneeled and touched the floor with their heads). Some priests opposed the reform, and Nikon ordered the arrest of those who defended the faith and old rituals. On August 4, 1653, Archpriest John Neronov was taken into custody, and a few days later Archpriest Avvakum Petrov, who was then serving in Moscow at the Kazan Cathedral on Red Square, and who later became the ideologist of the old faith and rituals, was arrested. This was only the beginning of mass repressions against the defenders of the old faith.

Nikon's book and everyday innovations and corrections led to a split in the Russian church unprecedented in Rus'. What are the differences and innovations? Here are the most noticeable changes (a list of all of them would hardly fit in a book of even the most impressive size). The most significant and noticeable innovation was the replacement of the two-finger sign with a three-finger one. The oldest type of sign of the cross is the two-fingered sign, adopted by the Russians from Byzantium since the time of the Baptism of Rus'. Two fingers meant the confession of two natures in Christ: divine and human. The connection of the other three fingers of the hand: the thumb, ring and little finger symbolizes the dogma of the trinity of the one Deity. This is the most concise expression of Orthodox dogma. In the three-fingered system introduced by Nikon, the first three fingers were folded in the name of St. Trinity, and the last two were “idle”. The people said: the new patriarch abolished Christ. Secondly, in old books the name of Christ was always written “Jesus”; Nikon changed it to “Jesus”. Thirdly, from the eighth member of the most important Creed in Orthodoxy, after Nikon’s corrections, the word “true” was excluded. Fourthly, instead of walking in procession along the sun, Nikon introduced walking against the sun. Fifthly, instead of the double hallelujah, the triple hallelujah was introduced. Sixth, instead of celebrating the liturgy on seven prosphoras, they began to serve on five prosphoras. The eight-pointed cross on the prosphora was replaced with a four-pointed one.

There were many other innovations, and most of them contradicted the ancient Byzantine and Russian models. Changes also affected church singing, the shape of liturgical vessels, and the cut of church vestments, including patriarchal vestments.

Today, many changes seem not so significant to our contemporaries, but in the 17th century, when all Russians lived by Orthodoxy and the covenants of their ancestors, any changes in church rituals were perceived extremely painfully.

But besides the very fact of correcting ancient books and church rituals, resistance among the people was also caused by the measures with the help of which these innovations were implanted. Orthodox Christians who remained devoted to the old faith and rituals were subjected to cruel persecution and execution. The Moscow church councils of 1656 and especially 1666 and 1667 finally split the Russian Church, at which oaths (curses) and church excommunication were imposed on Christians who supported old customs and rituals.

Patriarch Nikon himself, after a change in his fate (at the end of 1666 at the Great Moscow Council, Nikon was defrocked and exiled to the Ferapontov Monastery), changed his attitude towards his reforms. While still on the patriarchal throne, he sometimes said that “the old service books are good” and according to them “one can serve God’s service.” With this, Nikon seemed to pass judgment on his own book reform, recognizing it as unnecessary and meaningless.

Dozens of years of continuous persecution could not but affect the state of the Old Believers. The Church was left with priests, but without bishops. And ordinary priests could not ordain their successors. Thus, a new movement appeared in the Old Believer world, called “non-priesthood.” Since in the Church only a priest can perform the sacraments of communion, confirmation, marriage, and consecration of oil, in the absence of priests these sacraments practically disappeared, and the individual functions of priests - baptism, repentance - began to be performed by selected laymen and mentors. They led the entire life and affairs of the community. Non-priesthood was also characterized by further fragmentation, largely associated with the idea of marriage and the possible forms of its acceptance and formalization in the absence of a priest (Fedoseevites, Staropomorets, Titlovites, Polish Fedoseevites, troparschiki, etc.).

In the middle of the 18th century. After a century of severe persecution, the government eased pressure on the Old Believers. Under Emperor Peter III and especially during Catherine's era, Old Believers who fled abroad were allowed to return to Russia and join the merchant class. The most important event in this favorable period was the foundation in Moscow during the plague in 1771 of Old Believer cemeteries, which quickly turned into spiritual centers: the priests (Rogozhskoye cemetery) and the Bespopovtsy-Fedoseevites (Preobrazhenskoye cemetery). At the same time, in 1800, a special Edinoverie church was created in the bowels of the Russian Church. The Old Believers who converted to it retained their old rituals and traditions, but the Christians were called co-religionists. This is how a common faith appeared with its priests subordinate to the bishops of the dominant church.

The first mention of the Old Believers of Vereya dates back to this period. As legend says, until 1812 in the city of Vereya there was a wooden prayer house in the name of the Nativity of Christ, in which parishioners gathered to pray. There are no records of the time of construction of this house.

In 1816, the Old Believers built a new stone prayer house, which has survived to this day. A lot of effort and money was spent on these purposes by the merchants Boris Petrovich Tomilin, Daniil, Mikhail, Sergei and Andrei Ivanovich Glushkov, Ivan and Georgy Ivanovich Shevelev and Georgy Ivanovich Martyanov.

According to the law of that time, Old Believers were not allowed to build churches and perform open services, but the government turned a blind eye to the unspoken existence of Old Believers’ chapels, as well as to the construction of new ones. However, temples with external signs It was impossible for the Old Believers to build churches then, so they had to build a simple house in appearance; there was not even a cross placed on it. But inside the house it was done as it should be in a church. The house was divided into three parts: the altar, the temple for worshipers and the vestibule. An iconostasis was erected, and in the altar there was a Holy See.

