Why Old Believers Have No Visible Communion

-M. L. Vlasov.

The Fall of the Priesthood

When speaking of the sacrament of Holy Communion, it must be pointed out that not only among us, but nowhere in the world today is it present in a form acceptable to true Christians, because the priesthood with successive ordination — tracing its origin from Christ and His holy apostles — is absent.

The Lord Himself, through the holy prophets and holy fathers, clearly foretold that the priesthood of lawlessness, once accomplished, would cease to be such, being deprived of the grace of the Holy Spirit.

And the time came when the priesthood gradually fell into heresy in various countries; the turn came for the Russian land as well, where only until the time of Patriarch Nikon did a truly Orthodox hierarchy exist.

The aforementioned patriarch shared the common fate of the priesthood’s deviation from the true faith: by beginning to introduce heresies, he infected the entire Russian clergy with them. Having fallen away from piety and plunged into the heretical abyss, it lost its grace-filled power, for the holy fathers say: “Heresy separates every person from the Church” (Acts of the 7th Ecumenical Council, Vol. 7, Art. 93); “To depart from piety is to depart from God” (Homilies on the Apostle, Galatians, Ch. 1, fol. 1473).

Let us turn to proofs of the above assertion regarding the cessation of the priesthood. First of all, let us recall the words of the prophet Ezekiel and the interpretations of them by Blessed Jerome, where we shall be assured of the following:

“Therefore, shepherds, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I Myself will require My flock at the hand of the shepherds, and I will destroy them, so that they no longer pasture My flock, and the shepherds will no longer pasture themselves; and I will deliver My flock from their mouth, and they will no longer be food for them” (Ezekiel 34:9-10).

Interpretation: “The word is addressed to the shepherds of Israel, whom we must understand either as kings or princes, scribes and Pharisees, and teachers of the Jewish people, or, in the evangelical people, as bishops, presbyters, and deacons”…

“Behold, I Myself will come to the shepherds and require My flock from the hand of those to whom it would have been better to have millstones hung around their necks than to scandalize even the least of My people.”

“And this will be the greatest punishment for them: that they will no longer pasture My flock, and under the guise of sheep pasture themselves and amass wealth. And I will deliver My people from their mouth” (Works of Blessed Jerome, Vol. 4, Part 2, pp. 94, 97-99. 2nd ed., 1912).

In another place we have the words of the prophet Jeremiah: “Wail, shepherds, and groan, and cover yourselves with ashes, leaders of the flock. For your days are fulfilled for your slaughter and your scattering, and you will fall like precious vessels, and flight will perish from the shepherds and salvation from the leaders of the flock” (Jeremiah 25:34-35).

Interpretation: “Your days are fulfilled for your slaughter. Their days will be fulfilled when their sins are fulfilled. And they will be scattered and fall like precious vessels, so that, once broken, they cannot be restored; and the more precious they were before, the greater the loss from their destruction — or like chosen sheep that will become a fat sacrifice for those who wish to devour them” (Works of Blessed Jerome, Vol. 4, Part 6, pp. 435-436. 2nd ed., 1905).

And in a third place, Blessed Jerome speaks in the name of the prophet, applying the interpretation to the fall of the shepherds: “The prophet and the priest are defiled; in My house I have found their iniquities, says the Lord” (Jeremiah 23:11-12).

Interpretation: “The house of Christ is the Church… but when they are in darkness and on a slippery path, that is, in heretical delusion, then they will be forced into all wavering and will fall” (Blessed Jerome, Vol. 4, Part 6, p. 405. 2nd ed., 1905).

The above prophecy, together with the interpretation of Blessed Jerome concerning the fall of the shepherds — both Old Testament and New Testament — has been fulfilled among us in Russia as well. Twenty-two years before the schism of the Russian Church, Abbot Nathaniel of the Kyiv St. Michael’s Monastery wrote the “Book of Faith,” printed in Moscow under Patriarch Joseph in 1648.

In this work, fully in accordance with what has been said above, the very year of the fall of the priesthood is prophetically foreseen: “After a thousand years,” we read in the “Book of Faith,” “from the incarnation of the Word of God, Rome fell away with all the western countries from the Eastern Church. And in the five hundred and ninety-fifth year after the thousand, the inhabitants of Little Russia joined the Roman Church and gave him a charter of submission to the full will of the Roman pope. This is the second tearing away of Christians from the Eastern Church. Guarding against this, it is written: when 1666 years are fulfilled, may it not happen to us, because of previous causes, some evil.” “And whoever reaches those times will be at war with the devil himself” (Ch. 30, fol. 272v and above, fol. 271).

