Before starting a conversation about how the Old Believers are baptized, it is necessary to dwell in more detail on who they are and what their role is in the development of Russian Orthodoxy. The fate of this religious movement, called the Old Believers, or Old Orthodoxy, 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 shone on the banks of the Dnieper, brought to Russia by Prince Vladimir the Equal-to-the-Apostles. Having fallen on fertile soil, the seed of Orthodoxy gave abundant seedlings. Until the fifties of the XVII century, the faith in the country was unified, and no religious schism was discussed.
The beginning of the great church turmoil was the reform of Patriarch Nikon, which he began in 1653. It consisted in bringing the Russian liturgical rank in line with that adopted in the Greek and Constantinople churches.
Reasons for Church Reform
Orthodoxy, as we know, came to us from Byzantium, and in the first years after the Baptism of Rus, divine services in churches were performed exactly as was customary in Constantinople, but after more than six centuries more significant changes were made to it.
In addition, since there has not been typography for almost all this time, and liturgical books were copied by hand, not only a significant number of errors crept into them, but the meaning of many key phrases was distorted. To rectify the situation, Patriarch Nikon made a simple and, it seemed, not promising solution.
Good intentions of the patriarch
He ordered to take samples of early books brought from Byzantium, and, having re-translated from them, replicate in print. He ordered the former texts to be withdrawn from circulation. In addition, patriarch Nikon introduced the three-fingered manner in the Greek manner - the addition of three fingers together in the fall with the sign of the Cross.
Such a harmless and quite reasonable decision, however, caused a reaction similar to the explosion, and the church reform carried out in accordance with it caused a split. As a result, a significant part of the population, who did not accept these innovations, departed from the official church, which was called Nikonian (by the name of Patriarch Nikon), and a large-scale religious movement was formed from it, whose followers became known as schismatics.
Reform split
As before, in pre-reform times, the Old Believers were baptized with two fingers and refused to recognize the new church books, as well as priests who tried to worship on them. Standing in opposition to the church and secular authorities, they were subjected to severe persecution for a long time. The beginning of this was laid at the Local Council of 1656.
Already in the Soviet period, the final mitigation of the position of the Russian Orthodox Church regarding the Old Believers followed, which was enshrined in relevant legal documents. However, this did not lead to the resumption of the Eucharistic, that is, prayerful communion between the local Orthodox churches and the Old Believers. The latter to this day consider themselves only bearers of true faith.
How many fingers are the Old Believers baptized?
It is important to note that schismatics never had canonical disagreements with the official church, and the conflict always arose only around the ritual side of worship. For example, the way the Old Believers were baptized, folding three fingers instead of two, always became a reason for condemning them, while there were no complaints about their interpretation of the Holy Scripture or the main provisions of the Orthodox doctrine.
By the way, the order of folding the fingers for the sign of the Cross and among the Old Believers and among the supporters of the official church contains a certain symbolism. Old Believers are baptized with two fingers - the index and the middle, symbolizing the two natures of Jesus Christ - divine and human. The remaining three fingers are held pressed to the palm. They represent the image of the Holy Trinity.
A vivid illustration of how the Old Believers are baptized, can serve as the famous painting of Vasily Ivanovich Surikov "Boyar Morozov." On it, the disgraced mastermind of the Moscow Old Believer movement, taken to exile, elevates two fingers folded together to the sky - a symbol of schism and rejection of the reform of Patriarch Nikon.
As for their opponents, supporters of the Russian Orthodox Church, the combination of fingers adopted by them in accordance with the Nikon reform and used to this day also has a symbolic meaning. Nikonians are baptized with three fingers - the thumb, forefinger and middle finger, folded with a pinch (the schismatics for this contemptuously called them "pinch fingers"). These three fingers also symbolize the Holy Trinity, and the dual nature of Jesus Christ is depicted in this case, the ring finger and little finger pressed to the palm.
Symbolism in the sign of the Cross
The schismatics have always given a special meaning to the way in which they imposed the sign of the cross on themselves . The direction of hand movement is the same for them as all Orthodox, but its explanation is peculiar. Old Believers are baptized with fingers, applying them primarily to the forehead. By this they express the primacy of God the Father, who is the beginning of the Divine Trinity.
Further, putting their fingers to their stomach, they thereby indicate that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was immaculately conceived in the womb of the Blessed Virgin. Then raising a hand to the right shoulder, they indicate that in the Kingdom of God He sat down at the right hand, that is, to the right of His Father. And finally, the movement of the hand to the left shoulder reminds us that at the Last Judgment, sinners sent to hell will be assigned a seat (left) from the Judge.
Why are Old Believers baptized with two fingers?
The answer to this question can be the ancient, rooted in the apostolic times and then adopted in Greece, the tradition of the double sign of the cross. She came to Russia at the same time as her baptism. Researchers have convincing evidence that in the period XI-XII centuries. there was simply no other form of the sign of the Cross in the Slavic lands, and everyone was baptized in the same way as the Old Believers do today.
An illustration of what has been said can serve as the well-known icon "The Almighty Savior," painted by Andrei Rublev in 1408 for the iconostasis of the Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir. On it, Jesus Christ is depicted sitting on the throne and raising his right hand in a two-breasted blessing. It is characteristic that it was two, not three fingers, that the Creator of the world put together in this sacred gesture.
The true reason for the persecution of the Old Believers
Many historians are inclined to believe that the ritual features that the Old Believers practiced were not the true cause of the persecution. The followers of this movement are baptized with two or three fingers - in principle, it is not so important. Their main fault was that these people dared to openly go against the royal will, thereby creating a dangerous precedent for future times.
In this case, it is a conflict with the highest state power, since Tsar Aleksey Mikhailovich, who ruled at that time, supported Nikonov’s reform, and part of the population’s rejection of it could be regarded as a riot and an insult to him personally. But Russian rulers never forgave this.
Old Believers today
Concluding the conversation about how the Old Believers were baptized and where this movement came from, it would be worthwhile to mention that today their communities are located in almost all developed countries of Europe, in South and North America, as well as in Australia. In Russia, the Old Believer church has several organizations, the largest of which is the Belokrinitsky hierarchy, founded in 1848, with representations abroad. In its ranks, it unites more than a million parishioners and has its own permanent centers in Moscow and the Romanian city of Braille.
The Old Orthodox Pomeranian Church, which includes about two hundred official communities and a number of unregistered, is considered the second largest Old Believer organization. Its central coordinating and advisory body is the Russian Council of the DOC, which has been in Moscow since 2002.