106-734: Spassky (masculine) or Spasskaya (feminine) is a common Russian surname, usually of descendants of Russian Orthodox clergymen. The neuter form is Spasskoye . The term may refer to: People Boris Spassky , Soviet chess player and former world champion Igor Spassky , Russian scientist, engineer, and entrepreneur Places Spassky District , name of several districts in Russia Spassky (rural locality) ( Spasskaya , Spasskoye ), name of several rural localities in Russia Other Spasskaya Tower ,
212-536: A ban on the pagan entertainment. Joseph's reign as Patriarch of Moscow was marked by a decline of the political power of the position. During the reign of the previous Patriarch, Filaret of Moscow , from 1619 to 1633, the Patriarch served as de jure ruler of the church and had a powerful influence on the state. In contrast, Joseph was unable to intercede in public affairs, and the state began to interfere in ecclesiastical affairs. In 1652, Joseph died. Many members of
318-418: A contested issue. Following the death of Patriarch Adrian in 1700, Peter I of Russia ( r. 1682–1725 ) decided against an election of a new patriarch, and drawing on the clergy that came from Ukraine, he appointed Stefan Yavorsky as locum tenens . Peter believed that Russia's resources, including the church, could be used to establish a modern European state and he sought to strengthen
424-711: A critic of the Moscow Patriarchate who was one of those who briefly gained access to the KGB 's archives in the early 1990s, argued that the Moscow Patriarchate was "practically a subsidiary, a sister company of the KGB". Critics charge that the archives showed the extent of active participation of the top ROC hierarchs in the KGB efforts overseas. George Trofimoff , the highest-ranking US military officer ever indicted for, and convicted of, espionage by
530-591: A delegation to the king of Poland warning him not to accept Gregory; Jonah also attempted to persuade feudal princes and nobles who resided in Lithuania to continue to side with Orthodoxy, but this attempt failed. The fall of Constantinople and the beginning of autocephaly of the Russian Church contributed to political consolidation in Russia and the development of a new identity based on awareness that Moscow
636-464: A devil or Antichrist. Particularly important to the canon is Avvakum's The Life Written By Himself , an account of his various exiles by authorities to Siberia. Since the Old Believers were denied the use of the printing press to print their literature and unrevised service books, they developed a robust tradition of manuscript writing and book collecting. The most radical defenders of
742-519: A heretic, and the boyars saw Nikon's reforms and the renewal of the Patriarch's political power as a challenge to their own influence on the state. The major claim made by Nikon's opposition was that the Russian pre-reform faith more closely adhered to the practices of the early church, since the fall of Constantinople had corrupted the Greek rite while Russians had preserved the church. This idea of
848-588: A move that caused division among clergy and faithful that persisted until 1946. Between 1917 and 1935, 130,000 Eastern Orthodox priests were arrested. Of these, 95,000 were put to death. Many thousands of victims of persecution became recognized in a special canon of saints known as the " new martyrs and confessors of Russia". When Patriarch Tikhon died in 1925, the Soviet authorities forbade patriarchal election. Patriarchal locum tenens (acting Patriarch) Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky, 1887–1944), going against
954-708: A multi-candidate election, the Church again attempted to run its own religious candidates in the 1937 elections . However the support of multicandidate elections was retracted several months before the elections were held and in neither 1929 nor 1937 were any candidates of the Orthodox Church elected. After Nazi Germany's attack on the Soviet Union in 1941, Joseph Stalin revived the Russian Orthodox Church to intensify patriotic support for
1060-458: A renewal movement aimed at reforming liturgy and embracing piety. The movement's early members included the Archbishop of Novgorod Nikon and Archpriests Ivan Nerov [ ru ] , Stephen Vonifatiev [ ru ] , and Avvakum , with secular support from Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and his supporters Fyodor Rtishchev and Boris Morozov . In the 1630s and 1640s, during
1166-721: A series of reforms led to a schism in the Russian Church , as the Old Believers opposed the changes. The ROC currently claims exclusive jurisdiction over the Eastern Orthodox Christians, irrespective of their ethnic background, who reside in the former member republics of the Soviet Union , excluding Georgia . The ROC also created the autonomous Church of Japan and Chinese Orthodox Church . The ROC eparchies in Belarus and Latvia , since
SECTION 10
#17328011377541272-776: A single candidate for the office of bishop or any other high-ranking office, much less a member of the Holy Synod, went through without confirmation by the Central Committee of the CPSU and the KGB ". Professor Nathaniel Davis points out: "If the bishops wished to defend their people and survive in office, they had to collaborate to some degree with the KGB, with the commissioners of the Council for Religious Affairs, and with other party and governmental authorities". Patriarch Alexy II, acknowledged that compromises were made with
1378-643: A total of 95,259 monks and nuns in Russia. The year 1917 was a major turning point in Russian history, and also the Russian Orthodox Church. In early March 1917 (O.S.), the Tsar was forced to abdicate , the Russian empire began to implode, and the government's direct control of the Church was all but over by August 1917. On 15 August (O.S.), in the Moscow Dormition Cathedral in the Kremlin,