As we see, the “Book of Faith” notes, after a thousand years from the Nativity of Christ, the falling away of Rome from piety along with all western countries, and in 1595 the same deviation of the inhabitants of Little Russia and their union with the Roman Church.

Protecting Russian piety, the author further warns that with the arrival of 1666, what happened to Rome, the western countries, and Little Russia might not happen to us as well. In 1666, whoever reaches it will have to fight with Satan himself.

Patriarch Nikon himself, more familiar than others with the work of his own hands, remarked very notably about his subordinates and the work done: “The entire Russian Church has fallen into Latin dogmas and teachings” (History of the Russian Church by Metr. Macarius, Vol. 12, p. 742).

“It has separated from the holy Eastern Apostolic Church and joined the Roman Church” (Ibid., p. 724).

“As many as are now metropolitans, archbishops and bishops… priests and deacons, and other church clergy… Metropolitans are no longer worthy to be called metropolitans, likewise archbishops, even to the last, even if they count themselves in rank and appear adorned with the beauty of sacred vestments, as metropolitans and archbishops and others — according to the holy divine canons they are deposed; and whatever they bless is unblessed. For those baptized by them are unbaptized, and those ordained by them are not clergy… and for this reason all priesthood and sacred office has been abolished” (Prof. Kapterev, “Patriarch Nikon and Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich,” Vol. 2, p. 200).

With the abolition of the priesthood (only external vestments and human titles do not serve as a sign of its authenticity), there can also be no visible sacrament of Holy Communion, which can only be administered by truly Orthodox pastors.

Suffering for the Faith

It must be noted that during the times of Rome’s falling away from piety, as well as the conclusion of the union in Little Russia, there were shocking events: there was no limit to the sufferings and misfortunes of Christians persecuted and cruelly oppressed by those who had fallen away from piety. This is precisely what the prophetic book had in mind when foretelling that Christians would have to endure greater evil and bitterer sufferings in the struggle with the devil himself.

Thus later, exactly as written, everything happened: the Russian pastors, led by Patriarch Nikon, not only apostatized from piety by falling into Latin heresies, but also raised terrible persecution against the faithful Christians who rejected the newly introduced dogmas and heretical customs.

The only steadfast bishop in those years of trials, Paul of Kolomna, who did not accept Nikon’s innovations, was personally beaten half to death by the patriarch and ordered sent into exile, where by Nikon’s own order the last bishop was murdered and his body burned (History of the Russian Church by Metr. Macarius, Vol. 12, pp. 145–146). Burned alive in Pustozersk were Protopope Avvakum, Priest Lazar, Monk Epiphanius, and one Nikiphor (Sketches of Priestism by L. I. Melnikov, Vol. 7, p. 382).

Dry excerpts from historical investigations paint for us the sufferings of our ancestors for their unwillingness to follow Nikon’s heresies: “Schismatics were exiled, imprisoned in jails, casemates, and monasteries, tortured and burned with fire relentlessly, flogged mercilessly with whips, nostrils torn, tongues cut out, heads chopped on blocks, ribs broken with pincers, thrown into wooden cages and, covered with straw, burned, naked doused with cold water and frozen, hanged, impaled, quartered, veins pulled out… in a word, everything that human beastliness could invent to instill panic and terror was put into action” (Schism and Sectarianism in Russian Popular Life by A. S. Prugavin, p. 31, 1905 ed.).

The human mind refuses to understand how archpastors of the Church, calling themselves the Orthodox priesthood, could perpetrate this horror, truly inspired by the devil himself; the apostasy of the Roman popes, following the indications of the English historian Robert James (History of the Christian Church, Vol. 2), and the persecutions associated with papism pale in comparison to the sophistication of Nikon’s lords in tortures and murders.

Another very interesting reference fully confirms the main idea of the “Book of Faith” in depicting the elemental events of that time in Rus’: “The Supreme Church Administration in Russia” (Religious-Philosophical Library ed., 1905, p. 89) describes what was happening as follows: “Under the most gentle Alexei Mikhailovich, a significant part of the Russian population suddenly felt that it was impossible to live, and in despair rushed into forests and deserts, climbed into burning log houses. What had happened? To these people it seemed that the greatest calamity on earth had occurred: that the hierarchs had deviated into Latinism, that true spiritual authority was gone, and the kingdom of the Antichrist had come in the Orthodox world. A tyrant-patriarch sat on the throne of the martyr-metropolitan, himself accepted Latinism and forced others to do so.”

