www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology St Avvakum the Old Believer

Must be a coincidence of name - I knew the priest who served Our Lady of Tikhvin Greek-Catholic Old Rite chapel at Mount Angel and he was quite certainly Catholic - the Oriental Congregation supplied him with photocopies of some of the Old Rite liturgical books. But that was nearly 40 years ago. His primary work for the Old Ritualists at the time was a social apostolate - they had arrived fairly recently from Turkey and needed help acclimatizing themselves. The local bishop and/or the Benedictines asked for a Russian Catholic priest to assist in the process; hence the priest and the chapel. Bishop Andrew (Katkov) of blessed memory visited the community on at least one occasion. The elders of the Old Ritualists - some of whom were in principle Popovtsy, although they had no priest - asked Bishop Andrew if he could demonstrate his hierarchal descent all the way back to the Apostles! At the time Bishop Andrew couldn't even prove the facts of his own birth (he only discovered his birth record - in Siberia - when he visited Russia a year or so later); he had been born when his mother was already a refugee, during the Revolution, and one can readily imagine that the records were not in the best of order. I doubt that the good bishop seriously tried to convince the Old Ritualists that he was real - but he was ordained and consecrated in Rome, so one assumes that the records would have gone back for centuries, at the very least! Incognitus

Eumir, it really is a very different situation with the Staroviery compared to the situation with the Novus Ordo and I don't really like even making the comparison.

With the Old Rite and the changes of Patriarch Nikon, it was much more than just liturgical changes. An entire culture of the Staroviery was centered around the Old Rite. The customs extended far beyond just the parish church and were a part of every facet of life of the Staroviery. Almost every daily activity, mental or physical, is preceded and followed by prayers.

When the changes were made by Patriarch Nikon, a whole way of life and an entire culture came under attack. This was very different from some liturgical disagreements after Vatican II.

Another example is metal icons. Metal icons are a very distinctive feature of the Staroviery. Even the Old Rite artisans were forbidden from making their metal icons, were sometimes arrested for making the icons, and had their forges destroyed.

Old Rite clergy couldn't wear their traditional clerical dress, clergy and faithful were deported or rounded up and often even put to death. Old Rite cemeteries were sometimes desecrated.

However the Russian Church outside of Russia (ROCOR, also called Russian ORthodox Church Abroad sometimes) issued an ukaz and public apology in 1974 which stated that the Old Rite was a legitimate part of Russian Orthodoxy and that the persecution of the Old Rite was truly a tragic event. One parish in Erie, Pennsylvania is in communion with the ROCOR. The Patriarchate of Moscow has also issued statements lamenting the persecution of the Staroviery after the Nikonian changes were implemented.

In terms of customs there are so many particular customs. When you go to someone's house, you offer the entrance bows before their icons, and only then greet the people in the house.

The Staroviery make many prostrations in prayer, by crossing the hands and putting the head on the hands, on a small embroidered cloth or pillow called a podrushnik. In some communities the men have embroidered shirts and ornate belts that they wear to every liturgical and festal gathering.

The sign of the Cross is made with the index finger extended with the middle finger of the right hand, indicating the two Human and Divine Natures of Christ.

The middle finger is slightly bent to indicate that the Son of God bent the Heavens and came down to us, as we read in the Psalms of David. The thumb and the remaining two fingers are joined together to symbolize the Holy Trinity.
The entire posture of the hand formes the Christogram (ICXC) which is also how all priests of the Byzantine tradition bless (and how the Pope blesses alone in the West).

The Jesus Prayer is usually said when making the sign of the Cross, and it is made from head to belly to right shoulder to left.

The clergy wear cassocks often with loops or buttons, never snaps. 33 buttons are often found on the front of the cassocks.

A special kind of rosary (Lestovka or Ladder) is in use with the Old Rite. There are many, many more particular customs of the Old Rite. There are some local variations in customs between some priestless groups such as the Pomorsk'e soglas and a priestly soglas like Bila Krinitsya.

In Old Rite churches the men often stand on one side together (side facing the Icon of Christ) and the women on the other (facing icon of the Theotokos). The old Kyivan chant, Znamenny, is still used in the Liturgy.

As far as Greek Catholics are concerned, the directives of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky at the 1917 Sobor state the Old Rite may be used amongst Greek Catholics but must be used in its entirety and not be mixed with the Nikonian usage.

Incognitus,

I did a bit more searching. The hierarch of the US, Canada, & Australia for the Old Believers is a Bishop Sofrony, who is reportedly headquartered in Gervais, OR. Gervais is only about 7 miles from the community of Mount Angel. As I said before, there is a RO church in Mt. Angel under the patronage of Our Lady of Tikhvin. There is also a single EO parish in Gervais, Church Of The Holy Ascension Of Our Lord, no indication as to its jurisdictional affiliation.

Many years,

Neil

Dear Diak,

Are the Old Believer communities on the Kenai Penisula priestly or priestless? Thanks.