From 1824 to 1830 local icons were covered with rich silver frames by the trustees of the church.

To perform Divine services at that time there was a priest at the temple, Fr. Ivan Petrovich Sergievsky. This can be seen from “Essays on priesthood” by Melnikov-Pechersky, who writes the following about this:

“In the thirties in the mountains. More likely it is a stone prayer room, built like a church and belonging to the entire local Old Believer society. There were fugitive priests with her. In the thirties there was priest Ivan Petrovich Sergievsky, a fugitive from the Aleksandrovsky district of the Vladimir province, whose placement in the Rogozhskoye cemetery was lobbied by the government officials from Moscow Old Believers.”

During the reign of Emperor Nicholas I, persecution of Old Believers intensified again. In 1832 it was introduced complete ban for the Old Believer Church to receive new “runaway” priests. The last “permitted” priests died a natural death; many priests faced the danger of complete disappearance or transition to non-priesthood or unification. Special military teams ravaged the famous centers of the Old Believers in the Volga region, in the Russian North. The issue of completely eliminating Old Believer cemeteries in Moscow was even considered.

This time was the most difficult for the Old Believers of Vereya.

Although there was a prayer room, it was forbidden for priests to serve in it, and some services were performed by clerics alone. To correct priestly requirements, it was necessary to invite priests from other places, but this was fraught with enormous risk. Religions were performed in houses on the sly, and if the local authorities found out about this, then in order not to be arrested, and the one who invited not to suffer punishment, the priest had to hide without finishing even the started services.

On June 20, 1856, Emperor Alexander II made a tragic decision for the Old Believers: to seal the altars of the Rogozhsky cemetery. In the resolution, he wrote: “Fulfill, especially since since there are no priests at the Rogozhsky cemetery and should not be allowed, if you do not join Orthodoxy or Edinoverie, then altars for services are not needed.”

After 1861, the policy towards the Old Believers gradually began to soften. In 1874, a law was issued on the recording of Old Believer marriages in the registers of parishes, and since 1883, Old Believers were allowed to hold services in closed premises.

At this time, Andrei Andreevich Berinov was the headman of the temple for some time, and in 1870 Pyotr Petrovich Tomilin was the trustee, after his death his son Ivan Petrovich Tomilin was the trustee for some time, and the headman was Ivan Sergeevich Nechaev.

In 1875, trustee Tomilin carried out repairs to the temple: the pillars supporting the beam in the temple were changed and the roof was painted.

In 1884, the trustee of the temple, the Verei merchant Ivan Egorovich Khomutinnikov, with the active help and participation of his wife Klavdia Vasilievna, filed a petition to appoint a permanent priest to the Verei temple. This petition was respected by Archbishop Savvaty, and Bartholomew Filippovich Shigolin, a rather energetic man, was ordained a priest. Unfortunately, he did not live long in Vereya.

Having asked for a priest for the temple, it was necessary to build a house for him. I.E. Khomutinnikov took up this matter. Ivan Yegorovich spent about 6,000 rubles from his personal funds to build the house, which still exists today. The construction was supervised by Philip Egorovich Khomutinnikov.

From the personal funds of I.E. Khomutinnikov, priest Bartholomew received an income of about 240 rubles per year from the inviolable capital established by Ivan Yegorovich. The clerks were paid their maintenance from personal funds by Mikhail Fedorovich Lyubimov (Shchelkov), Ilya and Philip Egorovich Khomutinnikov.

The three brothers Ivan, Ilya and Philip Egorovich Khomutinnikov invested a lot of work and money into decorating the temple.

At the same time, from the heirs of the brothers K. and I. Glushkov they acquired an invaluable treasure: the Life-giving Cross of the Lord with 69 particles of the relics of holy saints.

Priest Fr. Bartholomew Shigolin served in the church for 5 years and 3 months until January 25, 1890. After him, priest Dmitry Efremovich Sorokin served for a year and a half. From 1891 to 1917, priest Stefan Fedorovich Labzin served. It is quite possible that Fr. Stefan continued to serve after the revolution, since in a photograph from 1936 at the funeral of his wife Mother Irina, Fr. Stefan stands in church vestments.

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The government in Russia began to understand that further discrimination against the huge number of residents of the country who adhere to the old faith was no longer possible. Without the Old Believers, the development of Russian charity and patronage of the arts, museums and collecting is unthinkable.

During these years, work was actively carried out to repair and decorate the Intercession Church in Vereya.

On October 17, 1894, trustee Ivan Egorovich Khomutinnikov submitted a request for permission to repair the temple, which was followed by the permission of His Imperial Highness Moscow Governor-General Sergei Alexandrovich dated February 22, 1896. During the renovation of the temple, the iconostasis had to be dismantled. A New Believer bishop who was visiting the city found out about this and reported to his superiors that the church was being remodeled in significant parts. As a result of such a denunciation, the local police officer was ordered to suspend work on finishing the iconostasis.

In December 1896, the trustee submitted a petition for permission to complete the repairs, to which the governor received a favorable response on January 4, 1897, and the repairs were successfully completed.

After the death of Ivan Egorovich Khomutinnikov, the place of trustee was taken by his brother Philip Egorovich Khomutinnikov, who served as trustee and headman until 1907.

In 1905, the Highest Decree on religious tolerance was issued, giving the Old Believers freedom of religion.