1484-655: A tower of the Moscow Kremlin See also: Spassk and Spas Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Spassky . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Spassky&oldid=649913020 " Categories : Disambiguation pages Disambiguation pages with surname-holder lists Place name disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
1590-580: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Russian Orthodox Church Autocephaly recognized by some autocephalous Churches de jure : Autocephaly and canonicity recognized by Constantinople and 3 other autocephalous Churches: Spiritual independence recognized by Georgian Orthodox Church: Semi-Autonomous: The Russian Orthodox Church ( ROC ; Russian : Русская православная церковь , romanized : Russkaya pravoslavnaya tserkov' , abbreviated as РПЦ), alternatively legally known as
1696-644: Is disputed which church has been the legitimate successor to the Russian Orthodox Church that had existed before 1925. In 1927, Metropolitan Eulogius (Georgiyevsky) of Paris broke with the ROCOR (along with Metropolitan Platon (Rozhdestvensky) of New York, leader of the Russian Metropolia in America). In 1930, after taking part in a prayer service in London in supplication for Christians suffering under
1802-538: Is little information about Christianity in sources in the period between 969 and 988. Ten years after seizing power, Grand Prince Vladimir was baptized in 988 and began Christianizing his people upon his return. That year was decreed by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1988 as the date of the Christianization of the country. According to the Chronicle , Vladimir had previously sent envoys to investigate
1908-523: The 1945 Local Council from the representatives of the clergy and the laity. NKVD demanded "to outline persons who have religious authority among the clergy and believers, and at the same time checked for civic or patriotic work". In the letter sent in September 1944, it was emphasized: "It is important to ensure that the number of nominated candidates is dominated by the agents of the NKBD, capable of holding
2014-675: The Apostle Andrew visited Scythia and Greek colonies along the northern coast of the Black Sea before making his way to Chersonesus in Crimea . According to the legend, Andrew reached the future location of Kiev and foretold the foundation of a great Christian city with many churches. Then, "he came to the [land of the] Slovenians where Novgorod now [stands]" and observed the locals, before eventually arriving in Rome . Despite
2120-691: The Archdiocese of Russian Orthodox churches in Western Europe . Moreover, in the 1929 elections , the Orthodox Church attempted to formulate itself as a full-scale opposition group to the Communist Party, and attempted to run candidates of its own against the Communist candidates. Article 124 of the 1936 Soviet Constitution officially allowed for freedom of religion within the Soviet Union, and along with initial statements of it being
2226-602: The Council of Florence , the only Russian prelate present at the council signed the union, which, according to his companion, was only under duress. Metropolitan Isidore left Florence on 6 September 1439 and returned to Moscow on 19 March 1441. The chronicles say that three days after arriving in Moscow, Grand Prince Vasily II arrested Isidore and placed him under supervision in the Chudov Monastery . According to
SECTION 20
#17328011377542332-593: The Devil . The reforms of Nikon were seen by some Old Believers as direct manifestations of the Antichrist, with the altered sign of the cross compared to the mark of the beast , and the year of the 1666 Moscow Synod seen as indicating the number of the beast . By condemning its own saints and historical rituals, Old Believers further believed that Nikon's reforms plunged the Third Rome , Russia, into heresy, which
2438-709: The Local ( Pomestniy ) Council of the ROC, the first such convention since the late 17th century, opened. The council continued its sessions until September 1918 and adopted a number of important reforms, including the restoration of Patriarchate , a decision taken 3 days after the Bolsheviks overthrew the Provisional Government in Petrograd on 25 October (O.S.). On 5 November, Metropolitan Tikhon of Moscow
2544-492: The Mongol invasions , Metropolitan Maximus moved his seat to Vladimir in 1299, "being unable to tolerate Tatar violence", according to a later chronicle. His successor, Peter , found himself caught in the conflict between the principalities of Tver and Moscow for supremacy in northwest Russia . Peter moved his residence to Moscow in 1325 and became a strong ally of the prince of Moscow. During Peter's tenure in Moscow,
2650-464: The Moscow Patriarchate ( Russian : Московский патриархат , romanized : Moskovskiy patriarkhat ), is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The primate of the ROC is the patriarch of Moscow and all Rus' . The Christianization of Kievan Rus' commenced in 988 with the baptism of Vladimir the Great and his subjects by the clergy of
2756-514: The Old Believers movement in the 1600s. It was triggered by the reforms of Patriarch Nikon in 1653, which aimed to establish uniformity between Greek and Russian church practices. In the 1630s and 1640s, Nikon had been a part of a group known as the Zealots of Piety , a circle of church reformers whose acts included amending service books in accordance with the "correct" Russian tradition. When Nikon became Patriarch of Moscow in 1652, he continued
2862-580: The Pustozyorsk prison, often justified this time of strife as God's punishment of the ecclesiastic and tsarist authorities for their erroneous reforms. Nikon, being the figurehead of the reforms, was often framed in Old Believer tales either as an accomplice to the Antichrist, or even the Antichrist himself. Other state authorities, especially those who persecuted the Old Believers, such as Tsar Alexei, would also be decried by schismatics as agents of
