The Russian church from the time of its first manifestation to the present time might be reduced to five periods: the first from the baptism of Russia to the invasion of Mongols, lasting from roughly 988 to 1287;l the second from 1287 to 1461, where the Russian church received her independence, the third, lasting until 1589 when the patriarchate was founded, and thence, under Nikon, the church was split in two due to his “reforms.” The true church remained with those who were not scared to fight Nikon and his reforms.
The fifth period was marked by persecutions of the ancient faith and on all its confessors. This lasted from 1666 to 1923. The worldly church of the Nikonians at this period destroyed the entire hierarchy in Russia of the true faith, while the true faith was reduced to accepting priests through chrisimation who fled frm the Nikonians. Through this entire period the Russian Orthodox church sought to restore the episcopacy in Russia [as Belia Krinitsa was outside the country–MRJ] and this was achieved with God’s help on November 4, 1923. On this day in Saratov at the temple of St. Demitrius the martyr, the Saratov bishop +Nikolai (Pozdnev) was accepted to the Old Rite church through chrisimation. The eighth canon of the First Ecumenical Council permits us to accept bishops in this manner.
This initiated the Russian chuch into its sixth period, the one in which we still live. Soon after the historic events of 1923, another bishop was received, that of +Stepan (Rastorguev) through chrisimation, hence completely restoring the Old Rite hierarchy on Russian soil. In 1924, the synod was founded to rule the newly established hierarchical Russian Old Rite Church, and in 1996 this was formally called the coincul of Russian Old Rite Bishops. Nine Archbishops followed: Mikhail (+1944), John (+1955), Epiphanii (+1963), Eremius (+1969), Pavel ( +1979), Gennadi (+1996), and Aristarkhii (+2000). Since then, the church has been led by Archbishop +Alexander, made patriarch of All Russia on March3, 2002.
The above bishops were catacomb bishops, and hence, their place of residence continually was on the move. From 1924 to 1955 it was in Moscow, until 1963 it had to move to Samara, until 2000 it was in Novozybkove in Bryansk province. In 2000, the sobor decided to finally return the center of administration to its rightful place in Moscow. We are dedicated to the memory of our new martyrs and the blood they shed for the propagation of the Old Faith.
Bishop Pavel (Nosov) was born in 1890 in Nizhni-Novgorod province of a merchant family, a family noted for its good treatment of workers and high moral standards. On June 5, 1916, Peter (his name in the world) entered the Old Believer community at Gorodets, but was soon drafted into the army, something that was not meant to be due to his very poor eyesight.
On March 13, 1918 Peter Mikhaylovich Nosov was elected to the parish council of the community, and was very soon to become the secretary of the cathedral. He was noted early on for his dynamism and zeal for the old faith. It was the Old Rite sobor of 1924 that sought him out, recognized him and brought him into the structure of the church as a secretary.
Unfortunately, at the end of 1927 schisms developed in the Gorodets community. Apparently, a priest of the cathedral had been demoted by the sobor in Moscow, appointing a priest John in his stead. This was sufficient for the demoted priest, Greogry, to start trouble and to stir up the community against the Moscow Archbishop +Nikolai. Some of the community separated form Nikolai near the end of 1927, on the basis that priest Gregory was innocent of all charges. Among those who remained loyal to the synod was Peter Nosov.
Peter was a man with a strong business sense, and helped support himself and the community through his work as a banker and accountant. But by 1931 the Bolsheviki had their eye on this community and stripped Peter of all his belongings in the name of equality. The communist system sentenced him to three years in the camps, but for some reason this was commuted. His property was never returned. Soon after, in 1932, Peter was raised to the dignity of the priesthood by Bishop Stefan of the Urals. Since he was unmarried, he was very soon brought into the rank of bishops in January of 1934 by Stephen and Filaret of Sverdlosk. He was in charge of the Old Rite communities in Sverdlosk, Gorkii, Yaroslavl and, later, Moscow.
