page_title: Old Believers
section_title: Bezpopovtsy
hierarchical_section_title: Old Believers / Old Believer denominations / Bezpopovtsy
context_page_description: In Eastern Orthodox church history, especially within the Russian Orthodox Church, the Old Believers or Old Ritualists are Eastern Orthodox Christians who maintain the liturgical and ritual practices of the Eastern Orthodox Church as they were before the reforms of Patriarch Nikon of Moscow between 1652 and 1666. Resisting the accommodation of Russian piety to the contemporary forms of Greek Orthodox worship, these Christians were anathematized, together with their ritual, in a Synod of 1666–67, producing a division in Eastern Europe between the Old Believers and those who followed the state church in its condemnation of the Old Rite.
  Russian speakers refer to the schism itself as raskol, etymologically indicating a "cleaving-apart".
context_section_description: The Bezpopovtsy rejected "the World" where they believed the Antichrist reigned; they preached the imminent end of the world, asceticism, adherence to the old rituals and the old faith. More radical movements which already existed prior to the reforms of Nikon and where eschatological and anti-clerical sentiments were predominant, would join the bezpopovtsy Old Believers. The Bezpopovtsy claimed that any priest or ordinary who has ever used the Nikonian Rites have forfeited apostolic succession. Therefore, the true church of Christ had ceased to exist on Earth, and they therefore renounced priests and all sacraments except baptism.
  The Bezpopovtsy movement has many sub-groups. Bezpopovtsy have no priests and no Eucharist. Priestless churches, however, may elect a mentor (Russian: наставник) or church leader (Russian: настоятель) to lead the community and its services.
  Pomorian Old-Orthodox Church or Danilovtsy (not to be confused with Pomors) originated in North Russia (East Karelia, Arkhangelsk Oblast). Initially they rejected marriage and prayer for the Tsar.
  Novopomortsy, or "New Pomortsy": accept marriage
  Staropomortsy, or "Old Pomortsy": reject marriage
  Fedoseevtsy: "Society of Christian Old Believers of the Old Pomortsy Unmarried Confession" (1690s until present); deny marriage and practice cloister-style asceticism.
  Filippians: Named after their founder, Filipp. They were repressed by the Russian Government and so, the Fillipovtsy started practicing self-immolation as a means for the "preservation of the faith".
  Chasovennye (from chasovnya i.e. chapel), a Siberian branch. The Chasovennye initially had priests, but later decided to change to a priest-less practice. Also known as Semeyskie (in the lands east of Lake Baikal).
caption: Lipovans (Russian Old Believers) during a ceremony in front of their church in the Romanian village of Slava Cercheză in 2004
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