Belokrinitskaya Hierarchy (, Belokrinitskoe Soglasiye, ) is the first full and stable church hierarchy created by the

Old Believers Old Believers or Old Ritualists ( Russian: староверы, ''starovery'' or старообрядцы, ''staroobryadtsy'') is the common term for several religious groups, which maintain the old liturgical and ritual practices of the Russian ...

History

After the reforms of Patriarch Nikon of Moscow in the 1650s, many members of the

Russian Orthodox Church The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...

refused to acknowledge the changes which he had made to bring the church in line with the

Greek Orthodox Church Greek Orthodox Church (, , ) is a term that can refer to any one of three classes of Christian Churches, each associated in some way with Christianity in Greece, Greek Christianity, Antiochian Greek Christians, Levantine Arabic-speaking Christian ...

. The Belokrinitskaya hierarchy was created in 1846 by acceptance of the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

Metropolitan

Ambrose Ambrose of Milan (; 4 April 397), venerated as Saint Ambrose, was a theologian and statesman who served as Bishop of Milan from 374 to 397. He expressed himself prominently as a public figure, fiercely promoting Roman Christianity against Ari ...

. The hierarchy is called after the name of the see of the First Hierarch Belaya Krinitsa,

Bukovina Bukovina or ; ; ; ; , ; see also other languages. is a historical region at the crossroads of Central and Eastern Europe. It is located on the northern slopes of the central Eastern Carpathians and the adjoining plains, today divided betwe ...

, in

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

(currently

Chernivtsi Oblast Chernivtsi Oblast (), also referred to as Chernivechchyna (), is an oblast (province) in western Ukraine, consisting of the northern parts of the historical regions of Bukovina and Bessarabia. It has an international border with Romania and Moldo ...

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

). Major sponsorship for organizing this hierarchy (search for a metropolitan, organizing the necessary facilities, smuggling of candidates for priesthood etc. through the Russian border in both directions) came also from the Russian Old Believers merchant families, such as Ryabushinskie and Morozovy. Some confusions may occur when using the term Belokrinitskoe soglasie in respect to a schism of Okruzhniki (Encyclicalists) and Neokruzhniki (Non-Encyclicalists). From one point of view, both sides of a schism originated from the Rogozhskoe cemetery administrative system and so both belong to the Belokrinitskoe soglasie From the other side, the Rogozhskoe cemetery priests and authorities were Okruzhniki almost entirely, so the term Belokrinitskoe soglasie can sometimes mean Okruzhniki.

Branches

Currently, there are two administratively independent branches of the Belokrinitskaya Hierarchy. * Russian Orthodox Old-Rite Church with the center in Rogozhskaya Sloboda in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

; unites the Old Believers of the Belokrinitskaya Hierarchy in Russia and other countries of the former USSR. * Lipovan Orthodox Old-Rite Church with the center in

Brăila Brăila (, also , ) is a city in Muntenia, eastern Romania, a port on the Danube and the capital of Brăila County. The Sud-Est (development region), ''Sud-Est'' Regional Development Agency is located in Brăila. According to the 2021 Romanian ...

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

; unites the Old Believers of the Belokrinitskaya Hierarchy in Romania, and diaspora * Neokruzhniki (Non-Encyclicalists) hierarchy - arose as a result of the split that began after the release of the "Encyclical" of 1862; it was suppressed in Soviet times. * Old Orthodox Church of Ukraine — separated from the Russian Orthodox Old-Rite Church in 2022.

Literature

* *

References

{{reflist

External links

Official web site (Russian)

Old Believers of Altai (official site of the Barnaul Parish Russian Orthodox Old-Rite Church)

Presentation (Russian)

Hidden Europe report 8 August 2006
Old Believer movement Religious organizations established in 1846 1846 establishments in the Russian Empire