Edinoverie ( rus, единове́рие, p=jɪdʲɪnɐˈvʲerʲɪjɪ, literally “coreligionism”) is an arrangement between certain Russian
Old Believer
Old Believers or Old Ritualists, ''starovery'' or ''staroobryadtsy'' are Eastern Orthodox Christians who maintain the liturgical and ritual practices of the Russian Orthodox Church as they were before the reforms of Patriarch Nikon of Moscow be ...
communities and the official
Russian Orthodox Church
, native_name_lang = ru
, image = Moscow July 2011-7a.jpg
, imagewidth =
, alt =
, caption = Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, Russia
, abbreviation = ROC
, type ...
, whereby such communities are treated as a part of the normative Church system while maintaining their own rites. Thus, they are often designated "Old Ritualists" (russian: старообря́дцы, ''staroobryadtsy''), as opposed to "Old Believers".
Meaning of the term
The Russian word ''edinoverie'' may be a
back-formation
In etymology, back-formation is the process or result of creating a new word via inflection, typically by removing or substituting actual or supposed affixes from a lexical item, in a way that expands the number of lexemes associated with the c ...
of edinovertsy (единоверцы; sometimes also transcribed Yedinovertsy), i.e. 'coreligionists' (literally, 'ones of the same faith'; the word is also used to refer to members of Edinoverie community). It may be interpreted as 'Unity in Faith',
although perhaps a more precise meaning would be "Accepting
he Old-Rite Christiansas people of the same faith
y the Established Church.
More open-minded
hierarchs
An ordinary (from Latin ''ordinarius'') is an officer of a church or civic authority who by reason of office has ordinary power to execute laws.
Such officers are found in hierarchically organised churches of Western Christianity which have an ...
of the State Church saw in the Edinoverie a mutual acceptance. In the words of
Filaret, Metropolitan of Moscow
Metropolitan Philaret (secular name Vasily Mikhaylovich Drozdov, Василий Михайлович Дроздов; 26 December 1782 – 1 December 1867) was Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna and the most influential figure in the Russian ...
, addressed to the Edinovertsy at the 1854 consecration of Saint Nicholas Church for them at
Rogozhskoye Cemetery
Rogozhskoe cemetery ( rus, Рогожское кладбище, p=rɐˈɡoʂskəjɪ ˈkladbʲɪɕːɪ) in Moscow, Russia, is the spiritual and administrative center of the largest Old Believers denomination, called the Russian Orthodox Old-Rite Chu ...
, «Вы единоверцы нам, а мы единоверцы вам» ("You are people of our faith, and we are people of your faith").
[Vladimir Karpets]
What is Edinoverie?
History
![Moscow, Presentation Church in Lefortovo (1)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Moscow%2C_Presentation_Church_in_Lefortovo_%281%29.jpg)
Edinoverie arrangements began to appear in the last quarter of the 18th century, after more than a century of struggle between Russia's established Orthodox Church and various Old Believer groups, who did not recognise the changes to liturgy and the official translations of Scripture made under the leadership of
Patriarch Nikon
Nikon ( ru , Ни́кон, Old Russian: ''Нїконъ''), born Nikita Minin (''Никита Минин''; 7 May 1605 – 17 August 1681) was the seventh Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus' of the Russian Orthodox Church, serving officially from ...
in the 1660s.
On the side of the
established church
A state religion (also called religious state or official religion) is a religion or creed officially endorsed by a sovereign state. A state with an official religion (also known as confessional state), while not secular, is not necessarily a t ...
, the initiators of Edinoverie are said to be Metropolitan
Platon
Platon may refer to:
People
* Plato (Πλάτων, romanized as ''Plátōn''), Greek philosopher
* Plato (comic poet) (fl. 420–391 BCE)
* Plato of Bactria (2nd century BCE), Greco-Bactrian king
* Plato (exarch) (fl. 645–653), Byzantine exarc ...
of Moscow (the senior hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church) and Archbishop
Nikifor
Nikifor (21 May 1895, Krynica, Austria-Hungary – 10 October 1968, Folusz, Poland), also known as Nikifor Krynicki, born as Epifaniy Drovnyak (Epifaniusz Drowniak) 1, was a Lemko naïve painter. Nikifor painted over 40,000 pictures – on s ...
, who was Archbishop first of
Sloviansk
Sloviansk ( uk, Слов'янськ, Sloviansk ; russian: Славянск, Slavyansk or ; prior to 1784 – Tor) is a city in the Kramatorsk district of the Donetsk region of Ukraine, the administrative center of the Slovyansk urban commun ...
and
Kherson
Kherson (, ) is a port city of Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers appr ...
