Why Do Old Believers Wear Beards? #

The spiritual condition of modern Russian society, living in the postmodern era, is characterized as secularized. Our present time is marked by the fact that the overwhelming majority of our fellow citizens do not connect their lives with any religious norms, customs, or traditions. Despite the church revival of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, religious expression among the masses still manifests itself on a shallow, superficial level. Yet historically, Russia has always been considered a state with a high level of spirituality. In terms of religious affiliation, the vast majority of people in our country identify themselves as Christians of the Orthodox faith.

In the distant past, among many peoples, wearing a beard was not only fashionable but also a symbol of honor, linking a man’s outward appearance with his religious convictions. To commit an audacious act against someone’s beard—such as pulling it or spitting on it—was considered a grave insult, for which one could be killed on the spot. Medieval history offers many instances in which battles between armies were delayed until the warriors on both sides had tied up their beards in a special manner, thus protecting them from defilement. If an ambassador had his beard set on fire during a diplomatic mission, he did not need to report back to his sovereign that war had been declared—the sovereign understood it plainly enough.

Today, in practice, the obligatory wearing of a beard as an essential attribute of an Orthodox Christian’s life—outwardly expressing religious identity—has lost its relevance. Many modern Christians, who consciously profess the faith, regularly attend church, and observe the fasts, consider this practice to be of secondary importance and by no means obligatory, believing it does not affect the essence or nature of religious experience. The regulations of Orthodox seminaries, where future pastors are trained, prescribe the mandatory shaving of beards among students. It must be acknowledged that the Orthodox tradition is nearly forgotten. The still-preserved pious church custom of wearing beards among the Old Believers is often met with deep misunderstanding by the general public, and in some cases—with mockery and condemnation. Nevertheless, our Orthodox forefathers thought quite differently about shaving. During the period of Orthodox Byzantium, and in the era of ancient and medieval Rus’, we find many written sources in which shaving or trimming the beard is spoken of in a negative tone—and not without good reason. To explain the practice merely as a response to the “fashion” of the time fails to capture the full essence of the issue. In Orthodox ascetic teaching, there exists a concept of the sin (and in some cases—even heresy) of shaving the beard, which—as will be shown below—has a real religious-philosophical and solid canonical foundation.

Let us see what the Holy Scriptures tell us about this matter. The prohibition against shaving or trimming the beard among men is found in various passages of the Old Testament. For instance, the book of Leviticus states: “Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard” (Leviticus 19:27). From the Second Book of Samuel we learn that King David commanded his servants to remain in Jericho until their beards, which had been cut off by the Ammonite ruler Hanun, had grown back (see 2 Samuel 10:1). The same story is repeated in the First Book of Chronicles (1 Chronicles 19:4). Thus, we have a series of testimonies reflecting the negative perception of shaving among the ancient Hebrews, which is no coincidence. The beard is called the “image of God,” referring to the 26th verse of the first chapter of Genesis: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Genesis 1:26). The meaning of this biblical phrase lies in the divine will aimed at creating, in the material world, a being that would be like God Himself—and thus qualitatively different from the rest of creation.

Traditionally, based on the Old Testament text, it is believed that Adam was created by the Lord as a fully grown man—that is, with a beard—since God says, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Genesis 1:26). Thus, the beard, as a symbol of maturity and wisdom, is part of the image of God in man.

According to Saint Basil the Great, when God created man, He “placed within him something of His own grace, so that man might know what is like by what is like.” According to various patristic interpretations, the image of God in man consists of the presence of higher spiritual qualities—reason, free will, and the capacity to love—as noble seeds implanted by the Creator in His creation.

Indeed, man is by nature a twofold being, composed of two different essences: the material and the spiritual. Harmony between them is possible only when the physical aspect is governed by the spiritual—a state whose attainment may be called the “quality of human life.” Thus, a complete and comprehensive interpretation of verse 26 of the first chapter of Genesis is possible only when one also considers the physical nature of humanity and its place in existence as determined by Divine Providence. A person’s outward appearance should reflect the inner beauty of the soul, “for the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead” (Romans 1:20). Hence, the ancient Hebrews—as bearers of the true Faith of Revelation, the world’s first monotheistic religion—paid great attention to their appearance, seeking thereby to emphasize their religious identity. In particular, the various Old Testament passages cited above speak of the obligation for every faithful man to wear a beard. This pious custom was later adopted by Christians, who gave it spiritual meaning and canonical grounding.

