Old Believers: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

The Old Believers (старове́ры or старообря́дцы) are a schismatic group of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The schism itself is known as staroobryadchestvo (старообрядчество).

In 1652, Patriarch Nikon of the Russian Orthodox Church introduced a number of reforms aimed at centralizing his power and bringing Russian Orthodox ritual and doctrine in line with those of the Greek Orthodox Church. Old Believers rejected Nikon's reforms (see Raskol). Followers of the movement were anathemized at the synod in 1666–67 and were heavily persecuted until the reign of Peter the Great, when they were instead treated as an extra source of tax revenue.

Early Old Belief was characterized by rejecting "the World" where anti-Christ reigned; they preached about the imminent end of the world, asceticism, adhering to the old rituals and the old faith. Given a lack of Bishops and priests, the laity were predominant.

An attempt to make the Old Believers obey the Church was the creation in 1801 of the uni-faith (единоверчество) church.

The Old Believers had no official toleration until 1905. In 1971 the Russian Orthodox Church revoked the anathemas placed on the Old Believers in the 17th century, but most Old Believer communities have not returned to Communion with other Orthodox Christians.

Old Believer doctrine is identical to that of Eastern Orthodoxy. Differences for most Old Believer communities are in details of ritual practice, alone. However, centuries of persecution, and the nature of their foundation, has made them highly culturally conservative and mistrustful of anything they see as insufficiently Russian. Some Old Believers go so far as to consider any pre-Nikonian Orthodox Russian practice or artifact to be exclusively theirs, denying that the Russian Orthodox Church has any claims upon a history before Patriarch Nikon.

Approximately one million Old Believers remain today, some living in extremely isolated communities in places to which they fled centuries ago to avoid persecution. A few Old Believer parishes in the United States have entered communion with the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia.