Old Believers and the Immaculate Conception
Recently, while doing my research about the liturgical work of Saint Josaphat, I stumbled upon a work by Archbishop Myroslav Marusyn called De opera Liturgico-Pastorali Sancti Josaphat in which he claimed that Old Believers preserved the belief in the Immaculate Conception of the Theotokos. I was heavily surprised by this, so I decided to do some research and what I found really surprised me.
First I would like to present what one of the most radical early Old Believer leaders, Nikita Dobrynin, revered as a “Pillar of Orthodoxy” by the Old Believers and a close friend of Protopop Avvakum, had to say about the Immaculate Conception of the Theotokos:
And again, regarding the Most Holy Theotokos, this is written: “the original sin was in her.” (Skrizhal, p.651)1 And this is written by heretics, for the Most Holy Theotokos was sanctified from her mother’s womb and prepared as a dwelling place for God, the Most Holy Spirit prepared her for the conception of the Word of God, and did not cleanse her of defilement, as it is written[in the “Skrizhal”]...
…About Most Holy Theotokos, it is written in that Nikonian book, completely contrary to the Holy Scripture, it is written: “...The Holy Spirit came upon her, and she was cleansed with the word of the Archangel Gabriel. There was an unclean stain in her.” And that, my lord, is written about the Pure and The Virgin Mother of God by blaspehemous heretics. Because the Holy Spirit will fall on the Immaculate Mother of God to conceive the Son of God, and not to cleanse from unclean…
…The most pure virginity of the Mother of God Mary was not only in abstinence, like that of other people, but by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, it was greater than that of the human nature, in its present, fallen state... Oh, it is terrible to write and speak about that unwedded bride, most great Queen and Lady! But the heretical and corrupt writings of the Nikonian books compelled me to write about this.2
As we see, here the great enemy of “Nikonian latinisms” Nikita Dobrynin, clearly affirms the Immaculate Conception. Another very important person in the history of the Old Believers (due to his hard work in restoration of the Old Believer’s hierarchy and apologetic defense of the Old Believers) is Inok Pavel of the Bielaya Krinitsa (1808 - 1854) who is considered a Saint by the Old Believers, in his writing he clearly affirmed the Immaculate Conception.
Our most blessed Lady, the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary, from pure seed and even before her conception, purified and sanctified. Therefore, she (the Theotokos), is the only one chosen from generations and foreordained by the prophets, mother of the creator of the whole world, was not only completely free from original sin, but also was completely pure and very good, like heaven.3
In 1846, another Old Believer’s Saint, Metropolitan Ambrose of Bielaya Krinitsa, accepted this Monastic Typikon, and became an Old Believer’s first Metropolitan after the destruction of their hierarchy.
In 1885, yet another Old Believer Saint, Arsenius of Ural, said that it is a right thing to belive in Immaculate Conception:
Ever-Virgin having been pre-purified by the Spirit, became higher than the heavens and purer than the brightness of the sun, this is the dogma of Orthodoxy, indisputable for the entire Christian universe. […] We will not hesitate to confess that the pre-purification of the Ever Virgin was prepared over the course of entire centuries, in the loins of a whole series of holy fathers, and was finally accomplished by the message of an angel to Joachim and Anna.4
Book that included the Acts of the Russian Orthodox Council of 1656, in which the Old rite and way of church life was attacked for the first time.
“Историко- и догматико-полемические сочинения первых расколоучителей” Volume 4.
“УСТАВЪ БЪЛОКРЫНИЦКАГО СТАРОВЪРСКАГО МОНАСТЫРЯ. 1841.” page 42.
“Eпископ Aрсений Уральский, Истинность старообрядствующей иерархии противу возводимым на нее обвинений” page 3.
I suppose it would logically follpw that they would believe in Original Sin in the Catholic consensus rather than the modernist and vague “ancestral sin” which many Orthodox hold today.