This text represents a classic Old Believer (particularly priestless/Bespopovtsy) explanation of why, after the 17th-century schism, the visible sacrament of Eucharist (with proper priesthood) is considered impossible in their communities — the grace-filled apostolic succession was lost due to the “heresy” introduced by Patriarch Nikon in 1666, as prophesied in pre-schism books.

Servants of the Antichrist

Now let us consider the next point of our discussion — the prophecies and interpretations of the holy fathers as proof of the inevitability of the shepherds turning into servants of the Antichrist.

The holy prophet Zechariah says (11:15): “And the Lord said to me: Take yet again for yourself the shepherd’s equipment of an unskilled shepherd.”

Blessed Jerome provides the following interpretation of this: “It is undoubtedly the case that the foolish or unskilled shepherd is the Antichrist” (Works, Part 15, p. 150, 1915 ed.).

And St. Ephraim the Syrian confirms this thought with the words: “In the image of this shepherd the Antichrist is presented” (Works of St. Ephraim the Syrian, Part 6, p. 189, 1901 ed.).

Thus, foolish shepherds who deviate from the true faith and sin against it, according to the words of St. Ephraim the Syrian, already represent the Antichrist themselves.

The concept of “Antichrist” is not and will not be the personality of a single man or other living being, as some often think; the understanding of the meaning of this term must be broader, so that in this sense every heretic and apostate is a particle of the body of the Antichrist, and individually is his servant, drawing the trusting and faint-hearted onto the path of unrighteousness by his teaching.

It is precisely such false shepherds, as servants of the Antichrist, who by their apostasy from piety have destroyed the sacrament of Holy Communion.

The Abomination of Desolation

The Antichrist will destroy the sacrament of Holy Communion — such are the reflections and explanations of St. John Chrysostom. The Antichrist, through his emissaries, begins to destroy the true sacrifice, but the time will come when not only everywhere, but even in the Apostolic Church, on the holy place, “he will set up his abomination,” and the true Christians who are in Judea should “flee to the mountains,” the Book of Kirill warns.

It is necessary to explain what “the abomination of desolation” means and how to understand “let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.” On these last words, St. John Chrysostom gives the following explanation: “Those who are in Christianity should take refuge in the Scripture, for from the time when heresies began to disturb the Church, no true Christian refuge can be had for those who wish to know the correctness of the faith, except the Divine Scripture” (Book of Faith, Ch. 23, fol. 215v).

Thus, whoever is a true Christian must always turn to the Holy Scripture, because from the time the Church was disturbed by heresies, nothing can serve as a Christian refuge for knowing the true faith except the Divine Scripture. And the holy father Hippolytus, Pope of Rome, in his discourse points out to us that “those who hear the Divine Scriptures and hold them in their hands and are always instructed in them in their minds, many will escape his deception” (Discourse 3, Meat-fare Sunday after the Synaxarion, fol. 183v).

Let us also turn to this indisputable and sole source in our further examination of the concept of “the abomination of desolation,” which is to be established by the Antichrist on the holy place, and how to understand this latter designation (the holy place).

Regarding the first, in the Menaion (Life of St. Eusebius of Samosata) we are assured: “Thus not only people of full age, but even little children abhorred that heretical bishop, who was as the abomination of desolation standing on the holy place” (Menaion, June 22, fol. 149). In the city of Samosata, the heretics, having driven out the truly Orthodox bishop, appointed one like themselves in his place, and it was this other heretical bishop whom not only adults but even children called the abomination of desolation on the holy place.

In the same source, but in another place, we read: “For it was to be seen how, in place of the true shepherd of Christ, a wolf in sheep’s clothing of the episcopal rank entered into Christ’s flock. The Orthodox people of Odessa, unwilling to turn to that false shepherd-heretic who was the abomination of desolation standing on the holy place in the Church as its head, went out of the city into the fields and, gathering in a deserted place, performed the divine services to God” (Menaion, August 29, fol. 527v).

From the cited passages of Holy Scripture we are convinced that pious people considered the appearing heretical hierarchs to be “the abomination of desolation” and, striving to distance themselves from the abominable, went out into the fields to perform divine services.

Blessed Jerome confirms this designation with the words: “Under the abomination of desolation one may also understand every perverse teaching, when we see it standing on the holy place, that is, in the Church” (Blessed Jerome, Part 16, p. 250, 1901 ed.).

The holy place denotes the throne on which the sacrifice must be offered to God, that is, the sacrament of Holy Communion, as the Book of Kirill states on fol. 31: “The throne is the holy place, on which the priests offer the sacrifice to God, consecrating the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ.”

Therefore, according to what has been cited above, heretical archpastors and pastors are servants of the Antichrist, constituting his body; they are themselves the abomination of desolation, performing the service on the holy place, that is, on the throne.

The Destruction of Holy Communion

In the Book of Kirill of Jerusalem we read: “For concerning this Christ the holy one says: that the Antichrist, before his coming, will do what he will everywhere destroy the altars and the true sacrifice, and will set up his idol on the holy place. Already such abominable desolation is being begun by the false prophets sent by him, and from this we know that the day of the Lord is already near, for when the last daily sacrifice established in Solomon’s church was desolated, as spoken of that desolation in the Gospel and likewise said by the prophet Daniel, the power of the Jews was again fulfilled and completed and ended, and the temple was destroyed.”

“Thus in desolation will be the present holy sacrifice, which is not in Solomon’s temple but is established throughout the whole world…”

“And not only everywhere and in every place, but even in the original Apostolic Church in Jerusalem he will bring the true sacrifice into desolation and set up his evil abomination on the holy place, as it is written: When you see the abomination of desolation standing on the holy place, then let those in Judea flee to the mountains” (Book of Kirill, fol. 32v).

The Antichrist will destroy the sacrament of Holy Communion — such are the reflections and explanations of St. John Chrysostom: the Antichrist through his emissaries begins to destroy the true sacrifice, but the time will come when not only everywhere, but even in the Apostolic Church on the holy place “he will introduce his abomination” and true Christians who are in Judea should “flee to the mountains,” the Book of Kirill warns.

Particular attention deserves the prophetic word about the Antichrist from the teacher of the 3rd century, the holy Hippolytus, Pope of Rome: “The Churches of God will weep with great weeping, for neither offering nor incense is performed, nor God-pleasing service. The holy Churches will be like vegetable storehouses, and the precious Body and Blood of Christ will not appear in those days” (Discourse 3, Meat-fare Sunday after the Synaxarion, fol. 184v).

Another holy father, who lived in the 4th century, predicted: “Then all the Churches of Christ will weep with great weeping, for there will be no holy service in the altars, nor offering” (Ephraim the Syrian, Discourse 105 according to the collection, fol. 227v).

St. Theodore the Studite writes on p. 440, Letter 80, Vol. 2, Part 2: “For a temple defiled by heretics is not the holy temple of God, but an ordinary house, as Basil the Great says, since the angel who was present at each Church has departed from it because of impiety. Therefore the sacrifice performed in it is not accepted by God.

Listen to how He Himself says: ‘The lawless one who offers Me a calf is as one who kills a dog’” (Isaiah 66:3).

And Blessed Jerome (Vol. 4, Part 2, p. 155, 1912 ed.) points out that heretics also imitate the gentleness of the Church, but their offering is not as service to God, but as food for demons.

Thus, the holy fathers teach us that the temple of God defiled by heretics is likened to an ordinary house, and the angel of the Lord departs from it; the sacrament of Communion performed by heretics in imitation of the true one is food for demons.

The external, purely theatrical action is still performed to this day under the guise of the sacrament of Communion by false shepherds, in particular by those who have apostatized from ancient piety; but, remembering the instructions of the holy fathers of the Church, true Christians must in every way avoid both heretics and their inventions. For even St. Theodore the Studite warned: “And if he again abstains (from Communion) because of heresy, this is necessary. For Communion from a heretic or from one openly condemned in life alienates from God and delivers to the devil” (Theodore the Studite, Vol. 2, Part 1, Letter 58, p. 323).

Old Rite Christians Without Priests (Bezpopovtsy)

Do the Old Believer-Bespopovtsy sin against the commandments of God when they flee from apostate shepherds, whose false sacraments bring destruction to their souls, according to the testimony of the holy fathers of the Church? They do not sin; the sacrament is absent among us because it does not exist in the world today in a pure form worthy of its high purpose, just as in general there is observed a deviation and shift from the paths of righteousness.

The Lord God, for the sins of men, permits the holy temples, the holy sacrament, and the priesthood to be defiled.

In the Menaion for the month of August, on the 20th day, in the Life of the Prophet Samuel, we read: “And the sins of the people do not so quickly move the wrathful God to vengeance as the sins of those who have been appointed by God as authorities and rulers of the people.”

“For wherever the righteous vengeance of God overtakes, there it spares not even the sanctuary.”