The patristic heritage contains many extensive theological writings and statements addressing not only the inner state of the soul and principles of communion with God and neighbor. The Holy Fathers and teachers of the Church left future generations of Christians numerous moral instructions and a complete body of canonical rules (indeed, all canonical rules of the Church have a profoundly spiritual and experiential foundation, formed on the basis of Christian ontology) that regulate both church structure and daily life—or what today might be called “external piety”—in pursuit of an ideal, harmonious order between the “inner” and the “outer” life of the Christian community. Thus, John Chrysostom says: “The Lord God, in the depth of His wisdom, gave man—who is clothed in a visible body—His invisible gifts under visible and bodily signs. Since man is clothed in the body, he cannot receive the grace of God apart from visible and sensory signs.” Likewise, Symeon of Thessalonica says: “Since we are dual in nature, He sanctifies our souls by the grace of the Spirit, and our bodies through visible things sanctified by the Spirit.” John of Damascus writes: “Since we are composed of a spiritual and a sensory nature, we offer the Creator a twofold worship.” And Dionysius the Areopagite adds: “The divine ray cannot shine forth except through manifold sacred mysteries and veils, adapted to our own nature.”

So, then, in relation to the subject of this study, how did the Holy Fathers speak of shaving the beard in their writings?

Cyprian of Carthage writes: “And when it is said in Scripture: ‘Ye shall not shave your beards,’ he shaves his beard and adorns his face; does he seek to please someone now that he has become displeasing to God?” Similarly, Epiphanius of Cyprus says: “What can be worse or more shameful than this: the beard, the mark of manhood, is shaved off… Concerning the beard, in the Apostolic Constitutions the word of God and the teaching prescribe not to mar it—that is, not to cut the hair of the beard.” Nikon of Montenegro likewise notes: “In the apostolic commandments, the Divine word says not to defile the image of the beard.” Cyril of Alexandria states similarly: “Thus, for example, it is forbidden to shave the beard so as to disfigure the face.” Isidore of Pelusium writes: “It grieves me greatly to hear of you—that you do not follow the chastity of the Fathers, but subject yourself to strange shame, depriving your face of its natural majestic color and transforming it into something more like a woman’s face… and intending not to be a man, but to seem and appear as some kind of suspicious eunuch.” Blessed Theodoret of Cyrus considers beard-shaving a custom of the Hellenes, foreign and criminal. Blessed Jerome, with no small measure of irony, writes of clergymen who devote excessive attention to their appearance: “I am ashamed to say it, but there are those who take holy orders—priesthood or diaconate—in order to have freer access to women. They care only about their clothes, the length of their hair… One would think they were newlyweds, not priests!”

Thus, a whole host of the Holy Fathers speak of beard-shaving as an unhealthy phenomenon, contrary to the Christian spirit. The Fathers of the Church refer to one of the Apostolic Constitutions, which states the following: “One should not alter the hair of the beard or change the image of man against nature. You, who bare your beard in order to be pleasing, are abominable before God, who created you in His own image.” This Apostolic rule reveals the deep meaning of the formation of human nature in the Divine, the beginnings of man’s likeness to God, and in a concise form reminds us of the necessity of ascetic struggle by the Christian for the sake of higher values.

“The Holy Fathers believe,” writes S. Vurgaft, “that the one who shaves his beard expresses dissatisfaction with the external appearance given to man by the Creator, and thus arises a desire to correct God.”

According to the teaching of the Holy Fathers, in shaving the beard there occurs a visible desecration of human nature as the image of God, and consequently, a departure from His likeness.