The “golden” period of the heyday of Old Belief began, when several thousand Old Believer communities were registered throughout the country in a short period of time, hundreds of churches were built, educational and charitable institutions were opened.

Based on the law of October 17, 1906, the Old Believers of Vereya submitted a petition on June 10, 1907 to include their community in the established register. On July 3, there was a response to the petition that the community was registered, and on July 22, the first general meeting of the Vereisk community was held, at which they were elected: hereditary honorary citizen Nikolai Andreevich Glushkov as chairman, and a local manufacturer, peasant of Vereisky district, Vyshegorodskaya volost, village as the head of the temple. Timofeeva Dmitry Nikiforovich Chuvashin, who worked a lot for the local temple.

On October 21, 1907, the general meeting of the community decided to buy land from Kurmyshev adjacent to the church land. On January 1, 1908, a petition was submitted for permission to place a dome and a cross on the temple, and upon receipt of permission for general donations, this was done.

On February 2 of the same year, a petition was filed for permission to build a bell tower. Upon receipt of permission, elder Dmitry Nikiforovich Chuvashin was elected builder of the bell tower, and priest Stefan Labzin was his comrade. The construction of the bell tower was carried out according to plan and under the supervision of the architect Nikolai Georgievich Martyanov, who offered his work free of charge. Funds for the construction were collected from philanthropists and social activists, the headman D.N. Chuvashin donated bricks, and also helped a lot with his personal funds and labors, observing the construction in progress.

On October 5, 1908, a gilded cross was raised at the factory of the trading house “Andrei Zakhryapin’s Sons.” On September 14, 1908, after a prayer service, the foundation stone of a new three-tier bell tower at the church was performed.

On August 30, 1909, the general meeting of the community decided to purchase the bells, which were purchased at the Finland factories with funds raised by parishioners. The hereditary honorary citizen Alexander Petrovich Guskov helped a lot in the purchase of bells with his own funds. He donated 3 bells from the bell tower of the temple in the village of Simbukhovo, where his estate was located and where he was the headman of the temple, and purchased 800 fathoms of land for the Intercession Church.

On March 9, 1910, it was decided to build a house for priests on Novo-Mozhaiskaya Street, which was carried out using funds from donors and church funds.

In pursuance of the resolution of the general meeting of the community on May 19, 1911, the holy gates were built facing Novo-Mozhaiskaya Street. On the same date and year, land was purchased from Philip Yegorovich Khomutinnikov, adjacent to the church land, now located under an orchard.

In 1919, the Old Believer community was given permission to build a new house on the street. Novo-Mozhaiskaya.

During the years of Soviet power, the Old Believer Church was subjected to severe persecution. In the USSR, the Old Believers were viewed as a reactionary religious movement. It could not fit into the communist ideology, and not only because of its pronounced religiosity.

After 1917, during the years of Soviet power, the Old Believers did not fit into the communist doctrine due to their involvement in private enterprise. By nationalizing Russian private property and expelling its owners, the Soviet government caused irreparable damage to the Old Believers, from which they have not yet been able to recover. The Soviet regime deprived the Old Believers of economic support, which the autocracy did not do to them. By the mid-1930s. almost all churches and prayer houses were closed, all church and public institutions and institutions were liquidated, almost all hierarchs and priests were subjected to repression. Suffice it to say that out of almost fifty Old Believer churches and prayer houses in Moscow by the end of the 1930s. only two remained active. Of the thirty bishops, two remained at large.

The persecution of the Old Believers and the Russian Orthodox Church softened in the 1940s, but the Old Believers truly breathed freely only thanks to political changes in the country and society since the late 1980s. years:

From 1953 to 1963, the rector of the Church of the Intercession in Vereya was the priest Father George (Kamnev Georgy Dmitrievich). Father Georgy was very meek, he treated people attentively, with soul and compassion of heart, as his niece Anna Ivanovna Glushkova recalls. He served as a priest for 10 years and for health reasons was forced to leave Vereya, settling near Moscow. He died in 1999 and was buried at the Rogozhskoe cemetery.

After Fr. George as a priest in the Church of the Intercession Holy Mother of God since 1968 he became Fr. Evgeny (Mikheev). O. Evgeniy became a priest at the age of 26. A very wise man, with great internal culture, he treated his parishioners with attention and love.

His father's brother, Nikolai Mikheev, was a tank driver, where he died was never known to the family. My grandfather, an Old Believer priest, was forced to hide in cellars at the beginning of the last century and served a sentence in prison for his beliefs.

Great-grandfather o. John, Archpriest Peter Mikheev, served in Guslitsa and served as dean of the Moscow region. The roots of the Mikheev family along the male line come from the village of Rytovo, Vladimir region.

For 36 years he served as a priest of the Church of the Intercession in Vereya, Fr. Evgeny (Mikheev). During this time, work was carried out to gasify the temple, the territory was improved, restoration work was carried out on icons, renovation work in the temple. Father Eugene was loved not only by the parishioners of the temple, but also by many, many residents of the city.

At the consecrated Council of the Russian Orthodox Church, held on October 19-22, 2004, the widowed priest Evgeny Mikheev was elected a candidate for ordination as a bishop. On November 17, 2004, he was tonsured a monk with the name Eumenius, and on January 2, 2005, he was consecrated Bishop of Chisinau and All Moldova. In Moldova, Bishop Evmeniy received recognition from parishioners in a short time and secular authorities, which was noted by Metropolitan Cornelius, who arrived on an archpastoral visit to Moldova in November 2012.