, and later of
Astrakhan
Astrakhan ( rus, Астрахань, p=ˈastrəxənʲ) is the largest city and administrative centre of Astrakhan Oblast in Southern Russia. The city lies on two banks of the Volga, in the upper part of the Volga Delta, on eleven islands of the ...
and
Stavropol
Stavropol (; rus, Ставрополь, p=ˈstavrəpəlʲ) is a city and the administrative centre of Stavropol Krai, Russia. As of the 2021 Census, its population was 547,820, making it one of Russia's fastest growing cities.
It was known as ...
in South Russia.
Nikifor, when he began reaching out to Old Believers in 1780, was based in
Poltava
Poltava (, ; uk, Полтава ) is a city located on the Vorskla River in central Ukraine. It is the capital city of the Poltava Oblast (province) and of the surrounding Poltava Raion (district) of the oblast. Poltava is administratively ...
, the headquarters of what was then the
Diocese
In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop.
History
In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, pro ...
of Sloviansk and Kherson, covering much of eastern
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
, and later to become the Diocese of
Ekaterinoslav
Dnipro, previously called Dnipropetrovsk from 1926 until May 2016, is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper Rive ...
). When he visited a chapel of ''
Popovtsy
The Popovtsy ( rus, поповцы, p=pɐˈpoft͡sɨ, "priested ones") or Popovschina (russian: поповщина) were from the 17th century one of the two main factions of Old Believers, along with the Bezpopovtsy ("priestless ones").
Historica ...
'' (Old Believers who had their own priests not recognised by the Church) in
Elisavetgrad
Kropyvnytskyi ( uk, Кропивницький, Kropyvnytskyi ) is a city in central Ukraine on the Inhul river with a population of . It is an administrative center of the Kirovohrad Oblast.
Over its history, Kropyvnytskyi has changed its nam ...
in July of that year, he offered them the possibility of giving their chapel official standing in the established Church, with a priest selected by the Old Believers themselves, and utilising the pre-
Nikonian service books and rites. The offer was rejected by the Old Believers of Elisavetgrad, but later that month, many Old Believers in the village of Bolshaya Znamenka (in
Melitopol
Melitopol ( uk, Меліто́поль, translit=Melitópol’, ; russian: Мелитополь; based on el, Μελιτόπολις - "honey city") is a List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Zaporizhz ...
uyezd
An uezd (also spelled uyezd; rus, уе́зд, p=ʊˈjest), or povit in a Ukrainian context ( uk, повіт), or Kreis in Baltic-German context, was a type of administrative subdivision of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, the Russian Empire, and the ea ...
) accepted a similar arrangement. In February 1781, an archbishop issued a letter, authorising them to set up a church legally and conduct services in accordance with traditional rites. That was done by consecrating as a church the wooden chapel that the Old Believers of Znamenka had built in 1776.
Nikifor's scheme of legalisation turned out to be so popular that soon enough not only did the
Popovtsy
The Popovtsy ( rus, поповцы, p=pɐˈpoft͡sɨ, "priested ones") or Popovschina (russian: поповщина) were from the 17th century one of the two main factions of Old Believers, along with the Bezpopovtsy ("priestless ones").
Historica ...
begin to request legalisation, but also the ''
Bespopovtsy
Bespopovtsy ( rus, беспоповцы, p=bʲɪspɐˈpoft͡sɨ, "priestless ones") are Priestless Old Believers that reject Nikonite priests. They are one of the two major strains of Old Believers.
Priestless Old Believers may have evolved into ...
'' (the priestless faction) began asking Nikifor to provide them with priests. One such Bezpopovtsy community was the village of Zlynka in 1782.
[ ]
Outside of Ukraine, in the same year, the Old Believer merchants of
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
and the
Volga
The Volga (; russian: Во́лга, a=Ru-Волга.ogg, p=ˈvoɫɡə) is the List of rivers of Europe#Rivers of Europe by length, longest river in Europe. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Cas ...
arranged similar legalization of the Upper-Isaac
Skete
A skete ( ) is a monastic community in Eastern Christianity that allows relative isolation for monks, but also allows for communal services and the safety of shared resources and protection. It is one of four types of early monastic orders, al ...
(compound) in the
Irgiz Rivers area of
Saratov Governorate
Saratov Governorate (russian: link=no, Саратовская губе́рния, ''Saratovskaya guberniya'', Government of Saratov), was an administrative division (a ''guberniya'') of the Russian Empire and the Russian Socialist Federative Sovie ...