Turning to the heritage of Orthodox Holy Tradition, let us take note of the 96th canon of the Sixth Ecumenical Council, which concerns the external appearance of the Orthodox Christian and points to its proper spiritualization and beauty, corresponding to the inner spiritual sense: “Those who braid and curl their hair, or touch it with some artifice (emphasis mine) to the harm of the onlookers, let them be excommunicated.” Judging by the interpretations, the Fathers of the Sixth Ecumenical Council, through the 96th rule, prescribe excommunication from the Church for laymen who commit the sin of beard-shaving in men and hair-cutting in women, establishing in practice a 40-day fast in case of repentance, followed by a prayer of purification. The most detailed interpretation of this rule is given by the hieromonk Matthew Blastares (in his Syntagma): “Those who have been baptized into Christ and have promised to imitate His way of life in the flesh—ought to pursue every form of purity and chastity, and not to decorate the body with excessive vanity. What then is excessive? To excessively treat and adorn the hair of the head and the beard, arranging and embellishing it finely, leaving aside the adornment of the inner man with every virtue. For the Apostle says: ‘If a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him.’ And Moses in Deuteronomy says: ‘You shall not make a baldness between your eyes for the dead, nor mar the corners of your beard.’ Therefore, those who do such things are to be forbidden by the Fathers, and if they persist, cast out. Thus are forbidden those who curl their hair like soldiers with helmets, or dye it, or soak it with water and warm it in the sun to turn it red or golden, or frequently tend it, or braid it with foreign hairpieces, or shave their beard, or use heated tiles to burn away what is grown…” The Nomocanon likewise commands in its 174th rule: “Matthew in chapter nine, verse three, forbids the faithful to decorate themselves, or to trim the hair of their beard, or to dye or artificially manipulate their hair. Or to braid the hair of their head. Those who disobey, he commands to be excommunicated. This he derives from the 96th rule of the Sixth Council held in Trullo.”

Thus, we have an unambiguous canonical witness to the obligation of an Orthodox Christian to preserve the nature given to him by God. In this connection, another rule—the eleventh canon of the Local Council of Gangra—prohibits a woman from wearing men’s clothing (trousers, jackets, etc.) and vice versa. The Kormchaya Book states the following: “If any woman, under the pretense of piety, should change her garment and take on the clothing customary for men, let her be accursed.” Zonaras comments on this as follows: “If a man wears women’s clothing or a woman men’s—under the guise of demonic fashion—they distort the image of God and mock Him. Such a person is to repent for three years and perform twenty-four prostrations daily.”

Ancient Rus’, at the time of its baptism, fully adopted and reinterpreted the Orthodox Byzantine heritage, assimilating in practice the rules and norms of Christian life. Following the Greek example, the Christian doctrine and canonical rules became the foundation upon which our Orthodox ancestors built their social relations. The worldview of the Russian people came to be grounded in the ideas and principles of the Christian faith, drawing on nearly a thousand years of Byzantine tradition. Ancient Rus’, having received Christianity from Byzantium, began to take its rightful place in the broader historical process, forming a new cultural identity. In its appropriation of Christianity, it developed a distinctive character—marked by a clearly defined national spirit—without in any way distorting the ideas and principles of universal Orthodoxy.

As for the practice of beard-wearing among Orthodox Byzantines, in resolving this question we cannot rely on clear, unambiguous sources due to their scarcity and the lack of specificity in the available texts. Nevertheless, the existence of such a custom—however formal—in Greek lands, at least during the time when Christianity was first spreading in Rus’, must be acknowledged for the following reasons:

1. The religious psychology of Eastern peoples, including Orthodox Byzantines, was marked by traditionalism and conservatism, which by its very nature implies strict adherence to all norms of canonical law.

2. The canons of the Seven Ecumenical and Nine Local Councils, which form the foundation of the Greek Kormchaya (Book of Rules), were universally binding and legally valid decrees issued by the state itself. This was due to the political structure of the Byzantine Empire, in which the roles of Church and state, emperor and patriarch, were tightly intertwined (a “symphony of powers”); secular and ecclesiastical authority functioned as one (Caesaropapism or Papocaesarism). “In the East,” writes Alexander Schmemann, “it was believed that once imperial authority became Christian, all matters of the Church’s external organization were to be resolved in cooperation with the state, and therefore church canons had to be sanctioned by the emperor and become state laws.”

3. During the Schism of 1054, Patriarch Michael Cerularius of Constantinople, in a letter to Peter, Patriarch of Antioch, accused the Western Christians of various innovations—among them, beard-shaving. This letter is confirmed by St. Theodosius of the Kiev Caves.

