Edinoverie
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Edinoverie ( rus, единове́рие, p=jɪdʲɪnɐˈvʲerʲɪjɪ, literally "coreligionism") is an arrangement between certain Russian Old Believer communities and the official
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 ...
, 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" (, ''staroobryadtsy''), as opposed to "Old Believers".


Meaning of the term

The Russian word ''edinoverie'' may be a
back-formation Back-formation is the process or result of creating a neologism, new word via Morphology (linguistics), morphology, typically by removing or substituting actual or supposed affixes from a lexical item, in a way that expands the number of lexemes ...
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 of the State Church saw in the Edinoverie a mutual acceptance. In the words of Filaret, Metropolitan of Moscow, addressed to the Edinovertsy at the 1854 consecration of Saint Nicholas Church for them at Rogozhskoye Cemetery, «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

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 (, ), born Nikita Minin (; 7 May 1605 – 17 August 1681) was the seventh Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus' of the Russian Orthodox Church, serving officially from 1652 to 1666. He was renowned for his eloquence, energy, piety and close t ...
in the 1660s. On the side of the established church, the initiators of Edinoverie are said to be Metropolitan
Platon Platon is a masculine given name and surname which may refer to: Given name * Plato (exarch) (), romanized as Plátōn, Exarch of Ravenna in the Byzantine Empire from 645 to 649 * Platon, obscure ancient Greek writer of uncertain date, whose a ...
of Moscow (the senior hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church) and Archbishop Nikifor, who was Archbishop first of Sloviansk and
Kherson Kherson (Ukrainian language, Ukrainian and , , ) is a port city in southern Ukraine that serves as the administrative centre of Kherson Oblast. Located by the Black Sea and on the Dnieper, Dnieper River, Kherson is the home to a major ship-bui ...
, and later of
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and
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in South Russia. Nikifor, when he began reaching out to Old Believers in 1780, was based in
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, 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, prov ...
of Sloviansk and Kherson, covering much of eastern
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, and later to become the Diocese of
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. When he visited a chapel of '' Popovtsy'' (Old Believers who had their own priests not recognised by the Church) in Elisavetgrad 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
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uyezd) 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 begin to request legalisation, but also the '' Bespopovtsy'' (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
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and the
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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, alo ...
(compound) in the Irgiz Rivers area of
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. On the side of the Old Believers, the driving force of the Edinoverie compromise were
Hieromonk A hieromonk,; Church Slavonic, Slavonic: ''Иеромонахъ''; ; ; ; ; Albanian language, Albanian: ''Hieromurg'' also called a priestmonk, is a person who is both monk and Priest#Roman Catholic and Orthodox, priest in the Eastern Christianity ...
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 of the
Starodub Starodub (, , ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, town in Bryansk Oblast, Russia, on the Babinets (river), Babinets River in 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 Catherine II. (born Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst; 2 May 172917 November 1796), most commonly known as Catherine the Great, was the reigning empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796. She came to power after overthrowing her husband, Peter I ...
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 ...
. In April 1784, by which time Kalmykov had died, the Empress issued a
rescript A rescript is a public government document. More formally, it is a document issued not on the initiative of the author, but in response to a question (usually legal) posed to the author. The word originates from replies issued by Roman emperors t ...
, 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, 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
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in 1796 and to those of
Nizhny Novgorod Nizhny Novgorod ( ; rus, links=no, Нижний Новгород, a=Ru-Nizhny Novgorod.ogg, p=ˈnʲiʐnʲɪj ˈnovɡərət, t=Lower Newtown; colloquially shortened to Nizhny) is a city and the administrative centre of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast an ...
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 in Christianity, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominationa ...
, 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" (), 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, there were around 300 Edinoverie parishes in Russia. In the capital of the Empire,
Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...
, the first Edinoverie church was set up in 1799. In 1917, the Edinovertsy of Saint Petersburg received their first bishop (Bishop Simon of Okhta), but in 1932 their churches were closed by the Communist authorities, not to be revived until 1990. The
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 ...
community of Edinovertsy, based in Lefortovo District, 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 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 ...
.


Old Ritualists in Communion with the

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Some Old Believers have been received into communion with the
Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
as Eastern Catholics while maintaining their distinctive rites, thus making them Eastern Catholic equivalents of the Edinoverie. The most famous convert is Potapy Emelianov, a former Edinoverie priest in
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,
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. In 1918, he was received into the Russian Catholic Church with his entire parish, which was located at Nizhnaya Bogdanovka, near
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in the
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of modern
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. He later survived a ten-year sentence at Solovki prison camp and died in 1936. , his cause for
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is open. According to a 2005 interview, Russian Catholic priest Sergei Golovanov stated that there was then one Old-Ritualist Catholic priest active on Russian soil.


References


Bibliography

* White, James: ''A Bridge to the Schism. Edinoverie, Russian Orthodoxy, and the Ritual Formation of Confessions, 1800-1918.'' (PhD thesis, European University Institute, 2014

* White, James Matthew. Unity in faith? : edinoverie, Russian orthodoxy, and old belief, 1800-1918. - Bloomington, Ind. : Inadiana university press, 2020. - 271 p. - ISBN 978-0-253-04972-8 {{Authority control Old Believer movement 18th-century Eastern Catholicism 18th-century Eastern Orthodoxy Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy Eastern Orthodox ecumenical and interfaith relations