.
On the side of the Old Believers, the driving force of the Edinoverie compromise were
Hieromonk
A hieromonk ( el, Ἱερομόναχος, Ieromonachos; ka, მღვდელმონაზონი, tr; Slavonic: ''Ieromonakh'', ro, Ieromonah), also called a priestmonk, is a monk who is also a priest in the Eastern Orthodox Church and E ...
Michael Kalmykov and the Monk Nikodim.
[
]["Edinovertsy" in Saint Petersburg Encyclopaedia]
/ref>
Having learned of Nikifor's experiments in the South and the legalisation of the Irgiz community, Nikodim, with an agreement of many Popovtsy
The Popovtsy ( rus, поповцы, p=pɐˈpoft͡sɨ, "priested ones") or Popovschina (russian: поповщина) were from the 17th century one of the two main factions of Old Believers, along with the Bezpopovtsy ("priestless ones").
Historica ...
of the Starodub
Starodub ( rus, links=no, Староду́б, p=stərɐˈdup, ''old oak'') is a town in Bryansk Oblast, Russia, on the Babinets River (the Dnieper basin), southwest of Bryansk. Population: 16,000 (1975).
History
Starodub has been known ...
area, began to contact civil and ecclesiastical authorities with regards to the possibility of "legalising" the priests of the Popovtsy. After a number of rejections, he gained the support of Count Peter Rumyantsev-Zadunaisky in 1783. In the same year, his petition to Empress Catherine II of Russia
, en, Catherine Alexeievna Romanova, link=yes
, house =
, father = Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst
, mother = Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp
, birth_date =
, birth_name = Princess Sophie of Anhal ...
was forwarded to the Holy Synod
In several of the autocephalous Eastern Orthodox churches and Eastern Catholic Churches, the patriarch or head bishop is elected by a group of bishops called the Holy Synod. For instance, the Holy Synod is a ruling body of the Georgian Orthodox C ...
. In April 1784, by which time Kalmykov had died, the Empress issued a rescript
In legal terminology, a rescript is a document that is issued not on the initiative of the author, but in response (it literally means 'written back') to a specific demand made by its addressee. It does not apply to more general legislation.
Over ...
, granting priests to Old Believers and allowing them to officiate according to the "Old Rites", but not providing for any bishops. Disappointed, Nikodim fell sick and died at the age of 39.
In August 1785, a government decree was promulgated, providing for the organization of "Old Believer" churches within the established Church, although they still were not to have their own bishops or any sort of organizational centre. Nevertheless, this point is usually considered the start of the Edinoverie scheme.[
Catherine's successor, ]Paul I Paul I may refer to:
*Paul of Samosata (200–275), Bishop of Antioch
*Paul I of Constantinople (died c. 350), Archbishop of Constantinople
*Pope Paul I (700–767)
*Paul I Šubić of Bribir (c. 1245–1312), Ban of Croatia and Lord of Bosnia
*Paul ...
, was perhaps more interested than Catherine was, in the matter of integrating the Old Believers into the established church on acceptable terms. Legal priests were granted to the Old Believers of Kazan
Kazan ( ; rus, Казань, p=kɐˈzanʲ; tt-Cyrl, Казан, ''Qazan'', IPA: ɑzan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka rivers, covering a ...
in 1796 and to those of Nizhny Novgorod
Nizhny Novgorod ( ; rus, links=no, Нижний Новгород, a=Ru-Nizhny Novgorod.ogg, p=ˈnʲiʐnʲɪj ˈnovɡərət ), colloquially shortened to Nizhny, from the 13th to the 17th century Novgorod of the Lower Land, formerly known as Gork ...
in 1797. On March 12, 1798, the Emperor issued a decree, requiring all bishops to ordain priests for the Old Believers (using the "old" rite of ordination
Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorization, authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominational ...
, acceptable to the flock), and permitting construction of Old Ritualist churches.