4. Russian theologians discussing the problem of beard-shaving often condemn it by citing the negative example of the iconoclast emperor Constantine Copronymus, who allowed himself to shave his beard and attempted to legalize public beard-shaving in Byzantium. This egregious historical precedent could not go unnoticed by the Greeks and was later adopted by Russian Christians as a warning.

At the same time, we have no grounds to assert that the custom of beard-wearing was widespread and universally observed among Christians of the Byzantine Empire in the same way it was in Orthodox Rus’. Despite the canonical requirements, everyday practice developed quite differently. John Zonaras, in his commentary on the 96th canon of the Sixth Ecumenical Council, provides a detailed description of folk methods used to combat facial hair: “As for the beard, they do quite the opposite. As soon as someone begins to grow the faintest youthful fuzz, they immediately shave it off, lest it become real hair. They want their smooth faces to stand out, so that they may resemble women and appear delicate. And when beard hair continues to grow over time, although they may not use a razor, they take a shard of pottery heated in coals, and burn off all the long hairs with it so that it appears as if the hair has only just begun to sprout—and so that men of mature age might look like youths. And this is done not only by common folk, but by people of higher classes. This evil, having spread, has become widespread—like some epidemic disease infecting the name of Christ, consuming almost everyone.” According to the canonist, such fashionable men were not to be admitted to the Holy Mysteries. For Byzantines of the 12th to 15th centuries, it was particularly fashionable to make themselves appear younger. Professor A. Lebedev writes that among the male population of Byzantium “there was a great passion for giving themselves an eternally youthful appearance and adorning their hair in every possible way.” He also notes that reports were submitted to Emperor Alexios Komnenos about instances of beard-shaving among lay residents of Mount Athos.

Among the Slavic peoples, beard-wearing was especially prevalent. According to the Russkaya Pravda of Yaroslav’s sons, a fine of twelve grivnas was levied for forcibly shaving off a beard—four times the amount for bodily injury. Relevant to our subject, it should be noted that many written sources appeared in Rus’ addressing the issue of beard-shaving. Chief among these is the epistle of St. Maximus the Greek “To the Autocrat Tsar Ivan Vasilievich on the Matter of Not Shaving the Beard.” At the beginning of his letter, St. Maximus speaks of the Wisdom of God, who harmoniously fashioned the universe and man, in whom each part has its own purpose: “The mustache and beard were most wisely and mercifully appointed by God—not only to distinguish the male sex from the female, but also as a noble adornment of our faces. Who, being sound in mind and striving to please God in all things, would ever hate and shave away his God-given appearance, removing the honorably fashioned ornament bestowed by the Creator?”

In his polemic against Catholicism, Maximus the Greek refers to beard-shaving as a Latin custom condemned by Orthodoxy: “The Latin innovation is truly vain and senseless, for they appear even without beards, indulging in unrestrained vanity. Thus, they are openly rebuked, as those who despise such a noble adornment—shaving off that which the Creator gave to man.”

From the late 14th to the early 15th century, debates about beard-shaving in Rus’ took place exclusively within the context of opposition to Latinism. In a letter from Metropolitan Macarius of Moscow to Sviyazhsk concerning beard-shaving, he writes: “Such behavior is unbefitting for those of the Orthodox faith, for it is the practice of the Latin heresy, and he who does this commits an affront to the image of God, who created him in His likeness.” In the Liturgikon of Patriarch Joseph, beard-shaving is referred to as a “heretical affliction,” which was observed in Pope Peter the Stammerer of Rome. Looking ahead somewhat, we must also mention that in the Liturgikon (or Great Euchologion) of another prominent Russian hierarch—Patriarch Filaret (Romanov) of Moscow and All Rus’, who likewise opposed Latin influence in the Muscovite state—beard-shaving, as a Western custom, is denounced in strong terms: “I curse the God-hating delusion of the lascivious image, the soul-destroying, dark heresy that is the shaving of the beard… Many worldly men, having ruined their minds, fell into this leprosy, destroying the beauty of their faces, the image created for them by God.” In the same service book, Patriarch Filaret criticizes one particular feature of Catholic iconography—the depiction of saints without beards.

