KROTOV'S DAILY

August 23, 2001, 8.45 AM, Moscow

Archimandrite Serge Keleher

The Old Ritualists and the Universal Church

The Old Ritualists are those who resisted and refused the reformed liturgical books associated with the work of Patriarch Nicon. They suffered from dreadful persecution at the hands of the state Church (and from the Communists during the twentieth century), but managed to retain the allegiance of millions of faithful, and the admiration of many more. Besides the maintenance of the pre-Niconian Liturgy, the Old-Ritualists also maintained traditional iconography during the otherwise decadent and degenerate period of late 17th to early 20th century iconography practiced elsewhere. They have attempted to maintain liturgical chant as practiced in Muscovy before the 17th century.

The Old Ritualists suffered a serious and divisive problem: although there were three bishops who supported their stand, the Tsar's police succeeded in arresting and isolating these three hierarchs, thus effectively preventing the Old Ritualists from maintaining a hierarchy dating back before the Niconian reform. As the priests who had refused the Niconian books began to die out, the problem became acute.

Some Old Ritualists took the position that the Apostolic Succession itself was dying out, and that it would only be restored at the Parousia, when the Lord Jesus Christ would again celebrate the Divine Liturgy. The remaining priests of this viewpoint blessed elders, who would be enabled to baptize, to marry, to hear confessions and to preside at the equivalent of reader services but not, of course, to offer the Divine Liturgy. These Bezpopovtsy (priest-less) Old Ritualists split further into several groups (one particularly extreme group ended by ascribing salvation to the drinking of milk!).

Others, who could not believe that the priesthood is capable of dying out, made do as best they could with priests whom they would win over from the state Church. This, of course, could not be a satisfactory situation and they constantly sought to regain the episcopate. Once it happened that a bishop of the state Church joined them, but before he could do any ordinations he was immediately arrested and held closely imprisoned for the rest of his life.

Then in 1846 Metropolitan Ambrose of Sarajevo (Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople) agreed to join the Old Ritualists. By that time they had established a monastic stronghold at Bila Krynytsia in Bukovyna, which was then within the Austrian Empire and thus beyond the reach of the Tsar. Metropolitan Ambrose was brought to the main monastery in Bukovyna (and was probably a bit startled when they chrismated him). An Old-Ritualist Sobor formally received him, and they lost no time: Metropolitan Ambrose in less than a week consecrated two new bishops and ordained a number of priests and deacons. This proved to have been no more than prudent; the Tsar brought enormous pressure to bear upon Vienna, which then ordered Metropolitan Ambrose to take up residence in Trieste (where he is buried). In 1997, the Old-Ritualists celebrated his glorification among the saints. This community now has a Metropolitan in Russia and another in Romania.

A second group of Old-Ritualists who retained the priesthood did not recognize the consecrations performed by Metropolitan Ambrose, but succeeded in attracting bishops in the nineteen-twenties. They have an archbishop with headquarters at Novozybkov.

In the USA, Canada and Australia there are some parishes, led by a Bishop in Oregon. The bishop is also a superb iconographer; I visited one of their churches last year and was agreeably stunned by his work.

What has all this to do with the Russian Greek-Catholics? Father Alexis Zerchaninov had been in close contact with the Old Ritualists; it was his studies in an effort to unite them to the state Church which led him to seek the Catholic Church. Father Evstachios Susalev, one of the early Russian Greek-Catholic priests in Saint Petersburg, came to the Catholic Church from the Old Ritualists; at the intervention of Metropolitan Andrew Rome ruled that Father Evstachios should be received as a priest, without any conditional re-ordination. He continued to serve according to the pre-Niconian books and it was at his suggestion that the parish in Saint Petersburg sent that famous telegram greeting Tsar Nicholas II on behalf of "the Rusian Old-Ritualists in communion with the Holy See". Father Patapios Emilianov and his parish in Bogdanovka, which became Catholic just after the Revolution, also used the pre-Niconian books.

Canon 28 of the Greek-Catholic diocesan council held in Saint Petersburg, with Metropolitan Andrew presiding, from 29-31 May 1917, rules that: "we may keep and observe both the old-Russian [pre-Niconian] or the new [Niconian] form of our liturgical tradition, without discriminating but without mixing one form with the other".

Metropolitan Andrew took great interest in the Old-Ritualists, and in L'viv he provided a chapel, furnished with all the appropriate appurtenances of divine worship according to the pre-Niconian tradition and served by the Studites. [I have repeatedly attempted, without success, to discover what became of this chapel after the the Bolsheviks returned in 1944] The Metropolitan had an excellent collection of pre-Niconian Russian icons and service-books, most of which are now in the Ukrainian National Museum in L'viv or in the Rare Book Collection of the Stefanyk Library.

In the nineteen-sixties, Mount Angel Abbey in Oregon had a large number of Russian refugees living under its protection, and many of these were Old Ritualists. The Abbey and the local Bishop asked for a priest who could serve them in their proper tradition; Hieromonk Theodore (Palczynski) was assigned in 1965. A chapel dedicated to the Tikhvin Icon of the Holy Theotokos was arranged in the Abbey, where one of the monks was keenly interested and learned Church-Slavonic so as to be able to chant and assist Father Theodore. The Pontifical Oriental Institute provided photocopies of the most necessary pre-Niconian service-books; these photocopies in turn fascinated the Old Ritualists. Bishop Andrew (Katkoff) once visited the community and held services for them. There were already "Popovtsi" in the community, but they had no priest other than Father Theodore, who has since died. I don't know, but I would assume that these faithful are now served by the Old Ritualist Bishop in Oregon.

A large priestless [Bezpopovtsy] parish in Erie, Pennsylvania: the Church of the Nativity of Christ, was received into the Russian Church Abroad thanks to the patient work of their elder, Pimen Simon, who is now their priest; they retain the pre-Niconian Russian tradition and have published an outstandingly good *Old Orthodox Prayer Book* in parallel Church-Slavonic and English. This parish is quite influential and has an excellent web site. Father Pimen gave me two plastic-bound booklets of the three Divine Liturgies in parallel Church-Slavonic and English; these are a most valuable resource. Unfortunately the parish does not appear to have published these in any more permanent format. The prayer-book has proved very popular and was recently reprinted.

However, back in Oregon, the Old Ritualists have reprinted, in two colors, most of the Church-Slavonic service-books; I had the opportunity to examine and admire them. These are precious and should certainly be placed in the major libraries. They are not commercially available; do we have anyone able to go to Oregon and attempt to purchase them?

In Russia itself the Old Ritualists are doing some publishing; I was able to purchase some of their books five or six years ago. Can any of our people in Moscow visit their center and see what books, calendars, or religous periodicals might be available?

At Saint Vladimir's Seminary Paul Meyendorff has done some interesting work on the Niconian reform, with information on both the pre-Niconian tradition of Moscow and the Old Kievan tradition (for those interested in the Old Kievan tradition, both the Liturgicon and the Trebnik of Saint Peter (Mohyla) of Kiev are currently available in reprint).

2001; posted in web, reprinted with permission of the author.