“Thus God, for the sins of the rulers, delivers the subjects to punishment, and for the foul deeds of those who serve the altar, permits the holy altars to be plundered by the hands of the impious, and the holy temples to be laid waste” (fol. 501v).

From what has been read it follows that God permits the abomination of desolation to be in the holy altars because of the foul deeds of those who serve them (that is, the priesthood).

In the holy writings there are also such lines on this subject: “You marvel, beloved, how God does not spare His own houses when He permits wrath upon the earth. For if He did not spare the holy Ark, but delivered it to the foreigners, together with the priests who had sinned, and the temple of consecration, and the Cherubim of glory, and the garments, and prophecy, and anointing, and apparitions, to be trampled and defiled by the Gentiles, neither does He spare the holy churches and the most pure mysteries” (Book of Nikon of the Black Mountain, Discourse 41, fol. 308v).

We justifiably compare the above with the defilement and delivery into the hands of the impious of both the altars with thrones and Holy Communion from the time of Patriarch Nikon. And what is called Communion and is still practiced among those who are only so-called Orthodox we evaluate with the words of St. Theodore the Studite:

“This is an abyss and a net of the devil — communion with heretics. One who falls into this net is cut off from Christ and led far from the flock of the Lord. As great as the difference between light and darkness, so great is the difference between Orthodox Communion and heretical communion. The first enlightens, the second darkens; the one unites with Christ, the other with the devil; the one quickens the soul, the other kills it” (Theodore the Studite, Vol. 2, Part 2, Letter 154, p. 742, 1908 ed.).

We follow this teaching of the holy fathers: if there is no true sacrament of Holy Communion — we do not accept the false one that is destructive to the soul. Cyprian of Carthage points out (in Letter 56, Part 1, p. 316): “And thus the people who obey the divine commandments and fear God must separate themselves from the sinful leader and not participate in the sacrifice of the sacrilegious priest.”

The above-quoted Theodore the Studite writes in the same second volume: “As the divine bread of which the Orthodox partake makes all who partake of it one body, so exactly the heretical bread, bringing those who partake of it into communion with one another, makes them one body opposed to Christ” (Part 2, Letter 153, p. 532).

We do not forget the warning of Blessed Jerome, in Part 6 of his works (p. 78, 1905 ed.), reminding Christians of the church of heretics, “which calls to itself the foolish in mind so that, deceived by it, he may receive stolen bread and stolen water, that is: false sacrament.”

Is Holy Communion Salvific?

It is necessary to note one more very important point in the matter of the sacrament of Holy Communion: even in its pure and untouched form, it cannot of itself save a person, as is confirmed by the proofs cited below:

“Truly, then, in Judas it bears witness that, having received the most holy bread from the most pure hands of the Master Christ, Satan immediately entered into him because of his unworthiness” (Prologue, March 22, fol. 117).

“‘Take,’ He said, ‘the bread of which you have partaken from Me…’ Since the Lord gave the bread to Judas, perhaps in the hope that, coming to his senses at the table of bread, he would abandon the betrayal; but Judas was not thus persuaded, and then he became wholly satanic” (Blessed Gospel, Interpretation of Theophylact on the 45th Pericope of the Gospel of John, fols. 222 and 223).

As we are convinced — the apostle Judas, having communed directly from the hands of the Savior Himself, nevertheless perished; the utterance of Christ’s words “take from Me the bread and commune,” and the very performance of the sacrament of communion, which was intended to bring Judas Iscariot to reason and to his senses — did not restrain the latter from the greatest crime and his own destruction.

Therefore, it is not communion that has the power to save a person or to restrain him from crime — this depends first of all on the Christian himself, who is recognized by the manner of his life, by his good deeds, and not by whether he communes, as St. John Chrysostom also teaches us:

“For a believer should not be known by partaking of the holy mysteries, but by an excellent life and pleasing deeds” (Blessed Gospel, Preface to Matthew, Moral Teaching of John Chrysostom, fol. 24).

The thief crucified with Christ, who was considered a desperate sinner, was brought by the Savior into Paradise, although, of course, during his greatly sinful life he never communed; about this St. Ephraim the Syrian says:

“Since the Jews chose the thief and rejected Christ, God chose the thief and rejected them. But where then is that (which was said): ‘Unless one eats My flesh, he has no life’? (John 6:53): (above). When He received faith from the thief, in return He freely granted him immeasurable gifts, freely poured out His treasures before him, and immediately transferred him into His Paradise and there placed the one brought in (into Paradise) over His treasures: ‘Today you will be with Me in Paradise of desires!’” (Works of Ephraim the Syrian, Part 8, pp. 306–305).