Currently, the rector of the Intercession Church in Vereya for more than 7 years is the youngest son of Bishop Evmeniy, Fr. John. Since childhood, he took part in services, was a bell ringer, a sexton, a charter leader, a surplice reader, and a deacon. Bishop Andrian performed the ordination as deacon and priest.

One of the daughters of Bishop Evmeniy, Mother Alexandra is the wife of Archpriest Artemon Shendrigailov, rector of the Church of the Most Holy Theotokos (Borovsk). Archpriest Artemon also serves as the dean of the Borovsky deanery. And one of the brothers, Fr. Ioanna is the rector of the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in the village of Ustyanovo and serves as the icon of the Moscow diocese.

Today, the Old Believer community of the Intercession Church in Vereya is part of the largest Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church in the Old Believers.

The topic of Old Belief was deliberately kept silent during the Soviet period. If earlier the Old Believers were perceived as sectarians, today the scientific community and the public call them a unique phenomenon in the history of Russian culture. The Old Believers remain the last living island of pre-Petrine Rus' in the modern world. That is why central television showed great interest in the Old Believer Church of the Intercession in Vereya, filming a story about the temple, traditions and customs and repeatedly showing it on the “Culture” TV channel.

Such singing not only decorates the service, but also allows the voice to highlight especially significant places.

The ancient tradition is completely lost today in Russian Orthodox Church– many prayers have been excluded, and singing has lost its original value, since it is not performed along hooks, as it was before church reform 17th century, but according to notes.

There are few people who know hook singing perfectly.

It is very valuable that in the Church of the Intercession in Vereya, hook singing is performed using hooks and there are already young people who master this technique. According to historians, ancient church chants are the most perfect type of musical and poetic creativity, which combines the internal unity of sacred rites, words and singing.

When praying, parishioners of the Intercession Church in Vereya, like all Old Believers in Russia, use a ladder - a type of rosary, a type of rope. The structure of the ladder is deeply symbolic: it contains many symbols Christian doctrine. Its parts symbolize the evangelists, apostles, angels, gospel teaching, etc. The ladder itself is like a staircase to the Kingdom of Heaven, and at the same time a circle of tireless prayer. It is a woven leather (or, in later times, rag or leatherette) tape sewn in the form of a loop. A ladder is used to make it easier to count prayers and bows, allowing you to focus on the prayers.

Some specific (“canonical”) conditions, requirements, instructions, etc. to the appearance and design of a handy tool does not exist. Usually, appearance The use of hand tools depends on the ingenuity and skill of the craftsmen who make them, as well as on the local traditions where such hand tools are used.

Today, the ancient tradition of making and using handicrafts has been preserved only by Old Believers and fellow believers. Like lestovkas, handicrafts can be either everyday or festive. Like ladders, handholds should be stored in the red corner.

There is another tradition of the Intercession Church in Vereya, which, perhaps, is preserved only in this temple.

In the temple on the left side you can see two drawers. They contain memorial plaques from the second half of the 19th century with the names of parishioners, benefactors of the temple, and priests. Twice a year on major memorial Saturdays, all the tablets stored in the temple are read. The priest and several parishioners read the names of the deceased, however, the reading takes more than 3 hours. A tradition worthy of respect and gratitude for the memory of one’s ancestors.

Typically, Divine services in the Church of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos are held on Sundays and holidays. The beginning of the evening service on the eve of the holiday is 16.00, the beginning of the morning service is 7.30. Sacraments and services (funeral service, baptism, wedding, etc.) are performed on weekdays and Sundays by prior arrangement. The schedule may be subject to change, so it is best to check the website. The Church of the Intercession has its own website www.starovereya.ru, which is actively maintained. You can find out on the website last news from the life of the temple, the history of the temple, read the answers of the rector Father John to questions from site visitors, look at photographs, get information about the Vereya-Borovsk religious procession, get acquainted with recipes for Lenten cuisine. The site contains links to the site of the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church and a youth site. This is further proof that the Russian Old Believer Orthodox Church is not some kind of closed sect, as it was often presented in the very recent past, but a modern developing Church that preserves ancient Orthodox traditions. The Old Believer Church is a living Church with its own laws, traditions, with its own unique culture, accepting into its ranks an increasing number of Orthodox Christians, including young people. As an example, we can cite the following fact: in the first 5 years of serving as rector of the Intercession Church in Vereya alone, Father John baptized 100 people. And quite recently, through the efforts of philanthropists, a baptistery was equipped in the Church of the Intercession in the city of Vereya for the celebration of the sacrament of Holy Baptism. The size of the font allows baptism not only of infants, but also of adults of almost any size. It is worth recalling that the Old Believers recognize only three times complete immersion as true. However, in the modern Orthodox Church, baptism is often also carried out with complete immersion.

Currently, the community of the Old Believer Church of the Intercession of the Holy Virgin in Vereya has already begun preparations for the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the temple, which will be celebrated in 2016. Icons are being restored, the iconostasis has been repaired, and repair work is underway in the temple itself. On February 6, 2011, in the Intercession Church in Vereya, the consecration of an ancient bell, purchased by the community for installation in the bell tower, took place.

The consecration was performed by Bishop Evmeniy of Chisinau and all Moldova, co-served by the rector, Priest John Mikheev.