In the Kirilova Book, a polemical collection of doctrinal writings reprinted from a Kiev edition in Moscow in 1644 by order of Tsar Mikhail Fyodorovich, chapter 26, “On Latin Heresies,” contains a symbolic tale of an angelic vision given to one of the Roman popes. Naturally, the vision was false, for the one who appeared as an angel was in fact a demon. Seeking to lead the pope into delusion, the demon said to him: “If you wish to be like an angel, shave your beard, for angels who stand before the throne of God are without beards.” The pope followed the instruction and ordered all his subordinate priests and bishops to do likewise. The authors of the Kirilova Book interpret beard-shaving as a consequence of spiritual delusion, a delusion in which the entire Western Church has remained since the Great Schism.

That same year, 1644, Moscow also saw the reprinting of The Book on the Faith, written by Abbot Nathaniel of the Kiev Monastery of St. Michael, composed in opposition to Eastern Uniates. In chapter 28, beard-shaving is sharply condemned as a prerogative of everyday Catholic church life: “Let me also mention the madness of the so-called spiritual men of the West, regarding the shaving of mustaches and beards. Their leader is known to be Peter, the stammering pope… Having fallen into madness, they destroy the God-created beauty found in the first man, disfigure their faces, and make themselves resemble eunuchs.” Thus, from the beginning, Orthodox Rus’ received the religious-Christian motivation for beard-wearing in continuity with Orthodox tradition inherited from Byzantium. Several centuries later, in the context of polemics with the Western Church, Russian theologians came to emphasize beard-shaving as an alien practice, born of the spiritual errors of the Roman Catholic Church.

In 1551, a Local Council was convened in Moscow, which effectively summarized the results of nearly six hundred years of assimilation of Orthodoxy in Rus’. The Stoglav Council, as the church historian Metropolitan Macarius Bulgakov called it, was “the most important of all the councils ever held in the Russian Church.” The Council could not avoid addressing the issue of beard-shaving. The 40th chapter of the Stoglav’s decrees is devoted to this matter: “On the Sacred Canons concerning the Shaving of Beards.” The Fathers of the Council state: “The sacred canons forbid Orthodox Christians to shave their beards or trim their mustaches. Such behavior is not fitting for the Orthodox, but is a Latin heresy. The canons of the Fathers strictly forbid and denounce it. The rule of the holy apostles declares: ‘If anyone shaves his beard and dies thus, he is unworthy of having services offered for him—no forty-day commemoration, no prosphora, no candles brought for him in church; let him be counted with the unbelievers, for he has learned this from the heretics.’ The same is stated in the eleventh canon of the Sixth Council in Trullo. It is also written in the Law concerning the shaving of beards… If you wish to please God, turn away from this evil. For the same was said by God to Moses, and was forbidden by the holy apostles, cursed by the holy Fathers, and those who do such things were excommunicated from the Church. Therefore, such a fearful condemnation should not be ignored by Orthodox Christians.” The authority of the Stoglav Council was enormous and unquestioned among Russian Orthodox believers. The people strove to preserve its decrees with reverence, as those of a holy and God-pleasing council.

Thus, in ancient and medieval Rus’, Orthodox Christians were acutely sensitive to even the slightest violations of apostolic decrees and patristic teachings concerning the sin of beard-shaving, as is evidenced by the many documents and letters we have cited. This testifies to the high spiritual and moral ideals that guided all the religious aspirations of Holy Rus’. Here it is fitting to quote N. Lossky on this point: “The most basic and profound trait of the Russian character is its religiosity and the related striving for absolute good. The Russian person wishes always to act in the name of something absolute—or something made absolute.” It is therefore no surprise that Tsar Boris Godunov, who shaved his beard, was not accepted by the people as a true Orthodox sovereign. And the Muscovites, in justifying the killing of False Dmitry I and his followers, included the fact that they shaved their beards. Only a hundred years after the Stoglav Council—in the mid-17th century, which marked a rupture with the ancient Russian Orthodox tradition—did attitudes toward beard-shaving among Russian Christians begin to gradually change.

The era of Peter’s reforms initiated sweeping social transformations and subjected the life and mindset of the Russian people to powerful Western influence. Against this backdrop, the ancient Russian heritage came to be viewed by Peter I’s reformers with something bordering on contempt. The process of secularizing the popular consciousness soon began to be reflected in the outward appearance of the Russian people.