2968-462: The Russian SFSR , between 40% and 50% of newborn babies (depending on the region) were baptized. Over 60% of all deceased received Christian funeral services. Beginning in the late 1980s, under Mikhail Gorbachev, the new political and social freedoms resulted in the return of many church buildings to the church, so they could be restored by local parishioners. A pivotal point in the history of
3074-582: The Solovetsky Monastery uprising and the Moscow uprising of 1682 , but by the time of Peter the Great in the early 1700s, much of the popular uproar had waned. Despite persecution, Old Believer communities have persisted to the present day, chiefly in Russia and Eastern Europe . At the beginning of the 1600s, the Orthodox Church in Russia was threatened by a period of political crisis known as
3180-435: The Soviet Union , which had refused to recognise the authority of the Moscow Patriarchate that was de facto headed by Metropolitan Sergius Stragorodsky . The two churches reconciled on 17 May 2007 ; the ROCOR is now a self-governing part of the Russian Orthodox Church. One of the foundational narratives associated with the history of Orthodoxy in Russia is found in the 12th-century Primary Chronicle , which says that
3286-461: The Time of Troubles . In 1598, Tsar Feodor I died without an heir, leaving Russia in a state of apparent lawlessness until the ascension of Tsar Michael I in 1613. During this time, the position of the Orthodox Church was twice imperiled. First, the usurper False Dmitry I was crowned tsar in 1605 and converted to Catholicism before being assassinated during an uprising in 1606, and later Moscow
Spassky - Misplaced Pages Continue
3392-716: The United States and sentenced to life imprisonment on 27 September 2001, had been "recruited into the service of the KGB" by Igor Susemihl (a.k.a. Zuzemihl), a bishop in the Russian Orthodox Church (subsequently, a high-ranking hierarch—the ROC Metropolitan Iriney of Vienna , who died in July 1999). Konstanin Kharchev, former chairman of the Soviet Council on Religious Affairs, explained: "Not
3498-415: The ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople , which traditionally marks the beginning of the history of Russian Christianity. Starting in the 14th century, Moscow served as the primary residence of the metropolitan , and in 1448, the ROC declared autocephaly . Later, in 1589, the metropolitan of Moscow was elevated to the position of patriarch with the consent of Constantinople. In the mid-17th century,
3604-514: The non-possessors , who opposed monastic landholding except for the purposes of charity in addition to strong involvement of the church in the affairs of the state, while Joseph of Volotsk (1439–1515) led a movement that supported strong church involvement in the state's affairs. By 1551, the Stoglav Synod addressed the lack of uniformity in existing ecclesial practices. Metropolitan Macarius also collected "all holy books... available in
3710-447: The "Raskolnik rebellion". In the wake of the persecutions of the 1600s, it was clear to many schismatics that reunion with the Russian Orthodox Church would be impossible. As a result of their conflict with official church hierarchy, the Old Believers never formed a united movement. Instead, it was largely a movement of independent factions on the edges of the Russian empire, far from persecution and state authority. Old Believers fled to
3816-553: The "official" church could be explained by the somewhat contradictory ideology of the Raskol movement. A certain idealization and conservation of traditional values and old traditions, a critical attitude towards innovations, the conservation of national originality, and the acceptance of martyrdom in the name of the old faith were intertwined with criticism of the traditional practices of feudalism and serfdom. Different social strata were attracted to different sides of this ideology. In
3922-547: The Bolsheviks trying to take control of the monastery's premises and the believers, Patriarch Tikhon issued a proclamation that anathematised the perpetrators of such acts. The church was caught in the crossfire of the Russian Civil War that began later in 1918, and church leadership, despite their attempts to be politically neutral (from the autumn of 1918), as well as the clergy generally were perceived by
4028-586: The Communist regime confiscated church property, ridiculed religion, harassed believers, and propagated materialism and atheism in schools. Actions toward particular religions, however, were determined by State interests, and most organized religions were never outlawed. Orthodox clergy and active believers were treated by the Soviet law-enforcement apparatus as anti-revolutionary elements and were habitually subjected to formal prosecutions on political charges, arrests, exiles, imprisonment in camps , and later could also be incarcerated in mental hospitals . However,
4134-563: The Greek church of the Islamic Ottoman Empire . Since Nikon's reforms held that not only the service books but the liturgical practices of the pre-reform rite were heretical, he implied that pre-reform saints were also in error, a point often brought up by opponents of the reforms. A traditional view of Nikon's reforms is that they only affected the external ritualistic side of the Russian Orthodox faith and that
4240-502: The Moscow patriarchy as uncorrupted meant that observance of the Greek practices was apostasy . This tension between reformation and preservation of texts had been an issue in the Russian Church long before Nikon, as the Zealots of Piety and other reformers understood that consistent texts were necessary for consistent worship. However, while the conservative Zealots viewed the original Muscovite texts as inviolable and sacred, and viewed
