Avvakum

Timeline

1. 1652–1653Moscow · MoscowBorn around 1620/1621 in the village of Grigorovo in the Nizhny Novgorod region into a priest's family. In 1652 he went to Moscow and joined the camp opposing Patriarch Nikon's revision of Russian liturgical practice according to Greek models, resisting changes to the sign of the cross and revisions to liturgical books, becoming an early core figure of the Old Believers.
2. 1653–1664Tobolsk · SiberiaIn 1653 he was exiled to Siberia with his family, first to Tobolsk, later joining a military expedition to the Dauria frontier, enduring bitter cold and harsh labor. In 1664 he was permitted to return to Moscow, but a few months later, for continuing to denounce the reforms, was again exiled, this time to Mezen.
3. 1666–1682Pustozyorsk · Far NorthIn 1666–1667 the Great Moscow Council confirmed Nikon's liturgical reforms and condemned their opponents; Avvakum was exiled to Pustozyorsk near the Arctic Circle, where he was long confined in an earthen pit. In prison he wrote his autobiography and numerous letters, calling on believers to hold to old practices such as the two-fingered sign of the cross. On April 14, 1682 he was burned at the stake together with the priest Lazarus, the deacon Feodor, and the monk Epiphanius.