When Peter I ascended the Russian throne in 1689, in addition to building a navy, creating a standing army, and introducing the latest Western advancements in science and technology, he considered it necessary to remake all aspects of Russian life in the European style—even down to the smallest details. Naturally, the outward appearance of the Russian man did not conform to these new values. The fiery and autocratic tsar was not in the habit of considering any objective factors that might negatively affect the policies he was implementing, and he expected instant, immediate results from his initiatives. Upon returning from abroad on August 26, 1698, the very first thing Peter did was demand scissors and personally cut off the beards of stunned boyars—an action he repeated several times, striking fear into those around him.

A few years later, Peter I undertook more radical measures. In January 1705, he issued a decree mandating compulsory beard-shaving for the male population. The decree was to be enforced for all men, except for clergy, monks, and peasants. The imperial order declared:
“…and to inform the sloboda and townsmen: henceforth, by His Majesty the Sovereign’s decree, they are to shave their beards and mustaches. And if any of them do not wish to shave their beards and mustaches, but wish to keep them, then a tax shall be levied: from courtiers, household retainers, city dwellers, and all ranks of servitors and government officials—60 rubles per person; from foreign merchants and those of the first guild—100 rubles per person; from those of the middle and lower guilds, who pay less than 100 rubles—60 rubles; from those of the third guild—townsmen, boyars’ retainers, coachmen, cab drivers, and church clerks (except for priests and deacons), and from all ranks of Moscow residents—30 rubles per person annually. And marks shall be issued from the Office of Zemstvo Affairs.”

The decree introduced state fees for wearing a beard, ranging from 30 to 100 rubles—an enormous amount of money for that time. Each person who paid the tax was given a special metal token bearing an image of a mustache and beard with the inscription “tax paid.” There were many who preferred to pay the sum and keep their beards, and beard-wearing became a significant source of state income.

In reality, Peter I’s new decree was received by the Russian people with great pain. The religious convictions of the people were still alive and strong. Despite the artificial reshaping of national consciousness from above, it continued to live its own independent life deep in people’s hearts, sometimes bursting forth. The power of tradition, which the state had mobilized great resources to destroy, in practice proved stronger than the will of the Russian autocrat. Many Russians saw Peter’s reforms as a national catastrophe. It was truly easier for them to part with their heads than with their beards. People who refused to shave paid the tax, and suffered financial hardship from double taxation.

Notably, the upper clergy—many of whom had been educated in Catholic (such as Metropolitan Stefan Yavorsky) or Protestant spirit (such as Bishop Feofan Prokopovich)—reacted favorably, or at least without open displeasure, to Peter’s beard policy. Perhaps they believed that a shaved beard grows back more easily than a severed head. Metropolitan Dmitry of Rostov offered this advice to his flock: “It is better for you not to spare your beard, which will grow back tenfold and quickly, than to lose your head, which once cut off, will never grow back.”

On the matter of whether the tsar’s decree conformed to divine law, the metropolitan said: “One must obey those in authority in matters not contrary to God, nor harmful to salvation” (emphasis in the original). In his book Investigation…, written specifically for polemics against the Old Believers, Dmitry of Rostov devoted an entire section to the problem of beard-shaving. Arguing in the spirit of Protestant theology, Metropolitan Dmitry maintained that wearing a beard was not obligatory for an Orthodox Christian, considering the custom to be a feature of the Old Testament tradition whose relevance had ceased with the redemptive mission of Christ: “From which commandments does non-shaving come? From the commandments… and customs of the Jews… which Christ abolished by His coming.” He even attempted to associate the prohibition against shaving with the heresy of the anthropomorphites, whose religious views envisioned the divine being in exclusively human form.

Despite the abruptness and tactlessness of Peter’s reforms and the decisive turn of Russia toward the spiritual values of Western European civilization, by the late 18th and early 19th centuries, thanks to the insight of great Russian writers and philosophers, these reforms began to be recognized as unnatural for the historical and organic development of Russian statehood and culture. The later policies of Russian emperors concerning beard-shaving were noticeably softened. This was especially true under Alexander III and his son Nicholas II.

