Opinion on this saint

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St Avvakum is venerated as a Confessor and Hieromartyr by the Old Believers (April 14th is his feastday). There is an icon of him in the Old Rite Orthodox Church of the Nativity, I believe, which is in union with Orthodoxy via Jordanville.

There is a rumour that the Moscow Patriarchate may formally acknowledge him as a saint to be placed in the ROC calendar - we will see about this. Old Rite Orthodox who became Eastern Catholics continued to venerate him as a saint and martyr, at least privately.

He was certainly very uncompromising and determined, as were all the Martyrs for the Old Rite (i.e. St Paul Kolomensky). And he had a great reputation as a miracle-worker and exorcist. He will always be venerated by the Old Believers, nomatter what jurisdiction they belong to, as their saint. I also have a copy of an icon of him in my icon corner together with other Old Rite saints.

Alex
 
Avvakum was a sincere individual who acted out of a concern for the Church.

He was mislead in his vigor, but as far as I’m aware he never crossed into heresy, as the actual break between the Old Believers, and their denunciation of the Episcopacy happened after he was gone, at least as best I remember.

I would not oppose his addition to the Calendar of saints, although he is nonetheless a good lesson in the dangers of extreme views, and of self-righteousness. A lesson that many Christians would do well to learn in this day and age.
 
Nine_Two said:
Avvakum was a sincere individual who acted out of a concern for the Church.

He was mislead in his vigor, but as far as I’m aware he never crossed into heresy, as the actual break between the Old Believers, and their denunciation of the Episcopacy happened after he was gone, at least as best I remember.

I would not oppose his addition to the Calendar of saints, although he is nonetheless a good lesson in the dangers of extreme views, and of self-righteousness. A lesson that many Christians would do well to learn in this day and age.
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I think the jury is still out on who was self-righteous in that sad period of church history. It is an historical fact that Patriarch Nikon was himself very enamoured with Greek ways (including Greek cuisine) and that the whole effort to get the Old Believers to adopt Greek ways was part of geopolitics (the desire of the Russian tsar to be seen as the new “Byzantine emperor” of all Orthodox) rather than spirituality.

On that score, St Avvakum was, I believe history bears out, absolutely correct. The Greeks themselves said they didn’t care how the Russians crossed themselves or whether they followed Greek practice or not. Although I am not of the Old Rite, I don’t see how he was misled in any way from within the context in which he lived. Patriarch Nikon could have been, together with the Tsar to whom he answered. But St Avvakum - not at all. He stands with all the “extremists” of Orthodox Church history, including St Mark of Ephesus et alia. 😉

Alex
 
Alexander_Roman said:
I think the jury is still out on who was self-righteous in that sad period of church history. It is an historical fact that Patriarch Nikon was himself very enamoured with Greek ways (including Greek cuisine) and that the whole effort to get the Old Believers to adopt Greek ways was part of geopolitics (the desire of the Russian tsar to be seen as the new “Byzantine emperor” of all Orthodox) rather than spirituality.

On that score, St Avvakum was, I believe history bears out, absolutely correct. The Greeks themselves said they didn’t care how the Russians crossed themselves or whether they followed Greek practice or not. Although I am not of the Old Rite, I don’t see how he was misled in any way from within the context in which he lived. Patriarch Nikon could have been, together with the Tsar to whom he answered. But St Avvakum - not at all. He stands with all the “extremists” of Orthodox Church history, including St Mark of Ephesus et alia. 😉

Alex
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Patriarch Nikon was incorrect on two accounts, first factually, as studies conducted by the Russian Orthodox Church itself have born out, and secondly, in his zeal for making sure the Greek custom was followed. As you said, the Greeks themselves didn’t care how it was done, the EP even told Patriarch Nikon that he should just leave those who insisted on the old ways of doing things alone.