Work has begun and continues to improve the Old Believer cemetery, located in the western part of the city in a pine forest, approximately 700 meters from the city’s active cemetery.

Another tradition under the rector Fr. John became the Vereya-Borovsk Procession of the Cross, held annually in September in memory of the Holy Martyrs and Confessors of Boyarina Morozova and others like her in Borovsk. The procession of the cross begins in the morning at the Intercession Church in Vereya, and ends with the Divine Liturgy and Prayer Service to Sts. To the martyrs in Borovsk in the Church of Our Blessed Lady Theotokos the next day. After the Divine Liturgy - a procession to the chapel of the venerable martyr for ancient piety (in the angelic rank) Theodora (in the world of the Boyarina Feodosia Prokopyevna Morozova). Return to Vereya in the afternoon by bus.

The website of the Old Believer community of the Intercession Church of Vereya contains recommendations on what to take with you in terms of things and products, as well as details for donations for organizing the religious procession and contact numbers of the organizers in Borovsk, Vereya and Moscow.

The evening before, buses with those wishing to make a religious procession leave from Moscow from the Rogozhskoe cemetery. The number of seats on buses is limited, so pre-registration is required.

The question is often asked: “How to visit a temple? Are there any restrictions? And won’t they ask you to leave the temple if you are not an Old Believer?”

The most important thing in the answer to this question is the following: if you entered the temple not for entertainment, but in order to know the Truth, then this is only welcomed by the rector of the temple. Well, naturally, when visiting an Old Believer church, you must follow some rules, which are in many ways similar to visiting a church of the modern Russian Orthodox Church.

One can only note that in the Old Believer Church of the Intercession of Vereya, visitors who follow the rules are treated with a friendly attitude, which also comes from the rector himself, Fr. John.

How to get to the Church of the Intercession can be found on the community website. (GPS coordinates: N55 20.582" E36 10.764")

Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church (ROC)- the name established by the decision of the Consecrated Council in 1988 for the Old Believer Church on the territory of the USSR (now in Russia and the CIS countries). The former name, used since the 18th century, is Ancient Orthodox Church of Christ. The Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church is in complete ecclesiastical and canonical unity with the Old Believer Church in Romania and with the communities subordinate to it in other countries. In the literature there are names of the Russian Orthodox Church: Belokrinitsky consent, Belokrinitsky hierarchy- after the name of the monastery in Belaya Krinitsa (Northern Bukovina), which was part of the Austrian Empire. Due to the latter circumstance, in Russian pre-revolutionary literature the movement was also called Austrian hierarchy.

Brief history of the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church

As is known, one of the consequences of the liturgical reform undertaken by the Patriarch Nikon(1605–1681) and the king Alexey Mikhailovich(1629–1676), there was a schism in the Russian Church. State and church authorities, guided by a number of external and internal political considerations, undertook the unification of Russian liturgical texts with Greek ones, which was not accepted by a significant part of the Russian Church. The forms of performing the sacraments, sacred rites, and prayers accepted in Russia were changed, abolished, or even anathematized by the conciliar court of the Church. As a result of state persecution, the Old Believers were left without an episcopate (the only open opponent of Nikon's reforms among the bishops, Bishop, died in exile in April 1656). In such emergency conditions, some Old Believers (who later began to be called non-priests) refused to accept the Nikonian priesthood into communion as heretical, leaving them completely without a priesthood. Subsequently, priestlessism was divided into many agreements and interpretations, sometimes significantly different from each other in their teaching.

The other part of the Old Believers - the priests, based on the canonical practice that existed in the Church since the time of the struggle against Arianism, insisted on the possibility and even the necessity of accepting New Believer clergy into communion in their existing ranks, subject to their renunciation of Nikon’s reforms. As a result, among the priests, already from the end of the 17th - beginning of the 18th centuries, the practice of accepting the priesthood from the New Believers through. Throughout the 18th century, the Old Believers made several attempts to receive some bishop into communion, but all of them were unsuccessful.

During the reign of the emperor Nicholas I(1796–1855) the situation of the Old Believers changed for the worse: the government took measures to eradicate the fugitive Old Believer priesthood. In response to persecution among the Old Believer community, the idea of establishing an Old Believer episcopal see outside Russia was born. In 1846, located in the Belokrinitsky monastery (in the middle of the 19th century, the village of Belaya Krinitsa belonged to the Austrian Empire (later Austria-Hungary), then to Romania, from June 1940 - as part of the Ukrainian SSR, while the metropolitan see was moved to the city of Braila in Romania) former Metropolitan of Bosno-Sarajevo, Greek by origin, (Pappa-Georgopoli) (1791–1863; September 12, 1840 was recalled to Constantinople by Patriarch Anthimus IV (d. 1878) due to fears caused by the Metropolitan’s complaint of oppression population from local Turkish officials (earlier in the same year, he supported the Bosnian uprising against the Ottoman ruler in Sarajevo) after negotiations with the Old Believers (monks Paul and Alimpiy), he agreed to join the Old Believers in the second rite (through anointing with myrrh) and performed a series of consecrations for Thus, in Belaya Krinitsa the beginning of the Old Believer hierarchy was laid, and a number of newly appointed bishops and priests appeared within the Russian Empire. Some accuse Ambrose of single-handedly ordaining bishops, which is contrary to the letter of the law of the 1st Apostolic Canon, but many saints, including St. Stephen of Sourozh (c. 700 - after 787), served as an example of the commission and approval of such an action in extreme circumstances. c. 347–407) and Athanasius the Great (c. 295–373).