The holy father refers in this case to the passage from the Holy Gospel with which the “zealots” of the Old Rite so love to reproach us, citing the well-known words of the Savior: “Unless one eats My flesh, he has no life.”

St. Ephraim the Syrian, as if emphasizing this, asks: “But where then is that which was said, that whoever does not commune will not be saved?” For the Lord did bring the thief into Paradise, granting him all good things for his sincere faith.

A person can be saved even without visible communion under the conditions that determined the existence of the followers of ancient Orthodoxy. The New Rite Church, in the person of the memorable missionaries, literally raged, frightening the already oppressed wisdom of the rulers and their adherents of the priestless faction with the notorious absence of physical communion.

Thunderously and with lightning raging about our “pernicious transgression,” the fathers of the Jesuit stripe diplomatically bypassed the embarrassing book for their methods of “persuasive” processing, the “Rod of Governance,” published with the blessing of two Greek patriarchs and the entire council of 1666. In this source, already of Nikonian origin, we read what the grieving “schism scholars” preferred to keep silent about us: “It is necessary for all to know that some church mysteries are, by necessity, intermediate, such as chrismation, the Eucharist, and unction, of which, if someone is not vouchsafed because of some necessity, he can still be saved. Others, however, are commandments of necessity, and these are two: baptism and repentance, without which it is not possible to obtain salvation” (Rod of Governance, fol. 49v, 1666 ed.).

In another little book published by the New Rite Metropolitan (of St. Petersburg and Novgorod) Gregory under the title “The Truly Ancient, Truly Orthodox Church,” on p. 311 it is stated: “In all such cases, one who earnestly desires to commune, even though he does not actually commune, communes spiritually: that is, then, according to his earnest desire to partake of the holy mysteries of Christ, his earnest desire to commune is accounted to him as actual communion, just as faith was accounted to Abraham as righteousness. Whoever communes thus spiritually receives all the good things that one who communes in actuality receives” (Part 1, 1898 ed.).

The cited texts from Nikonian theology, contrary to the heated missionary heads, also indisputably support our main thought about the possibility of salvation without Holy Communion when it does not exist in an undefiled form.

But even in our time worthy of bitter weeping, the Old Believer-Bespopovtsy have their consolation, for, according to the testimonies of the holy fathers cited below, they possess another altar, high but invisible — by the sacrifice of which they commune spiritually. St. Gregory the Theologian says: “They will not allow me to the altars, but I know another altar, of which the visible altars now serve as an image… which is entirely the work of the mind and to which one ascends by contemplation. I will stand before it, on it I will offer to God what is pleasing, and a sacrifice and whole-burnt offerings, so much better than those offered now, as truth is better than shadow… From this altar no one will drag me away; they may expel me from the city, but they will not expel me from that city which is above” (Works of Gregory the Theologian, Part 1, Art. 382 and 3, Soykin ed.).

It is to such an altar that our prayerful gaze has been turned since the times of the ill-fated reformer Patriarch Nikon; the holy father Athanasius of Alexandria teaches in his works: “They shall not be ashamed in the evil time” (Ps. 36:19). In times of persecution, when teachers are scarce, the Lord Himself will nourish the believers in Him with His Spirit” (Part 4, p. 29, 1903 ed., in the interpretation of the Psalms according to the excerpts of Permyakov, Part 1, fol. 222v).

In Part 3 (Letter 4, pp. 98–99), the holy father explains more extensively and definitely: “I also note this figure of speech in the Gospel of John, when the Lord, speaking about eating His body and seeing that many were offended by it, says: ‘Does this offend you? What if you see the Son of Man ascending where He was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life’ (John 6:63). For He says: the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. And this meant that what is shown and given for the salvation of the world is the flesh that I bear. But this flesh and its blood will be given by Me to you spiritually as food, so that It will be imparted to each one spiritually and will become for all a preservation unto the resurrection of eternal life” (Works of Athanasius of Alexandria according to the excerpts of Permyakov, Part 1, fol. 220v).

And we, Old Believers, not having now the visible sacrament of Holy Communion and its performers, nevertheless receive the possibility, through faith in Jesus Christ, to commune spiritually, according to the words of St. Athanasius of Alexandria and St. Gregory the Theologian.