However in spite of all this, Patriarch Nikon was still a bishop of the church, and it was not the place of a priest to fight him like that so publicly. What Avvakum did was wrong in light of the fact that, as you mentioned, it wasn’t something that mattered. Avvakum wasn’t just persecuted for doing things the old way, but for actively rebelling against the episcopacy, which culminated in his followers declaring that it was completely illegitimate and that the Gates of Hell had prevailed, after his death.

As I said, I find him a sympathetic figure and would not object to him being declared a saint for his desire to fight for what he saw as the Christian faith, even suffering persecution for it. He was however, wrong.

Unlike St. Mark of Ephesus. 😉
 
Nine_Two said:
Patriarch Nikon was incorrect on two accounts, first factually, as studies conducted by the Russian Orthodox Church itself have born out, and secondly, in his zeal for making sure the Greek custom was followed. As you said, the Greeks themselves didn’t care how it was done, the EP even told Patriarch Nikon that he should just leave those who insisted on the old ways of doing things alone.

However in spite of all this, Patriarch Nikon was still a bishop of the church, and it was not the place of a priest to fight him like that so publicly. What Avvakum did was wrong in light of the fact that, as you mentioned, it wasn’t something that mattered. Avvakum wasn’t just persecuted for doing things the old way, but for actively rebelling against the episcopacy, which culminated in his followers declaring that it was completely illegitimate and that the Gates of Hell had prevailed, after his death.

As I said, I find him a sympathetic figure and would not object to him being declared a saint for his desire to fight for what he saw as the Christian faith, even suffering persecution for it. He was however, wrong.

Unlike St. Mark of Ephesus. 😉
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Certainly, I wouldn’t suggest we all adopt the Old Rite 😉 . There were some great Orthodox saints, like the Ukrainian St Dmitri of Rostov, who actively opposed the Old Believers for exactly the reasons you give. I will say that I agree with you and that I join with you in hoping that Orthodoxy accepts him as a saint, together with the Old Rite Orthodox martyrs, and leave it at that. The Old Rite tradition does show how very highly developed the Russian spiritual culture truly was/is - I’m particularly amazed at the rituals associated with lunch and dinner that the Old Rite has, especially how they make it a point to thank and bless those who prepared the food. Very inspiring indeed. And there is apparently a movement afoot in Russia to canonize Patriarch Nikon - there is even an akathist to him on the website: www.akafist.narod.ru
 
He will always be venerated by the Old Believers, nomatter what jurisdiction they belong to, as their saint. I also have a copy of an icon of him in my icon corner together with other Old Rite saints.
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tea1 said:
He will always be venerated by the Old Believers, nomatter what jurisdiction they belong to, as their saint. I also have a copy of an icon of him in my icon corner together with other Old Rite saints.
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More power to you!!

And certainly the ROC does consider the Old Rite one of the two Rites of the Russian Orthodox Church. There were New Martyrs glorified in 2000 AD by the Moscow Patriarchate who were “biritual” or who served parishes of both Rites.

What I’ve noticed on Russian Orthodox liturgical sites is a readiness to borrow some Old Rite practices while making amends for the difference in usage (i.e. they will indicate that the Old Rite says Lord have mercy twice rather than three times).

The Old Rite practice of the Entrance and Departure Bows is something all Christians could adopt with great spiritual benefit.

FYI, there was a group of Old Believers that came under the omophor of the UGCC Metropolitan Andrej Sheptytsky and their priest died as a martyr under the Soviets. So even the UGCC has its tradition of the Old Rite and the Russian Catholic New Hieromartyr Bl Leonid Fyodorov was likewise an EC “biritual” priest who served in the Old Rite as well.

He wrote a letter to Tsar St Nicholas II from the “Old Rite community in union with Rome” to assure the holy tsar of their prayers for his son’s well-being.

He actually received a reply from the Tsar thanking him. Whenever the local police came to eject his community from wherever they were having their services, Bl. Leonid would show them the letter, peersonally signed by the Tsar, and the police would salute and leave them alone.

That is, until the Soviets came . . .

Alex
 
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