4346-697: The Old Belief preached a message of apocalypticism and the coming of the Antichrist in connection with Nikon's reforms. Following the Time of Troubles , loss of ecclesiastic power and the legal enserfment of peasants in the Sobornoye Ulozheniye (not to mention a plague in Moscow), there was a general atmosphere of the end-times in Russia in the middle of the 1600s. The more famous early schismatics, such as Avvakum and his brothers-in-exile at
Spassky - Misplaced Pages Continue
4452-463: The Raskol movement, such as Boyarynya Feodosia Morozova and her sister Princess Evdokia Urusova, who openly supported the defenders of the old faith and were also martyred. Avvakum had been Morozova's confessor , and she followed Avvakum in rejecting the Nikonian reforms. After convincing her sister to join the Raskol, the two were arrested by the Tsar in 1671 and were starved to death in 1675. In
4558-574: The Raskol: Neronov was engaged in a dispute over the collection of taxes, and Avvakum quarreled over assuming Neronov's position as Archpriest after Neronov's exile from Moscow. The first martyr for the pre-reform belief was Bishop Paul of Kolomna , who was burned in Novgorod in 1656 for defending the pre-reform texts. According to Old Believer tradition, Avvakum and his companions were burned in 1682. Secular aristocrats also participated in
4664-489: The Russian Church. Jonah's policy as metropolitan was to recover the areas lost to the Uniate church. He was able to include Lithuania and Kiev to his title, but not Galicia . Lithuania was separated from his jurisdiction in 1458, and the influence of Catholicism increased in those regions. As soon as Vasily II heard about the ordination of Gregory as metropolitan of the newly established metropolis of Kiev , he sent
4770-566: The Russian Orthodox Church came in 1988, the millennial anniversary of the Christianization of Kievan Rus' . Throughout the summer of that year, major government-supported celebrations took place in Moscow and other cities; many older churches and some monasteries were reopened. An implicit ban on religious propaganda on state TV was finally lifted. For the first time in the history of the Soviet Union , people could watch live transmissions of church services on television. Gleb Yakunin ,
4876-436: The Russian Orthodox Church, began to persecute the so-called raskolniki ( раскольники 'schismatics'). Up to this point, Old Believers had merely been anathematized, but following Sophia's ukaz , local governments were commanded to burn all schismatics at the stake unless they submitted to the Nikonian reforms. The majority of Old Believers were peasants or cossacks , but this persecution inadvertently attracted members of
4982-468: The Russian land" and completed the Grand Menaion , which was influential in shaping the narrative tradition of Russian Orthodoxy. In 1589, during the reign of Feodor I and under the direction of Boris Godunov , the metropolitan of Moscow, Job , was consecrated as the first Russian patriarch with the blessing of Jeremias II of Constantinople . In the decree establishing the patriarchate ,
5088-424: The Russian society. Some of the low-ranking clergy protested against the increase of feudal oppression coming from the church leaders in the form of monastic serfdom , while some members of the high-ranking clergy joined the Raskol movement due to their discontent over Nikon's authoritative aspirations and the arbitrariness of his church reforms. The unification of such heterogeneous forces against what had become
5194-464: The Schism concerned only fanatics who superstitiously clung to pre-reform Russian customs. However, these reforms alienated the largely illiterate peasantry, for whom rituals such as the sign of the cross were inseparable from orthodox doctrine. Furthermore, the reforms established radically different relations between the church and the faithful. Nikon used his reforms for the purpose of centralization of
5300-533: The Soviet authorities as a "counter-revolutionary" force and thus subject to suppression and eventual liquidation. In the first five years after the Bolshevik revolution, 28 bishops and 1,200 priests were executed. The Soviet Union, formally created in December 1922, was the first state to have elimination of religion as an ideological objective espoused by the country's ruling political party. Toward that end,
5406-559: The Soviet government by bishops of the Moscow Patriarchate, himself included, and he publicly repented for these compromises. Schism of the Russian Church The Schism of the Russian Church , also known as Raskol ( Russian : Раскол , pronounced [rɐˈskoɫ] , meaning 'split' or ' schism '), was the splitting of the Russian Orthodox Church into an official church and
SECTION 50
#17328011377545512-433: The Soviet policy vis-a-vis organised religion vacillated over time between, on the one hand, a utopian determination to substitute secular rationalism for what they considered to be an outmoded "superstitious" worldview and, on the other, pragmatic acceptance of the tenaciousness of religious faith and institutions. In any case, religious beliefs and practices did persist, not only in the domestic and private spheres but also in
5618-542: The Soviets, Evlogy was removed from office by Sergius and replaced. Most of Evlogy's parishes in Western Europe remained loyal to him; Evlogy then petitioned Ecumenical Patriarch Photius II to be received under his canonical care and was received in 1931, making a number of parishes of Russian Orthodox Christians outside Russia, especially in Western Europe an Exarchate of the Ecumenical Patriarchate as
