Old Believers and Bessarabia! This unusual tandem formed in Bessarabia in the early 18th century. After Patriarch Nikon carried out a church reform in 1650-1661, part of the Orthodox did not accept the innovations, so they succumbed to persecution and humiliation. The Old Believers fled deep into the taiga, into the tundra, into the mountains. Their descendants today live in Buryatia, Udmurtia and Karelia. Some anti-Nikonians once found shelter in Bessarabia. Curiously, they were protected by the Turks, who favored the settlement of their lands by the Old Orthodox.
This is how the Old Believers settled the Danube region. Until today their communities can be found in Vilkovo, in the villages of Mirnoye, Staraya and Novaya Nekrasovka, Primorske and Muravlevka. The Old Believers of Odeshchyna call themselves Lipovans. They differ from ordinary people in their ability to preserve their medieval life and culture, so all members of the Old Believers’ community observe the liturgical canons of the pre-Nikonian period and reproduce the clothing, cuisine and way of life of their ancestors to the maximum extent possible for our century.
The pride of the Old Believers and Archbishop Savvaty is the Christ of St. Paraskeva, which their ancestors erected in Bessarabia in 1874. This is the territory of the village of Mirnoe. This church was built to replace one of the first religious buildings of Old Orthodox Christianity in these parts — the wicker chapel of the Holy Protection of the Mother of God.
It is a voluminous, pale gray, wooden structure, tinged with pistachio-colored trim. It is built according to the canons brought to Russia from Byzantium. Two-tiered cube of the temple, crowned with a single drum with a faceted dome, an elongated refectory and a three-tiered chapel. All friezes, pilasters and portal are abundantly decorated with wooden carvings. Like all schismatic temples of Pridunavie, the temple has a luxurious iconostasis. However, after the wave of robberies on Old Believer churches in Bessarabia in 1996-2004, it faded noticeably. From this temple were stolen 56 ancient icons, 3 Gospels, one of which was in a silver casket, a bowl, a silver box and 2 Eucharistic vessels.
The Church of St. Paraskeva was built by members of the community — in Russia the Old Believers were considered unsurpassed carpenters. But when the church was enlarged in 1898, the church trustees of the schismatics — this is another nickname for the Old Believers — were sentenced to a monetary fine and arrested. The reason was a number of restrictions on the Old Orthodox that were in place before the 1905 «Law on Religious Tolerance.» For example, they were forbidden to print books, build churches and sketes, their marriages were not recognized by the state, and their children were branded illegitimate.
Today, the Church of St. Paraskeva is considered a true landmark of the Black Sea region. Many travelers, coming to holidays in Primorskoe, specially stop by Mirnoye to admire this temple and get acquainted with the culture, preserved in time, of the Old Believers’ community.