The chief bishop of the established church, Metropolitan Platon of Moscow, wrote the "Eleven Articles of Edinoverie" (russian: «11 пунктов единоверия»), the document regulating the "union" between the official church and the Old Believers. Although the Metropolitan's rules satisfied some of the wishes of the Old Believers, the Edinoverie parishioners nevertheless remained second-class citizens within the Church: for example, the Old-Rite priests were still normally not permitted to administer sacraments to the mainstream Orthodox believers.[
]
Throughout the 19th century, the attitude of the established church toward the Edinoverie may be described as that of tolerating a "necessary evil": a tool to bring the "dissenters" into the fold of the Mother Church. On occasions, Church authorities were quite forceful in converting Old Believer communities into the Edinoverie scheme, and the government would usually treat those within the arrangement preferentially over those who rejected the compromise. For example, in 1818 the government prohibited the printing of Old Ritualist religious books other than those from Edinoverie printing houses. At the same time, parishioners of "regular" Orthodox churches were discouraged by the authorities from joining Old-Rite parishes.[
By the time of the ]Revolution of 1917
The Russian Revolution was a period of political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and adopt a socialist form of government ...
, there were around 300 Edinoverie parishes in Russia.
In the capital of the Empire, Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
, the first Edinoverie church was set up in 1799. In 1917, the Edinovertsy of Saint Petersburg received their first bishop (Bishop Simon of Okhta
The Okhta () is a river in Vsevolozhsky District of Leningrad Oblast and the eastern part of the city of Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is the largest right tributary of the river Neva. It joins the Neva upstream of the Neva's mouth, within the c ...
), but in 1932 their churches were closed by the Communist authorities, not to be revived until 1990.[ The ]Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
community of Edinovertsy, based in Lefortovo District
Lefortovo District ( rus, райо́н Лефо́ртово, a=Ru-Lefortovo.ogg, p=lʲɪˈfortəvə) is a district of South-Eastern Administrative Okrug of the federal city of Moscow, Russia. Its area is . Population:
History
The Lefortovo Dis ...
, were allowed to erect their churches after the Fire of 1812; two extant churches, completed in 1819 and 1825, which were shut down in 1931, and are now operated by the State Russian Orthodox Church
, native_name_lang = ru
, image = Moscow July 2011-7a.jpg
, imagewidth =
, alt =
, caption = Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, Russia
, abbreviation = ROC
, type ...
.
Old Ritualists in Communion with the
See of Rome
The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of Rome ...
Some Old Believers have been received into communion with the Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
as Eastern Catholics
The Eastern Catholic Churches or Oriental Catholic Churches, also called the Eastern-Rite Catholic Churches, Eastern Rite Catholicism, or simply the Eastern Churches, are 23 Eastern Christian autonomous ('' sui iuris'') particular churches of ...
while maintaining their distinctive rites, thus making them Eastern Catholic equivalents of the Edinoverie. The most famous convert is Potapy Emelianov
Potapy Emelianov (c. 1889, Ufa Governorate, Russian Empire – 14 August 1936, Nadvoitsy, Segezhsky District, Karelian ASSR, USSR) was a monastic priest, or Hieromonk, from the Old Ritualist tradition within Russian Orthodoxy who entered the Russi ...
, a former Edinoverie priest in Luhansk Oblast
Luhansk Oblast ( uk, Луга́нська о́бласть, translit=Luhanska oblast; russian: Луганская область, translit=Luganskaya oblast; also referred to as Luhanshchyna, uk, Луга́нщина) is the easternmost oblast ...
, Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
. In 1918, he was received into the Russian Catholic Church
, native_name_lang = ru
, image = Moscow,_Catholic_Church_in_Presnya.jpg
, imagewidth = 200px
, alt =
, caption = Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception
, abbreviation =
, ty ...
with his entire parish. He later survived a ten-year sentence at Solovki prison camp
The Solovki special camp (later the Solovki special prison), was set up in 1923 on the Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea as a remote and inaccessible place of detention, primarily intended for socialist opponents of Soviet Russia's new Bolshev ...
and died in 1936. As of 2003, his cause for canonisation
Canonization is the declaration of a deceased person as an officially recognized saint, specifically, the official act of a Christian communion declaring a person worthy of public veneration and entering their name in the canon catalogue of s ...
is open.
According to a 2005 interview, Russian Catholic priest Sergei Golovanov
Sergey Vladimirovich Golovanov (russian: Сергей Владимирович Голованов; born 25 July 1968 in Saransk, Republic of Mordovia) is a priest of the Russian Greek Catholic Church of the Byzantine Rite.
Biography Early l ...
stated that there was then one Old-Ritualist Catholic priest active on Russian soil.
References
Bibliography
{{refbegin
* White, James: ''A Bridge to the Schism. Edinoverie, Russian Orthodoxy, and the Ritual Formation of Confessions, 1800-1918.'' (PhD thesis, European University Institute, 2014
Old Believer movement
18th-century Eastern Catholicism
18th-century Eastern Orthodoxy
Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy
Eastern Orthodox ecumenical and interfaith relations