This spiritual union with the Body and Blood of the Lord also occurs through the knowledge of the word of God, as Blessed Jerome writes about this: “Since the body of the Lord is true food and His blood is true drink, then, according to the mystical interpretation, in this present age we have only this one good thing: if we feed on His flesh and drink His blood, not only in the sacrament (Eucharist), but also in the reading of the Scriptures: for the true food and drink received from the word of God is the knowledge of the Scriptures” (Blessed Jerome, Part 6, p. 37).

Afterword to the Second Edition

The present brochure is intended for people who are already well acquainted with Christian doctrine and capable of serious and thoughtful reading. For those who are only now, in our troubled times, coming to faith in the Lord, it would be advisable at first to recommend books that can be easily assimilated by them without excessive spiritual and intellectual strain.

Much has been written about spiritual communion among the Old Believer-Pomortsy, and it is difficult to add anything to what was said by the instructor of the Riga Grebenshchikov Community, Fr. Mikhail Vlasov († 1958). Perhaps only a few lines.

Today, followers of the New Rite more insistently than ever repeat the well-known words of Christ: “Unless one eats My flesh, he has no life” (John 6:53), directing them against the Old Believers who have no priesthood and therefore no sacrament of the Eucharist.

Yet these words become a snare not for the Old Believers, but on the contrary — for those who attempt to use them against the ancient Orthodox Christians.

First of all, let us reflect: did the Old Believers themselves deprive themselves of the priesthood, and along with it the Eucharist, or is this the “merit” of the New Rite adherents? Who destroyed, exiled, and executed the ancient Orthodox bishops and priests? Was it the Old Believers who did this? It turns out that the New Rite adherents, while believing that the deprivation of the Eucharist leaves a huge number of deeply believing Russian people without hope of salvation and eternal life, have nevertheless condemned them to eternal torment and spiritual death! But then, will the reward from God for this be great for them either? Perhaps, then, it would be better to weep not for us, but for themselves?

Usually the New Rite adherents object: “Of course, there were injustices on our part toward the Old Believers, but much time has passed, we acknowledge our mistakes, now there is no reason for alienation, and you Old Believers sin against God by still remaining without the Eucharist.” In these words only one thing is just: one should not hold onto evil and offenses. But neither should we forget our history. The Lord alone knows what an ocean of tears and blood was shed by Russian people for their Old Faith; yet every Christian well knows that the true Christian Faith was never spread by violence and blood. The Old Believers were brought to “Holy Communion” by sword, fire, and penal chains, and it would be surprising if the thought did not arise among them that in spirit this would be communion not to Christ, but on the contrary — to the Antichrist. The word of historical truth and sincere repentance from the side of the New Rite adherents (with rare exceptions) has still not been spoken. For these were not mere “injustices” and “mistakes”; it was a well-organized and enormous in scale mass destruction of the spiritually most developed representatives of their own people. Today something similar is called genocide. And if the roots of the New Rite hierarchy were nourished by Christian, rather than Christ’s, flesh and blood, can there be confidence that the tree grown from these roots (i.e., the contemporary New Rite Church) is preparing life-giving fruits for all who partake of it? God grant, as they say, that we are mistaken in this; but if there is even the slightest serious ground for doubt, does a Christian have the right to approach Holy Communion?

And are there not reasons for such doubts given to us by the entire history of our people? Few doubt that the Bolsheviks are responsible for bringing Russia in a short time to spiritual and economic crisis, but was not the spiritual crisis already at its sharpest peak in 1917, when Russia entered that year after 250 years of the New Rite adherents’ monopoly on the truth? Why did the Russian people as a whole so easily renounce Christ? Are only “foreigners” and “non-believers” to blame? The New Rite Church itself took upon itself responsibility for the spiritual state of the Russian people, and took it by force — from it the accounting will be demanded. “By their fruits you shall know them,” said Christ (Matt. 7:16), and these “fruits” give plenty of food for thought even in our time.