It was very clear that he was the right man for this job. He was noted as having an “unceasing care” for church matters and ran the church with great wisdom. He was endlessly traveling throughout the region under his control in the harshest time of Russian history. He also traveled to Georgia, Dagestan, and other region os the Caucuses in order to strengthen the faithful there.
At the end of 1937, Archbishop Stepan was arrested by the secret police of the USSR. This was a harbinger of things to come. His successor was, unsurprisingly, Pavel, and he was soon arrested in his turn on September 8, 1937. Soon after, Pavel was sent to the camps and received the most humiliating treatment. On January 30, 1938, he was shot by firing squad.
Our holy New Martyr Bishop Panfinuti was born in 1881 in Samara province. His family was actually a part of the Nikonian church. His father was a salesman and merchant specializing in timber. But it was clear from his early childhood that this yong man hated material goods, and had nothing but contempt for the merchant’s trade. At the age of 14, he entered into the Spaso-Preobrazhenskii monastery close to Nikolavska. Soon, he moved to the Chudov monastery at the Kremlin by 1895. It was here that he took the name of Panfinutti. In 1910, he was made deacon, and then priest. However, it was also around this time that our new martyr began to serve in the Moscow temples of the Old Rite. He was convinced, as a young priest, that the ancient faith was preserved only in the Old Rite. His father was soon convinced by the example of his son and also joined the old rite in 1912. In Nikolayvsk, close to his home town, the young priest served his own Old Rite parish until 1921.
He was a zealous pastor and attracted the attention of the sobor in Moscow. At Nativity of 1917, for example, he was asked to attend the Old Rite synod in Moscow and discuss the activities of sending Old Rite priests to the front to minister to the many troops who refused to commune at the Nkionite church. The young priest volunteered for service at the front, though the war ended before he saw any action. He then continued his service at Saratov province and then to the Urals community some time later. Rejecting the hierarchy of the White Well, that is the Ukrainian Old Rite hierarchy, he was involved in finding bishops to continue the Old rite line, and he was involved in the choosing of Bishop Nikolai as a new hierarch. After this, the young priest (who was ordained in the Nikonite church but accepted by the Old Rite as a priest) was raised to the level of archimandrite once the new Old Rite hierarchy was established.
The next bishop was +Stepan, and after this, the young archimandrite himself was raised to the third bishop of the Russian Old Rite hierarchy and was sent to Rostov to organize the community life there. But as this happened in 1929, the young Bishop Parfinutti was fingered by the Stalinist system. What he organized was destroyed by the NKVD, and his priests sent to the camps as they were assigned to their parishes. In 1930, he himself was arrested, quickly released, and then re-arrested some time later. The official charge against him was that he was sent to Rostov to found and arm a counter-revolutionary cell. The Karkiv GPU subjected him to the torture for some months, and was released in 1933. He was rearrested that same year, and sentenced to intense tortures as a counterrevolutionary. Apparently, some locals dissatisfied with him had gone to the GPU and denounced him as a “anti-communist zealot.” The saintly bishop said to the GPUa t Stalingrad: “In spite of my displeasure at the present state of things, I never through it necessary to conduct counter-revolutionary activities, and I never even sought to create an organization that would defend the church against this regime. We are and were powerless against you, and the laws of our church permit of nothing else. You are a punishment for the sins of Russia.” And later on, under torture, he was reported to say, “I find myself under this regime and will not attempt to overthrow it. I said the same under the Tsars. We suffer persecution under both regimes, and our attitude was the same to both. My job here is the same as my forefathers: to preserve the pure faith for future generations, not to be involved in politics. The more our society is collectivized [or socialized, I can’t tell–MRJ] the more persecutions will occur. . . All that is presented to me here is the fact that you are sent for the punishment of our sins.”
On June 25, 1933, the bishop was sentenced, after his tortures, to 10 years in the camps by the OGPU at Kemerovo. Between 1933 and 1936 he suffered endlessly, his already weakened health ravaged by the storms and ice of the region. In 1936, August 17, he was amnestied due to poor health through not released from the camp, his sentence was lowered to 8 years. It did not matter, since he died from tortures on December 21, 1937. However, some from the camp said he was shot.