Founded in 1853 Vladimir Archdiocese; ten years later (in 1863) it was transformed into Moscow and all Rus'. The Belokrinitsky Consent Center was located in Moscow on Rogozhsky Old Believer Cemetery. The government took measures to eradicate the new hierarchy: priests and bishops were imprisoned (for example, Bishop Konon (Smirnov; 1798–1884) spent 22 years in the Suzdal monastery prison, the altars of Old Believer churches were sealed (the altars of the Rogozhskaya Sloboda churches in Moscow remained sealed for almost half a century: 1856–1905), Old Believers were prohibited from enrolling in the merchant class, etc. Persecution began to weaken only during the reign of Alexandra III, but even under him the ban on serving the Old Believer priesthood remained. In conditions of increasing persecution after the establishment of the hierarchy, new divisions arose among the Old Believers-priests. Some of the priests, believing the government, as well as the non-priest propaganda about the alleged pouring baptism of Metropolitan Ambrose, Ambrose’s joining the Old Believers because of money (simony), etc., did not recognize the Belokrinitsky hierarchy, continuing to be nourished by the fleeing priesthood from the Russian Synodal Church. This group, called in the first half of the 19th century “ Beglopopovtsy", managed to find its hierarchy only in 1923; the modern name of this agreement is (RDC).

On February 24, 1862, in response to numerous attacks from the Bespopovites and accusations of heresy, “ District message of the Russian archpastors of the Belokrinitsky hierarchy", prepared by the Vladimir (later Moscow) Archbishop Anthony and a bookkeeper Ilarion Kabanov(pseudonym Xenos; 1819–1882). IN " District message“, in particular, it was argued that the New Ritualists, although they sin in faith, believe in Christ, that the New Ritual spelling “Jesus” does not mean “another god” different from Jesus Christ, that the four-pointed image of the Cross of Christ is also worthy of worship, just like eight-pointed, that the dedicated priesthood, sacraments and bloodless Sacrifice will exist in the Orthodox Church until the end of time, that prayer for the Tsar is necessary, that the time of the last Antichrist and the end of the world has not yet come, that in the Synodal and Greek Churches the priesthood is true, therefore, it is true in the Russian Orthodox Church, which received the priesthood from Ambrose. The majority of believers of the Belokrinitsky consent accepted the “District Message” (such Christians began to be called “ okrugnikami"), but there were also those who rejected him (" neo-okrugniks", or " anti-environmentalists"). The situation was complicated by the fact that some bishops joined the neo-circulators. During the late 19th - early 20th centuries, okrugniks regularly attempted to heal the non-okrugnic schism, and therefore, for the purposes of church oikonomia, the “District Epistle” was repeatedly declared “as if it had not happened” (it was emphasized that the epistle is completely Orthodox and does not contain heresies ). The reconciliation of a significant part of the neo-okrug members with the Moscow Archdiocese took place in 1906. Over the years Soviet power that part of the neo-circular hierarchy that remained in schism with the Moscow Archdiocese was repressed, another part moved to the Russian Orthodox Church, and another to Edinoverie, only a few old people continue to be in a priestless state.

Despite the restrictive nature of Russian legislation in relation to the Old Believers, the Belokrinitsky Consent, headed in Russia since 1882 by the Archbishop of Moscow (Levshin; 1824–1898), gradually strengthened its position.

IN late XIX century, the internal church life of the Old Believers of the Belokrinitsky hierarchy was streamlined on the basis of the principle of conciliarity, for which considerable merit belonged to the bishop (Shvetsov; 1840–1908). Until 1898, all the most important internal church issues were decided by the Spiritual Council under the Moscow Archbishop, which included a few trusted representatives of the primate.

In March 1898, a council was held in Nizhny Novgorod with the participation of 7 bishops and 2 representatives from non-arriving bishops, which dismissed Savatius from the Moscow See. By a majority vote, the locum tenens of the archbishop's throne was entrusted to the Ural Bishop Arseny.

In October of the same year, a new council was held in Moscow, which elected the Don Bishop (Kartushin; 1837–1915) to the Moscow See. The Council abolished the Spiritual Council and obliged Archbishop John to convene regional councils of bishops to consider complaints against bishops and in general to improve church affairs at least once a year. The council also decided that the bishops of the Belokrinitsky hierarchy in Russia, including the Archbishop of Moscow, should be subordinate to these councils. In the years 1898–1912, 18 councils were held, and the laity took part in their work along with the clergy. In addition to cathedrals in the life of the Belokrinitsky consent in the late 19th - early 20th centuries great importance had annual all-Russian congresses of Old Believers. The councils were the “supreme bodies of church-hierarchical government,” and the congresses were the “body of church-civil unity of the Old Believers,” dealing primarily with economic, socio-political issues.