In Christ,
Anthony

Archbishop Sofrony is not the only Old Rite hierarch in the USA. Bishop Daniel in Erie is the hierarch for the Old Rite soglas in union with the ROCOR.

Dear Anthony,you can find both there. Also in Oregon you can still find both.

There is also a small monastery in North Dakota, Holy Nativity Skete, that is priestly Old Rite under the ompophor of Archbishop Sofrony.

Diak,

Yes, I know of Bishop Daniel. (His jurisdiction includes the community in Marianna, PA, doesn't it?).

With whom is Archbishop Sofrony affiliated - or is his an independent jurisdiction?

Many years,

Neil

Archbishop Sofrony is a hierarch of the Russian Old-Ritualist Orthodox Church's Synod headed by the Metropolitan of Bielaia Krinitsa and all the Old Orthodox Christians, Metropolitan Leonty - who actually lives in Braila, Romania - and who has archpastoral responsibility for everyplace outside the boundaries of the former Soviet Union. Incognitus

Dear Diak,

Thanks! you explained it so clearly...

Concerning their customs: the people of Rus got their faith from the Greeks, so their liturgical customs are somehow be similar with the Greeks. did the Greeks had something like what Pat. Nikon's changes? because with the simple mind I have so I have this simple example - the Greeks of old cross themselves in the same way with the Old Believers before the changes happened in the Greek Church to have it like the way they have it now with the middle, point and thumb together and rest touching the palm. So the changes with the Greek Church caused the Slavonic Church to have the changes which their Mother Church had.

From the parish of the Greek Orthodox here the customs that men are to be sited at the sided of the Pantokrator while the women are sited at the side of the Theotokos is done but not strictly observe. so i take my place were most of the men are sited. Not knowing why...

God bless!
eumir

Eumir, yes Patriarch Nikon was himself an avowed Grecophile, and his intentions as those of his clerical inner circle were to make the Slavonic service books more in line with the current Greek liturgical practices of his day (latter 17th century).

The conversion of Rus' had happened 700 years earlier, and pockets within Rus (especially Kherson and Tmutorokan on the Black Sea) and areas of the Carpathians had even received the faith prior to that from Bulgarian and Macedonian missionaries working in the footsteps of Sts. Cyril and Methodius.

Even long before that, St. Clement, the fourth Pope, was exiled to Kherson near the end of the first century. Christianity was present from its earliest times along the Black Sea in what is now Crimea and southern Ukraine.

So you can see there was a unique Rus' spirituality and liturgical tradition very well developed for hundreds of years when Patriarch Nikon instituted his "reforms". The Old Rite has preserved much of that unique spiritual, cultural, and liturgical identity.

"Archbishop Sofrony is a hierarch of the Russian Old-Ritualist Orthodox Church's Synod headed by the Metropolitan of Bielaia Krinitsa and all the Old Orthodox Christians, Metropolitan Leonty - who actually lives in Braila, Romania - and who has archpastoral responsibility for everyplace outside the boundaries of the former Soviet Union. Incognitus"

Germany is under the Moscow branch of the Belayakrinitsy, with Vladyka Amvrosii as its bishop.

Bishop Amvrosii's four British clerics would have been under Moscow, via his omophor, but left him before this came to be - due to Muscovite nationalism.

Spasi Khristos -
Mark, monk and sinner.

Bless, Father Mark!

Khrestos Razhdayetsia! Slavite Yeho!!

Great to see you here!

Our condolences at the repose of Metropolitan Alimpy of Moscow and all Rus' - eternal memory!!

(Have any new Old Believer saints been glorified recently?)

Spasi Khrystos,

Alex

S prazdnikom s rozhdestvom Khristovim!

The All-Merciful Lord bless you, dearest brother in Christ, Alex.

The death of His Beatitude, Metropolitan Alimpii is sad. He was truly a saintly man, and as such we gain an intercessor in the heavens.

However, his time as First Hierarch was marked by some negative aspects as has been pointed out in some articles. The future of Old orthodoxy will be interesting. It would be a great blessing to see all of the popovsty united.

As for glorifications, I have become so cut off from staroobriaditchestvo, that I don't know what has been happening. I have occassional contact with Patriarch Alexander, via one of the Novozybkovtsy priests and hope to visit the Patriarch in the next few months, but I know little of recent events.

Spasi Khristos -
Mark, monk and sinner.

Bless, Father Mark!

Not a problem!

If you like, you are always welcome in the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church which, as you know, has a tradition of the Old Rite!!

But only if you like . . .

Kissing your right hand, I again implore your blessing,

Alex

Alex - have you asked Taras Burnos about Old Rite Orthodox Calendars?

Spasi Khristos -
Mark, monk and sinner.

Bless, Father Mark,

Yes, I have - he said he'll get back to me.

I imagine he eventually will . . .

Alex