5724-431: The Tsar, Patriarch Nikon began the process of changing the Russian divine service books to align with their contemporary Greek counterparts and changed certain liturgical rituals. Nikon's reforms of the service books were performed on the advice of Ukrainian and Greek monks and advisors. The former were a more learned and reactionary group than native Muscovite priests, having adapted Catholic Counter-Reformation rhetoric to
5830-754: The XXXIV Apostolic canon , which led to a split with the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia abroad and the Russian True Orthodox Church (Russian Catacomb Church) within the Soviet Union, as they allegedly remained faithful to the Canons of the Apostles, declaring the part of the church led by Metropolitan Sergius schism , sometimes coined Sergianism . Due to this canonical disagreement it
5936-429: The Zealots of Piety urged Tsar Alexei to appoint Stephen Vonifatiev to the position, as he was the movement's informal leader, but the Tsar instead appointed Nikon to the seat, as Nikon had been the Tsar's spiritual advisor and close companion since 1646. Nikon was a Volga Finn born to a peasant family, and his harsh upbringing meant he took an uncompromising stance as Patriarch and reformer. In 1653, with support from
6042-467: The absence of clergy, and defining their own sacred places and forms of piety. Also apparent was the proliferation of what the Orthodox establishment branded as "sectarianism", including both non-Eastern Orthodox Christian denominations, notably Baptists , and various forms of popular Orthodoxy and mysticism. In 1914, there were 55,173 Russian Orthodox churches and 29,593 chapels , 112,629 priests and deacons , 550 monasteries and 475 convents with
6148-482: The authority of the monarch. He was also inspired by church–state relations in the West and therefore brought the institutional structure of the church in line with other ministries. Theophan Prokopovich wrote Peter's Spiritual Regulation , which no longer legally recognized the separation of the church and the state. Peter replaced the patriarch with a council known as the Most Holy Synod in 1721, which consisted of appointed bishops, monks, and priests. The church
6254-422: The beginning of autocephaly of the Russian Church. Although not all Russian clergy supported Jonah, the move was subsequently justified in the Russian point of view following the fall of Constantinople in 1453, which was interpreted as divine punishment. While it is possible that the failure to obtain the blessing from Constantinople was not intentional, nevertheless, this marked the beginning of independence of
6360-400: The chroniclers of the grand prince, "the princes, the boyars and many others — and especially the Russian bishops — remained silent, slumbered and fell asleep" until "the divinely wise, Christ-loving sovereign, Grand Prince Vasily Vasilyevich shamed Isidor and called him not his pastor and teacher, but a wicked and baneful wolf". Despite the chronicles calling him a heretical apostate , Isidore
6466-427: The church and strengthening of his own authority; for example, Nikon would seize land and use the Russian Church's wealth to found his own monastic ventures such as the New Jerusalem Monastery . The earlier reforms of the Zealots of Piety were aimed at consolidating the power of priests in their own parish in order to combat local disorder, but the Nikonian reforms were aimed at consolidating the Patriarch's control over
SECTION 60
#17328011377546572-476: The defense of the Orthodox Church, while the latter had an obvious bias in favor of the Greek rite. Among liturgical rituals, the most controversial changes included replacing the two-finger sign of the cross by one with three fingers and pronouncing " hallelujah " three times instead of two. These new reforms met with resistance from both the clergy and the people, who disputed the legitimacy and correctness of these reforms. Avvakum and other clergymen called Nikon
6678-408: The dense forests of Northern Russia and Volga region, the southern borders of Russia, Siberia , and even abroad, where they would organize their own obshchinas . Many of the members of the old faith migrated west, seeking refuge bordering the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth , where the Warsaw Compact allowed them to practice their faith freely. In 1684, Princess Sophia , with active support from
6784-466: The different faiths. After receiving glowing reports about Constantinople, he captured Chersonesus in Crimea and demanded that the sister of Basil II be sent there. The marriage took place on the condition that Vladimir would be also baptized there. Vladimir had lent considerable military support to the Byzantine emperor and may have besieged the city due to it having sided with the rebellious Bardas Phokas . After Kiev lost its significance following
6890-460: The dissident movement intending to better fulfil his calling as a priest, there was a spiritual link between Men and many of the dissidents. For some of them he was a friend; for others, a godfather; for many (including Yakunin ), a spiritual father. According to Metropolitan Vladimir , by 1988 the number of functioning churches in the Soviet Union had fallen to 6,893 and the number of functioning convents and monasteries to just 21. In 1987 in
6996-407: The end of the world was near. Rather than submit to apostasy or to the Antichrist, Old Believers would burn themselves alive. These practices were inspired by the martyrs of the early Christian church, as well as the practices of earlier fringe ascetic movements, such as the self-immolating followers of Kapiton in the middle of the 1600s. This practice of active, fiery martyrdom gradually died out as
7102-450: The exploitation of secular power: for the monks, this was the consolidation of central authority during the church schism, and for the peasants, this was feudal system which supported the centralizing Nikonian reforms. Both groups were united in their defense of the Old Belief. In the Moscow uprising of 1682, Old Believers openly preached to the Moscow Streltsy regiments who were in rebellion due to discontent with their superiors, and one of