Beginning in the mid-19th century, many representatives of the higher aristocracy, as well as military men, ministers, officials, and civil servants, returned to the traditional Orthodox appearance—wearing beards. This tradition had never ceased among the rural peasantry, which had always been more deeply conservative. (Many peasants, especially the elderly, wore beards into the 1930s.) It was only after the 1917 Revolution, with the rise of Bolshevik rule in Russia and the declaration of atheism as the official state religion, that beard-shaving became universal and mandatory. There were no recorded difficulties in this regard. A beard worn by, for example, a bureaucrat or factory worker could be associated with “religious superstition,” ignorance, or simply dismissed as being out of fashion. Mustaches alone remained in favor.

Old-Rite Christianity later proved to be the most resilient against the tide of desacralization that swept through Russian society in the 18th century. The Old Believers strive to preserve not only the pre-schism forms of divine worship in their entirety, but also the everyday way of life, traditions, and customs historically inherent to the Orthodox family. Beard-wearing in Old Believer tradition is mandatory. For a long time, it was considered the most visible distinguishing feature of an Old Believer man. Behind the Old Believers stood the vast canonical heritage of Orthodoxy, which also addressed the custom of wearing beards. It is known that the Old Believers—particularly the Transfiguration community of the Old Pomorian tradition—published a Collection on Secularization and Beard-Shaving, a compilation of canonical rules and their interpretations, patristic instructions, and archpastoral letters expressing the Church’s view on worldly influence, particularly beard-shaving. The very composition and publication of this collection testify to how relevant these questions remained in the Old Believer environment.

Up until the beginning of the 20th century, Old Believers rarely encountered problems related to shaving. However, in the 20th century—especially after the 1917 Revolution—beard-shaving began to spread among Old Believer communities. This was largely due to the difficulty of maintaining tradition, both for the community and the individual, in the face of the immense and invasive presence of a “different world,” one that lived by new outlooks, habits, and stereotypes.

The entire history of Old Believerism is a struggle to preserve established values and morals. The desire to live a full Christian life runs up against the temptations of globalism and the pull of fashion. For older individuals, wearing a beard may not cause much social discomfort. But for younger Christians, fulfilling this requirement is often nearly impossible. This leads to a host of difficulties, as nearly everyone around them fails to understand. Challenges arise in finding common ground with peers, family members, and broader society—for example, problems with employment in workplaces where appearance is prioritized. Often, a believer—an Old Believer living today—finds himself caught “between a rock and a hard place,” torn apart by the whirlwind of temptations.

Questions surrounding beard-shaving began to be actively discussed among Old Believers as early as the beginning of the 20th century. Accordingly, Old-Rite Christians who accepted the Belokrinitsa hierarchy (the Russian Orthodox Old-Rite Church) held councils in 1908, 1909, 1911, 1913, 1916, and 1927, during which lengthy debates were held regarding the canonical status of those who shaved. A more radical portion of the clergy and laity insisted on severe measures, including the expulsion of such parishioners from the churches. Less conservative Old Believers allowed such individuals to participate in communal prayer, but not to approach the sacred things (Communion, the Cross, icons, prosphora, etc.), and prescribed penance under the guidance of a spiritual father.

In 1901, in the city of Volsk, Samara Province, an All-Russian Old Believer congress was held among those who rejected the canonicity of the Belokrinitsa hierarchy. Concerning beard-shaving, the following decision was made: “Christians who trim or shave their beards are not to be received or prayed with until their beards have grown back—based on the precedent set by King David with his men.” In the rulebook of the Spasskaya-Nikolskoe Old Believer community it is written: “Members of the community who shave or trim their mustaches and beards and thus disturb the church… shall be admonished, and if they do not heed the warning, they are to be excluded from communal prayer gatherings.”

In the early 20th century, priestless Old Believers (bespopovtsy) also debated whether beard-shaving should be classified as a sin or a heresy. Depending on how one assessed its ecclesiological status, the question was whether such laypersons should be excommunicated from the Church entirely or subjected to canonical discipline. The final decision was left to the discretion of the community’s spiritual mentor.