The manifesto “On Strengthening the Principles of Tolerance,” published on April 17, 1905, which granted rights to the Old Believers, was of great importance for the Old Believers Church. The 12th paragraph of the manifesto ordered “to unseal all houses of worship that were closed both administratively, not excluding cases that rose through the Committee of Ministers to the Highest Review, and by determination of judicial places.” According to the emperor’s telegram, given on April 16, representatives of the Moscow authorities removed the seals from the altars of the Old Believer churches of the Rogozhsky cemetery. On February 21, 1906, a delegation of 120 Old Believers of all consents was received by Nicholas II in Tsarskoe Selo. In 1905-1917, according to estimates (1874–1960), more than a thousand new Old Believer churches were built, and prominent architects of that time were actively involved in the work on which - F.O. Shekhtel (1859–1926), I.E. Bondarenko (1870–1947), N.G. Martyanov (1873 (according to other sources 1872) -1943) and others. During these years, about 10 Old Believer monasteries were opened.

On the 2nd All-Russian Congress Old Believers (1901) a school commission was created, which was faced with the task of opening a comprehensive school in every Old Believers parish. This process went quite quickly after 1905. In August 1905, the cathedral adopted a resolution on the organization of schools for the study of the Law of God and church singing in parishes, on the creation of a theological school in Nizhny Novgorod and on teaching young men “reading and singing and preparing them for the service of St. Church" in Cheremshansky Uspensky monastery near Khvalynsk, Saratov province. On August 25, 1911, by a resolution of the Consecrated Council of Old Believer Bishops, a Council was established under the Moscow Archdiocese, which, under the direction of Archbishop John (Kartushin), would consider church and public affairs and issues and explain them. In 1912, the Old Believer Theological and Teachers' University was established at the Rogozhskoe cemetery with a six-year course of study. Along with priests, this educational institution was supposed to train teachers of the law, church and public figures and teachers of general education Old Believer schools.

Immediately after the October Revolution of 1917, during the mass liquidation of house churches, Old Believer house churches (mainly in merchant houses) were closed. In 1918, almost all Old Believer monasteries, the Theological and Teachers' Institute in Moscow and all Old Believer periodicals were abolished. During civil war There were reprisals by Red Army soldiers and security officers against Old Believer clergy. In 1923, the archbishop (Kartushin; ca. 1859-1934) and the bishop (Lakomkin; 1872-1951) issued an “Archpastoral Letter” calling on the flock to be loyal to the new government.

In the mid-1920s, the Belokrinitsky consent, with the permission of the OGPU, managed to hold several councils (in 1925, 1926, 1927), which discussed issues of organizing church life in new social conditions. The publication (in private publishing houses) of “Old Believer Church Calendars” has resumed. Bishop Gerontius organized the Brotherhood of St. Hieromartyr Avvakum with pastoral and theological courses with him. By the end of the 1920s, the Old Believer Church of the Belokrinitsky hierarchy included 24 dioceses, ruled by 18 bishops, several monasteries that existed after 1918 under the guise of “labor artels,” and hundreds of clergy.

The government's policy towards the Old Believers changed dramatically in the late 1920s, when, during the collectivization of agriculture carried out in the USSR, a campaign was launched to “eliminate the kulaks as a class.” The majority of the Old Believer peasant economy was prosperous, and this gave the foundation to N.K. Krupskaya (1869-1939) to say that “the fight against the kulaks is at the same time a fight against the Old Believers,” within which the Belokrinitsky consensus was the largest and most organized. As a result of mass repressions against Old Believers in the 1930s, all monasteries were closed; many areas previously considered Old Believers lost all functioning churches, and the vast majority of clergy were arrested. When churches and monasteries were closed, icons, utensils, bells, vestments, and books were completely confiscated, and many libraries and archives were destroyed. Some Old Believers emigrated, mainly to Romania and China. During the repressions, the episcopate was almost completely destroyed. Most of the bishops were shot, some languished in prison, and only two (Nizhny Novgorod bishop (Usov; 1870-1942) and Irkutsk bishop Joseph(Antipin; 1854-1927)) managed to go abroad. By 1938, only one bishop remained at large - the Bishop of Kaluga-Smolensk Sava(Ananyev; 1870s - 1945). The Belokrinitsky hierarchy on the territory of the USSR was under the threat of complete extinction. Trying to avoid this and expecting arrest and execution every day, in 1939 Bishop Sava single-handedly ordained Bishop Paisius (Petrov) as his successor to the Kaluga-Smolensk diocese. There was no arrest, and in 1941, Bishop Sava, at the request of the Rogozh Old Believers, elevated the Bishop of Samara (Parfenov; 1881-1952), who had returned from prison, to the dignity of archbishop. In 1942, Bishop Geronty (Lakomkin) returned from prison and became an assistant to the archbishop.

IN post-war period The position of the Old Orthodox Church was extremely difficult. Most of the churches closed in the 1930s were never returned to the Church. The Archdiocese of Moscow and All Rus' huddled in the back room of the Edinoverie Church of St. Nicholas at the Rogozhskoe cemetery. Permission was not received to open monasteries and educational institutions. The only sign of a religious “thaw” was the permission of the publication church calendar for 1945. After the war, it was possible to replenish the episcopate. In 1945, a bishop was ordained (Morzhakov; 1886-1970), in 1946 - a bishop Benjamin(Agoltsov; d. 1962), and two years later - bishop (Slesarev; 1879-1960). In the 1960s - mid-1980s church life harmony was characterized by stagnant trends: practically no new parishes were opened, some provincial churches were closed due to the lack of not only clergy, but also laypeople capable of conducting choir services. The practice of caring for several parishes by one priest became widespread. Clergy who tried to show any activity were often banned. In 1986, after the death of the archbishop (Latyshev; 1916-1986) and the locum tenens bishop (Kononova; 1896-1986), the recently ordained Bishop of Klintsovsko-Novozybkovsky (Gusev; 1929-2003) was elected Archbishop of Moscow and All Rus' gg.).

