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Russian Church Council of 1653
In 1653, under Patriarch Nikon, the Russian Orthodox Church convened a council in Moscow approving revision of Russian liturgical rites against Greek…
Timeline
- 1653Moscow · RussiaAfter becoming patriarch, Nikon argued that Russian liturgical texts had accumulated errors through repeated copying and diverged from Greek originals, proposing systematic revision of liturgical books and ritual procedures based on the latest Greek texts and Kyiv printed editions, gaining the support of Tsar Alexis I.
- 1653Moscow Kremlin · RussiaThe council finally passed a resolution authorizing Nikon to revise Russian liturgical books and ritual procedures according to Greek liturgical texts, and issued the first batch of reform edicts that same year. This authorization laid the ecclesiastical legal foundation for subsequent systematic liturgical reform and became the direct starting point of Old Ritualist resistance.
Sources
- Russia, Ritual, and Reform: The Liturgical Reforms of Nikon in the 17th Century — Meyendorff, Paul (1991)
- The Russian Primary Chronicle and the Moscow Patriarchate — Crummey, Robert O. (1970)