In the modern world of Old Believerism, attitudes toward beard-shaving remain ambiguous. Much depends on local traditions and customs. In communities with stricter moral discipline—such as in the Northern Pomorian region—those who shave are strictly forbidden to pray with the rest of the congregation. In areas with less strict customs (such as central Russia), shaved parishioners are allowed to join in common prayer, to make prostrations and the sign of the cross according to the liturgical rule, but they must remain in the church vestibule. These parishioners are completely excluded from access to the sacred. They are forbidden to receive the Body and Blood of Christ, to venerate icons or the Cross, to partake of the Eucharistic prosphora, to read or sing on the kliros (choir), or to participate in voting at the Holy Council. Instead of Communion, those who shave their beards (as well as women who have cut or dyed their hair) receive a kind of spiritual consolation—a form of compensation—through Communion with Holy Water from the Great Blessing. This practice, preserved only in Old Believerism today, is the subject of an entire study by Bishop Apollinarius (Dubinin) of Kursk. In his article The Culture of Preserving the Canonical and Ritual Heritage of the Pre-Reform Rite in the Liturgical Life of Old-Rite Christians, the author—citing liturgical books printed in the 15th–17th centuries—demonstrates the existence of this practice in the pre-schism Church of ancient Rus’.

In the Order of Confession, printed from the original Liturgikon of Patriarch Joseph by the Moscow Old Believer printing house in 1910, one of the questions the spiritual father asks the penitent is: “Have you, according to heretical custom, shaved your beard?” However, examination of later editions of Old Believer service books shows that this question no longer appears.

It is noteworthy that one of the most well-known dogmatic works composed by Old Believers between 1789 and 1791—The Shield of Faith, or Responses of the Lovers of Ancient Piety to the Questions of Those Holding to the New-Dogmatizing Priesthood—devotes articles 42 and 43 of section 9, part one, to denouncing beard-shaving, which had spread among the clergy and laity of the dominant Church. The author of The Shield of Faith, Alexey Samoilovich, referencing the works of apologists for the new rite such as Metropolitans Dmitry of Rostov (Tuptalo) and Platon of Moscow (Levshin), points out the theological justification for beard-shaving and the requirement that priests of the Russian Church follow it in practice:

“Article 42. Likewise, today’s Great Russians, having despised God Himself and the prohibitions of the holy apostles and Church teachers, and the anathemas of the councils, imitate the Latins, Lutherans, and Calvinists, and shave their beards—and even justify this heresy. Concerning this, one finds confirmation in Dmitry of Rostov’s Investigation, part 2, chapter 19, on folios 133, 124, 130, and others, and also in Platon’s Exhortation, on folio 71.
Article 43. Present-day bishops command priests to trim their mustaches, as confirmed by Dmitry of Rostov in his Investigation, part 2, on folio 133—following the example of the Tatars and Saracens.”

It should be noted that in daily life, there are no difficulties in interaction between bearded and clean-shaven Old Believers. Until recently, there was a custom of separately washing dishes used by shaven men (and smokers), but this practice has nearly disappeared. Among Old Believers, there is no personal animosity toward shaved members of the community; the conciliar spirit of the Church leaves the matter to the conscience of each individual. Ultimately, Old Believers believe that the primary sign of true religious devotion is faith and love for God and neighbor, in accordance with the foundational dogma and law of Christian life. As the Apostle Paul says: “For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law: but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision” (Romans 2:25).

Thus, in modern Russia, the Old Believers remain the most consistent Orthodox Christians in their observance of strict canonical prescriptions concerning beard-shaving. The effort to preserve this ancient tradition significantly complicates the lives of modern parishioners within the context of a secularized world. Young people, even those baptized in the Old Rite either by personal conviction or through inherited tradition, often choose the razor—pressured by secular fashion and the desire to avoid social difficulties. This is why, in Old Believer churches, one finds relatively few young men over the age of 18 (by which time beard growth begins) reading and singing on the kliros or serving in the altar.

This threatens a future shortage of priests, mentors, chanters, and active participants in the full liturgical and prayer life of the Church. To prevent such developments, Old Believer clergy and elders must carry out a tactful and intelligent missionary strategy—for example, allowing very slight and temporary leniency regarding canonical requirements for a newly baptized young man, in order to win him over to the faith, draw him into divine worship, and help him build relationships with members of the parish.

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