The new primate began to actively visit provincial parishes, including those where there had been no hierarchal service for several decades. At the Council of 1988, the Moscow Archdiocese was transformed into a Metropolis. At the same Council, a new official name of the Church was adopted - “Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church” instead of the former “Old Orthodox Church of Christ”.

On July 24, 1988, in Moscow, the solemn elevation of Archbishop Alimpy to the rank of Metropolitan of Moscow and All Rus' took place. In 1991, the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church resumed its official theoretical and spiritual-educational publication - the magazine "Church". Under Metropolitan Alimpia, the Yaroslavl-Kostroma, Siberian, Far Eastern, and Kazan-Vyatka dioceses were revived. For the first time since 1917, contact with the Old Believer local Church of Romania was renewed. In 1995, an Old Believer department was opened at the Art Restoration School in Suzdal. The first graduation took place in 1998. Among the nine people who then received certificates of completion, all found themselves in church service. In 1999, due to financial and organizational problems, the school was closed. In 1996, the Old Believer Theological School was created in Rogozhsky, the first graduates of which took place in 1998. Then there was another big break in the school’s activities. On December 31, 2003, Metropolitan Alimpiy died, and on February 12, 2004, the Bishop of Kazan and Vyatka (Chetvergov; 1951-2005) became Metropolitan of Moscow and All Rus'. His name is associated with the intensification of the activities of the Russian Orthodox Church in many areas, as well as the policy of openness to the outside world. On September 1, 2004, the Moscow Old Believer Theological School resumed its work. In October 2004, the territories of the former Kaluga-Smolensk and Klintsov-Novozybkov dioceses became part of the newly formed St. Petersburg and Tver diocese.

Metropolitan Andrian stayed at the metropolitan see for a year and a half; managed to establish close ties with the Moscow government, thanks to which two churches were transferred to the disposal of the Church, Voitovicha Street was renamed Old Believer, and funding was provided for the restoration of the spiritual and administrative center in Rogozhskaya Sloboda. Metropolitan Andrian died suddenly on August 10, 2005 at the age of 54 from a heart attack. On October 19, 2005, the Bishop of Kazan and Vyatka (Titov; born 1947) was elected Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church. The enthronement of the new Old Believer metropolitan took place in Moscow on October 23 at the spiritual center of the Old Believers, located in Rogozhskaya Sloboda.

In May 2013, an Orthodox community from Uganda led by a priest was accepted into the Russian Orthodox Church Joachim Kiimboy. After the death of Protopresbyter Joachim Kiimba on January 10, 2015, priest Joachim Walusimbi was appointed as the new rector. On September 20, 2015, his priestly ordination took place in Moscow, which was performed by Metropolitan Cornelius. As of September 2015, the community had one operating temple in the suburbs of the Ugandan capital Kampala and two more under construction (the number of parishioners was about 200 people). On February 4, 2015, the Metropolitan Council of the Russian Orthodox Church decided to create a commission on the possibility of recognition by the Moscow Patriarchate of the legitimacy of the Belokrinitsky hierarchy. On March 31 of the same year, with the participation of Metropolitan Cornelius, the first meeting of the commission with the working group of the Moscow Patriarchate took place. The highest governing body of the Russian Orthodox Church - Consecrated Cathedral Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church. Meets annually with the wide participation of clergy of all levels, monastics and laity. The church hierarchy consists of ten bishops headed by the Metropolitan of Moscow and All Rus'. Traditionally, Old Believer regions are considered to be the Volga region, Central Russia, the Urals, Pomerania and Siberia, and to a lesser extent the Far East, the Caucasus and the Don. Another 300 thousand people are in the CIS, 200 thousand in Romania, 15 thousand in the rest of the world. As of 2005, there were 260 registered communities. The Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church currently owns a women's church near Uglich. The magazine “Church” and its supplement “During the Time...” are published. Since 2015, there has been an Old Believer Internet radio “Voice of Faith” (Sychevka, Smolensk region, creator - Priest Arkady Kutuzov) and Old Believer online lectures are held.

Dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church

As of spring 2018.

Don and Caucasus Diocese - Archbishop (Eremeev)
Irkutsk-Transbaikal diocese - bishop (Artemikhin)
Kazan and Vyatka diocese - bishop (Dubinov)
Kazakhstan diocese - Bishop Sava (Chalovsky)
Kiev and All Ukraine Diocese - Bishop (Kovalyov)
Diocese of Chisinau and all Moldavia - bishop (Mikheev)
Moscow Metropolitanate - Metropolitan (Titov)
Nizhny Novgorod and Vladimir diocese - widowed, Metropolitan Korniliy (Titov)
Novosibirsk and All Siberia Diocese - Bishop (Kilin)
Samara and Saratov diocese - widowed, Metropolitan Korniliy (Titov)
St. Petersburg and Tver diocese - widowed, Metropolitan Korniliy (Titov)
Tomsk diocese - Bishop Gregory (Korobeinikov)
Ural Diocese - widowed, Metropolitan Korniliy (Titov)
Khabarovsk and everything Far East diocese - widowed, under Metropolitan Korniliy (Titov)
Yaroslavl and Kostroma diocese - Bishop Vikenty (Novozhilov)