7208-406: The fall of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, enjoy various degrees of self-government, albeit short of the status of formal ecclesiastical autonomy. The ROC should also not be confused with the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (or ROCOR, also known as the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad), headquartered in the United States . The ROCOR was instituted in the 1920s by Russian communities outside
7314-416: The foundation for the Dormition Cathedral was laid and Peter was buried there. By choosing to reside and be buried in Moscow, Peter had designated Moscow as the future center of the Russian Orthodox Church. Peter was succeeded by Theognostus , who, like his predecessor, pursued policies that supported the rise of the Moscow principality. During the first four years of his tenure, the Dormition Cathedral
7420-469: The general population, large numbers remained religious. Some Orthodox believers and even priests took part in the dissident movement and became prisoners of conscience . The Orthodox priests Gleb Yakunin , Sergiy Zheludkov and others spent years in Soviet prisons and exile for their efforts in defending freedom of worship. Among the prominent figures of that time were Dmitri Dudko and Aleksandr Men . Although he tried to keep away from practical work of
7526-412: The jurisdiction of Constantinople to that of Moscow. The handover brought millions of faithful and half a dozen dioceses under the ultimate administrative care of the patriarch of Moscow, and later of the Holy Synod of Russia, leading to a significant Ukrainian presence in the Russian Church, which continued well into the 18th century. The exact terms and conditions of the handover of the metropolis remains
7632-591: The lack of historical evidence supporting this narrative, modern church historians in Russia have often incorporated this tale into their studies. In the 10th century, Christianity began to take root in Kievan Rus' . Towards the end of the reign of Igor , Christians are mentioned among the Varangians . In the text about the treaty with the Byzantine Empire in 944–945, the chronicler also records
7738-578: The last Byzantine emperor, and the defeat of the Tatars, helped to solidify this view. By the turn of the 16th century, the consolidation of Orthodoxy in Russia continued as Archbishop Gennady of Novgorod created the first complete manuscript translation of the Bible into Church Slavonic in 1499, known as Gennady's Bible . At the same time, two movements within the Russian Church had emerged with differing ecclesial visions. Nilus of Sora (1433–1508) led
7844-415: The leaders of the rebels, Prince Ivan Andreevich Khovansky , openly supported the pre-reform traditions. While occupying the capital, part of the rebel unit's conditions were that the official church must agree to a public disputation with the Old Believer priest Nikita Pustosvyat ; his well-known debate with Patriarch Joachim of Moscow led to his beheading and to the Moscow uprising's alternative title as
7950-463: The line that we need at the Council". A new and widespread persecution of the church was subsequently instituted under the leadership of Nikita Khrushchev and Leonid Brezhnev. A second round of repression, harassment and church closures took place between 1959 and 1964 when Nikita Khrushchev was in office. The number of Orthodox churches fell from around 22,000 in 1959 to around 8,000 in 1965; priests, monks and faithful were killed or imprisoned and
8056-574: The lower strata of the popular, peasant defense of the old traditions, opposition often materialized as popular uprisings. Some of the supporters of the Old Believers took part in Stepan Razin 's rebellion in 1670–1671. After Razin's beheading, many of his supporters joined other Raskol popular movements, such as the Solovetsky Monastery uprising and the Moscow uprising of 1682 . At the Solovetsky Monastery , both monks and enserfed peasants rebelled against Tsarist authority, opposing what they saw as
8162-536: The merchant class to the schismatics. Merchants were expected to collect taxes for the state, but since schismatics were persecuted by the government, schismatic merchants were exempt from this duty. The memory of their schism with the official Russian Orthodox Church is fundamental to the Old Believers movement. Much of their literary canon consists of letters written by priests such as Avvakum, Epifanii [ ru ] , and Lazar [ ru ] during Nikon's reforms, as well as literature depicting Nikon as
8268-465: The number of functioning monasteries was reduced to less than twenty. Subsequent to Khrushchev's ousting, the Church and the government remained on unfriendly terms until 1988. In practice, the most important aspect of this conflict was that openly religious people could not join the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , which meant that they could not hold any political office. However, among
8374-715: The oath-taking ceremony that took place in Constantinople for Igor's envoys as well as the equivalent ceremony that took place in Kiev. Igor's wife Olga was baptized sometime in the mid-10th century; however, scholars have disputed the exact year and place of her conversion, with dates ranging from 946 to 960. Most scholars tend to agree that she was baptized in Constantinople, though some argue that her conversion took place in Kiev. Olga's son Sviatoslav opposed conversion, despite persuasion from his mother, and there