Let us return again to the main argument of the New Rite adherents (John 6:53). It is a remarkable phenomenon: they always strive to emphasize their refinement, theological sophistication, dislike of literalism, “spiritual ignorance,” and so on, but the cited words of Christ have become for them some kind of stumbling block — for some reason they are understood this time exclusively literally. Meanwhile, one does not need to graduate from theological academies to understand that in these and similar words of Christ the main thought is not a reminder of the visible sacrament of the Eucharist, but life in accordance with faith in Christ, the assimilation by the whole human being of the Saving Sacrifice of Jesus Christ. This seems so obvious that it hardly requires any proof. One need only read the writings of the holy fathers more often, and the Gospel itself. And did not Christ also call Himself “the fountain of living water,” offering everyone to drink from Him? Should not the New Rite adherents recognize that they do not have an exclusive right to interpret Holy Scripture, and acknowledge that in the words (John 6:53) there is, of course, a literal meaning relating to the sacrament of Holy Eucharist, but above all one should see in them the spiritual meaning? And our ancestors in the times of piety had Holy Eucharist, reverently performing the sacrament in remembrance of Christ’s Sacrifice, but they did not fall into the extreme of literalism. M. Vlasov reminds us of the thief saved on the cross; one can also read in the Menaia or Prologues about those holy martyrs who believed in Christ but who had not yet been vouchsafed not only Holy Eucharist, but even Holy Baptism (like the thief), yet suffered for the faith and were granted the crown. Any literalism in interpreting Holy Scripture can lead to dangerous heresies. So in this case: who gave the New Rite adherents the right to limit the Almighty God? Is it worthy of the title of educated theologians to make the action of God’s Grace dependent on accidental circumstances of earthly life? Does the absence of earthly priesthood stop or limit the action of the Holy Spirit, and is Christ no longer the High Priest? No, the Nikonians were able to destroy Bishop Paul of Kolomna, but no one will succeed in destroying God’s Mercy and His Omnipotence. Yes, we have no visible sacrament, but we are not guilty of its humiliation. With all our heart we desire Communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ and believe that He Who in His Essence is Superabundant Love and Perfection will not abandon us in His goodness!

A thinking person must distinguish the visible and invisible sides of the sacrament. If only the form is performed — which, though in a distorted form, has nevertheless remained among the New Rite adherents — can one always be confident in the efficacy of the sacrament? After all, any Old Believer instructor could arbitrarily put on priestly vestments and dare to perform the sacrament, but at the same time it is perfectly clear that the sacrament would not be valid, for the one who dared has usurped what was not given to him by the Church, broken the succession, and done what he has no authority or blessing from predecessors for. Among the New Rite adherents the visible side of the sacrament has not been interrupted, which serves them as a constant reason for condescending attitude toward the Old Believers. But is everything so simple with the invisible side? Has not only the external form remained? Grace is an invisible thing — has it not departed from those Nikonian hierarchs on whose conscience were the weeping of orphans, the sobbing of widows, and ruined lives? Is it not from those hierarchs that the current clergy have received ordination in succession? Were not those hierarchs the ones who not only rejected the native church tradition, but mocked it and subjected it to anathema? Did not this very anathema, together with the blessing and incitement of the civil authorities to violence, break precisely that apostolic succession of which the New Rite adherents are so proud? The point is that it is impossible not to recognize that the visible side in no way can guarantee the validity of the sacrament if other important conditions are not fulfilled — and the first of them is apostolic succession, not only in form, but in spirit. But as for the invisible side of the sacrament, which depends on God — this is precisely the most important side, without which only an inactive form remains of the sacrament. And there are many examples in church history when, by His mercy, the Lord granted His Gifts to people regardless of external circumstances: “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matt. 19:26).

However strange it may sound to the New Rite adherents, no one reveres the purity of the sacrament of Holy Eucharist more than precisely the Old Believer-Bespopovtsy. The New Rite adherents ought once honestly to acknowledge: does their church society exist on the foundations laid by the seven Ecumenical and nine Local Councils, which are called “church rules” and constitute an integral part of the Ancient Orthodox Sacred Tradition? What can now be seen in New Rite churches during the performance of “baptism” and “Eucharist” is, at best, not a holy sacrament but a church rite; at worst — a mockery of the sacrament. When was the last time church rules were applied to New Rite pastors and flock? After all, anyone familiar with these rules knows that in our time, according to the ancient church canons, very few people can be admitted to Holy Communion without a corresponding penance lasting years. Who and when abolished the church rules? Who and when introduced new rules into the Church? To what are the New Rite adherents — willingly or unwillingly — calling us: to apostasy from the Holy Tradition, to the replacement of the sacrament with a rite?

So let it be better that in the Ancient Orthodox Church there be preserved the bright and pure memory of the undefiled Throne of God, upon which the Lord will come again to tread in the Day of His Second and Great Coming! And if we have faith and deeds, if we have love and the truth of God, then there is also hope in the Mercy of the Creator and Savior!

Glory to our God, now and ever, unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Published by the Brotherhood of Zealots of Ancient Orthodoxy in the Name of the Holy Hieromartyr Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage. Publishing House “Third Rome,” Moscow, 1999.