How are the Old Believers baptized - with two or three fingers?

Before we start talking about how the Old Believers are baptized, we should elaborate on who they are and what their role is in the development of Russian Orthodoxy. The fate of this religious movement, called the Old Belief, or the ancient religion, has become an integral part of the history of Russia and is full of drama and examples of spiritual greatness.

The reform that split Russian Orthodoxy

The Old Believers, like the whole Russian Church, consider the beginning of their history to be the year when the light of the Christian faith shining on the banks of the Dnieper, brought to Rus by Prince Vladimir Equal-to-the-Apostles. Having fallen on fertile soil, the grain of Orthodoxy gave abundant shoots. Up to the fifties of the XVII century, the faith in the country was unified, and there was no talk of any religious schism.

The beginning of the great church troubles was the reform of Patriarch Nikon, begun by him in 1653. It was included in bringing the Russian liturgical rank in line with the one that was adopted in the Greek and Constantinople churches.

Reasons for church reform

Orthodoxy, as is known, came to us from Byzantium, and in the first years after the Baptism of Rus, worship in churches was carried out exactly as was customary in Constantinople, but after more than six centuries, significant changes were made to it.

Moreover, since for almost the entire period of printing there was not yet, and liturgical books were copied by hand, not only did a significant number of errors crept into them, but also the meaning of many key phrases was distorted. To rectify the situation, Patriarch Nikon accepted a simple and seemingly unsound complication decision.

The good intentions of the patriarch

He ordered to take samples of early books brought from Byzantium, and, having made them anew, translated, printed out in print. He ordered the former texts to be removed from circulation. In addition, the patriarch Nikon was introduced into the Greek manner the three-fingered - the addition of three fingers together with the sign of the cross.

Such an innocuous and quite reasonable decision caused, however, a reaction similar to an explosion, and the church reform that was carried out in accordance with it caused a split. As a result, a significant part of the population that did not accept these innovations departed from the official church, which was called the Nikonian (after the patriarch Nikon), and a large-scale religious movement emerged from it, the followers of which began to be called schismatics.

The split that resulted from the reform

As before, in pre-reform times, the Old Believers were baptized with two fingers and refused to recognize new church books, as well as priests who tried to perform divine services on them. Standing in opposition to the church and secular authorities, they for a long time were subjected to cruel persecution on their part. The beginning of this was laid on the Local Council of 1656.

Already in the Soviet period there was a final softening of the position of the ROC in respect of the Old Believers, which was fixed by corresponding legal documents. However, this did not lead to the resumption of the Eucharistic, that is, prayerful communication between local Orthodox churches and Old Believers. The last to this day consider themselves to be the bearers of true faith.

How many fingers are the Old Believers baptized?

It is important to note that the dissenters never had a canonical disagreement with the official church, and the conflict always arose only around the ceremonial side of the divine service. For example, how the Old Believers are baptized, adding three fingers instead of two, has always become a reason for condemnation against them, while there were no complaints about the interpretation of Holy Scripture or the main provisions of the Orthodox dogma.

By the way, the order of the addition of fingers for the sign of the cross and the Old Believers, and the supporters of the official church, contains a certain symbolism. Old Believers are baptized with two fingers - the index and middle, symbolizing the two natures of Jesus Christ - the divine and the human. The other three fingers are kept pressed to the palm of your hand. They are the image of the Holy Trinity.

A vivid illustration of how the Old Believers are baptized can be the famous painting by Vasily Ivanovich Surikov "The Boyarina Morozova." On it, the disgraced inspirer of the Moscow Old Believer movement raises two folded fingers to the sky, a symbol of the split and rejection of the reform of Patriarch Nikon.

As for their opponents, the supporters of the Russian Orthodox Church, the adoption of them, according to the Nikonov reform, and the addition of fingers to this day also has a symbolic meaning. The Niconians are baptized with three fingers - a large, index and middle, composed of a pinch (their schismatics were contemptuously called "pinchers"). These three fingers also symbolize the Blessed Trinity, and the dual nature of Jesus Christ is represented in this case, pressed to the palm of the nameless finger and little finger.

Symbolism, signed in the sign of the cross

The schismatics always attached special significance to the way they applied the cross to themselves . The direction of movement of their hands is the same as that of all Orthodox, but its explanation is peculiar. The Old Believers are baptized with their fingers, applying them primarily to the forehead. By this they express the primacy of God the Father, which is the beginning of the Divine Trinity.

Further, putting their fingers to the belly, they thereby indicate that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was immaculately conceived in the womb of the Most Blessed Virgin. Bringing his hand to the right shoulder, they indicate that in the Kingdom of God He sat at the right hand - that is, to the right of His Father. Finally, the movement of the hand to the left shoulder reminds us that at the Last Judgment the sinners sent to hell will have a place for the left (from the left) Judge.

Why are the Old Believers baptized with two fingers?

The answer to this question can serve as an ancient, rooted in apostolic times and then adopted in Greece the tradition of a two-fingered sign of the cross. She came to Russia at the same time as her baptism. The researchers have convincing evidence that during the XI-XII centuries. There was simply no other form of the sign of the cross in the Slavic lands, and all were baptized in the same way as the Old Believers do today.

The well-known icon "The Savior Almighty", written by Andrei Rublev in 1408 for the iconostasis of the Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir, can serve as an illustration of what has been said. On it, Jesus Christ is depicted sitting on the throne and uplifting his right hand in a two-fingered blessing. It is characteristic that it was two, and not three fingers, that the Creator of the world folded in this sacred gesture.

The real reason for the persecution of the Old Believers

Many historians tend to believe that the true reason for the persecution was not the ritual features that the Old Believers practiced. Baptized with two or three fingers followers of this movement - in principle, not so important. Their main fault was that these people dared openly go against the tsar's will, thus creating a dangerous precedent for future times.

Speech in this case is precisely a conflict with the highest state power, since the Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, who ruled at that time, supported the Nikonov reform, and its rejection by a part of the population could be regarded as a riot and insult inflicted on him personally. And Russian rulers never forgave it.

Old Believers Today

Concluding the conversation about how the Old Believers are baptized and where this movement came from, it would be superfluous to mention that today their communities are found in practically all developed countries of Europe, in South and North America, and also in Australia. In Russia, the Old Believer church has several organizations, the largest of which is the Belokrinitskaya hierarchy, founded in 1848, whose offices are located abroad. In its ranks, it unites more than a million parishioners and has its permanent centers in Moscow and the Romanian city of Braila.

The second largest Old Believer organization is the Drevlepravoslavnaya Pomor Church, which includes about two hundred official communities and a number of unregistered ones. Its central coordinating and advisory body is the Russian Council of the Moscow Patriarchate, located since 2002 in Moscow.