8480-429: The opinion of a major part of the church's parishes, in 1927 issued a declaration accepting the Soviet authority over the church as legitimate, pledging the church's cooperation with the government and condemning political dissent within the church. By this declaration, Sergius granted himself authority that he, being a deputy of imprisoned Metropolitan Peter and acting against his will, had no right to assume according to
8586-623: The parishes. These offenses alienated the Tsar, first leading to Nikon's flight from Moscow to one of his monasteries and later to Nikon's deposition at the Great Moscow Synod of 1666, a council convened by the Tsar himself. The official reason for the gathering was to try Nikon for dereliction of duty during his absence from Moscow, but as part of its proceedings the council also declared the Stoglav Sobor of 1551 heretical, as it had dogmatized pre-reform Russian practices such as
8692-532: The patriarch of "defiling the faith" and "pouring wrathful fury upon the Russian land". The result was a schism , with those who resisted the new practices being known as the Old Believers . In the aftermath of the Treaty of Pereyaslav , the Ottomans , supposedly acting on behalf of the Russian regent Sophia Alekseyevna , pressured the patriarch of Constantinople into transferring the metropolis of Kiev from
8798-481: The peasantry, there was widespread interest in spiritual-ethical literature and non-conformist moral-spiritual movements, an upsurge in pilgrimage and other devotions to sacred spaces and objects (especially icons), persistent beliefs in the presence and power of the supernatural (apparitions, possession, walking-dead, demons, spirits, miracles and magic), the renewed vitality of local "ecclesial communities" actively shaping their own ritual and spiritual lives, sometimes in
8904-414: The practice of amending books under the guidance of Greek Orthodox advisors, changing practices in the Russian Church to align with the Greek rite. This act, along with the acceptance of the Nikonian reforms by Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and the state, led to the rupture between Old Believers and the newly reformed church and state. The schism contributed to popular uprisings in the late 1600s, including
9010-427: The priestly families of their diocese. In 1909, a volume of essays appeared under the title Vekhi ("Milestones" or "Landmarks"), authored by a group of leading left-wing intellectuals, including Sergei Bulgakov , Peter Struve and former Marxists . It is possible to see a similarly renewed vigor and variety in religious life and spirituality among the lower classes, especially after the upheavals of 1905. Among
9116-528: The reformation as a process of consolidating a preserved faith, Nikon was convinced by his advisors that the Russian practices were in error compared to the unalloyed Greek rite. Nikon was following the guidance of the 1593 Council of Constantinople, which required the adherence of the newly created Moscow Patriarchate to the Greek rite, while opponents of the reforms protested that the "correct" Greek books had been printed in Venetian , Catholic print houses for
9222-463: The reign of Patriarch of Moscow Joseph , the Zealots of Piety were concerned primarily with reforming a disordered liturgy and suppressing impious pre-Christian festivals, issues which had been prominent since the Stoglav Sobor of 1551. In 1636, Nerov and other priests sent a petition to the Patriarch from Nizhny Novgorod requesting aid in reforming "liturgical shortcuts". Complaints included
9328-550: The renovated Orthodox doctrine, including that of sobornost . The resurgence of Eastern Orthodoxy was reflected in Russian literature, an example is the figure of Starets Zosima in Fyodor Dostoyevsky 's Brothers Karamazov . In the Russian Orthodox Church, the clergy , over time, formed a hereditary caste of priests . Marrying outside of these priestly families was strictly forbidden; indeed, some bishops did not even tolerate their clergy marrying outside of
9434-465: The same time as the Zealots of Piety and were equally inspired by the sense of Armageddon following the Time of Troubles; however, while the Zealots practiced optimistic conservation of ecclesiastic rites, the lesnye startsy believed in a kind of pessimistic triumph of the Antichrist over the world, where ecclesiastic rites were no longer meaningful. The Old Believers who preserve the conservative ideals of
9540-581: The scattered public spaces allowed by a state that recognized its failure to eradicate religion and the political dangers of an unrelenting culture war. The Russian Orthodox church was drastically weakened in May 1922, when the Renovated (Living) Church , a reformist movement backed by the Soviet secret police, broke away from Patriarch Tikhon (also see the Josephites and the Russian True Orthodox Church ),
9646-457: The schism cooled down at the beginning of the 1700s. During the reign of Peter the Great , Old Believers who were not active political dissidents were no longer persecuted, so Old Believers no longer needed to martyr themselves rather than submit to the rule of what they perceived as agents of the Antichrist. Kapiton's self-immolating followers, the lesnye startsy ( лесные старцы lit. ' forest elders ' ), appeared in Russia at
9752-540: The state for support. The late 18th century saw the rise of starchestvo under Paisiy Velichkovsky and his disciples at the Optina Monastery . This marked a beginning of a significant spiritual revival in the Russian Church after a lengthy period of modernization, personified by such figures as Demetrius of Rostov and Platon of Moscow . Aleksey Khomyakov , Ivan Kireevsky and other lay theologians with Slavophile leanings elaborated some key concepts of
9858-411: The territories controlled by Bolsheviks was effectively reduced to services and sermons inside church buildings. The Decree and attempts by Bolshevik officials to requisition church property caused sharp resentment on the part of the ROC clergy and provoked violent clashes on some occasions: on 1 February (19 January O.S.), hours after the bloody confrontation in Petrograd's Alexander Nevsky Lavra between
9964-478: The two-finger sign of the cross, which was unacceptable under the Greek rite. The council was the consummation of the Nikonian reformation crisis, and marked the beginning of the Old Believer movement, as it was at this synod that Avvakum and other Old Believer priests were finally anathematized and exiled. The case brought by the defenders of the old practices found many supporters among different strata of
10070-399: The upper strata of ecclesiastic elites, Nikon's former friends among the Zealots of Piety were his most outspoken critics. Ivan Neronov spoke against the strengthening of patriarch's authority and demanded democratization of ecclesiastic management, while Avvakum directly protested the reformed rituals. However, both had already come into conflict with the Church before their participation in
10176-481: The use of mnogoglosie ( Russian : многоголосие lit. ' polyphony ' ), the practice of chanting multiple parts of the services at the same time, singing evening vespers in the morning, and omitting parts of the service altogether. The Patriarch responded by ordering parish clergy to prohibit such behavior. The petition further cited the observance among villagers of pre-Christian festivals such as Koliada , to which Tsar Alexei responded by decreeing
10282-550: The war effort. In the early hours of 5 September 1943, Metropolitans Sergius (Stragorodsky), Alexius (Simansky) and Nicholas (Yarushevich) had a meeting with Stalin and received permission to convene a council on 8 September 1943, which elected Sergius Patriarch of Moscow and all the Rus'. This is considered by some as violation of the Apostolic canon , as no church hierarch could be consecrated by secular authorities. A new patriarch
10388-564: The whole Russian tsardom is called a "third Rome". By the mid-17th century, the religious practices of the Russian Orthodox Church were distinct from those of the Greek Orthodox Church . Patriarch Nikon reformed the church in order to bring most of its practices back into accommodation with the contemporary forms of Greek Orthodox worship. Nikon's efforts to correct the translations of texts and institute liturgical reforms were not accepted by all. Archpriest Avvakum accused
10494-407: Was a clear indication of the end-times. These ideas of the Antichrist's arrival on Earth and of the end-times found a broad response among the Russian people, who sympathized with the ideology of these more radical apologetes. The most dramatic practices of the Raskol included the practice of ognenniye kreshcheniya ( огненные крещения , or baptism by fire ), practiced by those who thought that
10600-572: Was also overseen by an ober-procurator that would directly report to the emperor. Peter's reforms marked the beginning of the Synodal period of the Russian Church, which would last until 1917. In order to make monasticism more socially useful, Peter began the processes that would eventually lead to the large-scale secularization of monastic landholdings in 1764 under Catherine II . 822 monasteries were closed between 1701 and 1805, and monastic communities became highly regulated, receiving funds from
10706-406: Was completed and an additional four stone churches were constructed in Moscow. By the end of 1331, Theognostus was able to restore ecclesiastical control over Lithuania. Theognostus also proceeded with the canonization of Peter in 1339, which helped to increase Moscow's prestige. His successor Alexius lost ecclesiastical over Lithuania in 1355, but kept the traditional title. On 5 July 1439, at
10812-569: Was elected, theological schools were opened, and thousands of churches began to function. The Moscow Theological Academy Seminary , which had been closed since 1918, was re-opened. In December 2017, the Security Service of Ukraine lifted classified top secret status of documents revealing that the NKVD of the USSR and its units were engaged in the selection of candidates for participation in
10918-545: Was occupied from 1610 to 1612 by the Catholic Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth during the Polish–Russian War . These dangers to the Orthodox Church, and the entire period of violent instability, aroused a renewal of religious fervor among some Russians who perceived the events as divine retribution for a lack of devotion. This heightened religiosity was materialized in the Zealots of Piety ,
11024-467: Was only metropolitanate in the Orthodox oikoumene that remained politically independent. The formulation of the idea of Moscow as the " third Rome " is primarily associated with the monk Philotheus of Pskov , who stated that "Moscow alone shines over all the earth more radiantly than the sun" because of its fidelity to the faith. The marriage of Ivan III to Sophia Palaiologina , the niece of
11130-490: Was recognized as the lawful metropolitan by Vasily II until he left Moscow on 15 September 1441. For the following seven years, the seat of the metropolitan remained vacant. Vasily II defeated the rebellious Dmitry Shemyaka and returned to Moscow in February 1447. On 15 December 1448, a council of Russian bishops elected Jonah as metropolitan, without the consent of the patriarch of Constantinople, which marked
11236-587: Was selected as the first Russian Patriarch after about 200 years of Synodal rule. In early February 1918, the Bolshevik-controlled government of Soviet Russia enacted the Decree on separation of church from state and school from church that proclaimed separation of church and state in Russia, freedom to "profess any religion or profess none", deprived religious organisations of the right to own any property and legal status. Legal religious activity in
#753246