The Castrati (skoptsy) Sect In Russia, Part One
Posted: Sat May 22, 2004 7:29 pm
Scoptzy Part One.
THE CASTRATI (SKOPTSY) SECT IN RUSSIA:
HISTORY, TEACHING AND RELIGIOUS PRACTICE.
IRINA A. TULPE, EVGENY A. TORCHINOV.
FACULTY OF PHILOSOPHY, ST. PETERSBURG STATE UNIVERSITY, ST.PETERSBURG, RUSSIA.
1. CHRISTIAN SECTERIANISM IN RUSSIA: GENERAL SURVEY.
The history of the Christian Sectarianism in Russia began in the second half of the seventeenth century. Some of its trends (e.g., small groups which lost their old significance) after different changes and transformations exist even today being a kind of relic of a social and religious conflict which was very serious in the old times but is now almost forgotten.
It is the sectarian teachings and forms of the religious service that mostly appeared the religious dissidence of the Russian folk: non-Orthodox and openly antiecclesiastical by its nature. The ways to achieve religious salvation discovered by mystical and rationalistic sects differed essentially from one another but all of them were grounded in the direct connection with God which excluded the Church as mediator between the believers and God.
In czarist Russia the Orthodox faith was the state official religion; during the Synod period when there was no patriarchy in the Russian church (1721-1917) the Russian Orthodox Church was a part of the state ruling machine. Church as well as state considered sectarian dissent to be a dangerous enemy; therefore, they took harsh police measures to eliminate the sectarian movements. In the 40s of nineteenth century, the sectarian problem was given over for to solve to the Ministry of the Inner Affairs (MIA, i.e., the Ministry of Police). Thus, the majority of our information concerning the leaders of the communities of the sectarians, about their teachings, about the forms of the religious services of the sectarians as well as about their ways of life and their traditions, and so on that is, all information which was the foundation for innumerable antisectarian publications and governmental decrees was extracted from the materials kept in the archives of MIA, including the materials of the trials, reports of the repented sectarians, priests and special officers of the Ministry, and so on. The origination of the major part of the sources determined the critical apprehension of them by contemporary researchers.
II. THE CHRISTBELIEVERS.
The first sectarian movement by the time of its appearance was a sect of the Christ-believers but the sectarians called themselves the Cod people. The term Christ-believers reflects the main point of their doctrine: every adept is able to become Christ. This sect is well known in the Russian literature as hlystovstvo or hlystovschina: there was an existed opinion that on their gatherings, after attainment of some ecstatic states the believers beat themselves with belts (hlyst in Russian), repeating the words: I am beating myself, I am seeking for Christ (Sebya hlyschu, Hrista ischu). In this case, the word hlyst may be translated as flagellant. But there are no documents from the sectarian communities supporting the view that such a practice really took place anywhere. The necessity of flagellation does not also follow from the religious teaching of the sectarians. The accusations that the sectarians engaged in bloody sacrifices were also absolutely groundless (Melnikov,1869, p.387). Melnikov reproduced a legend (he referred to The Investigations of Dmitry of Rostov) about christlings (baby-christs) which were the fruits of the so-called Christs love. According to The Investigations they had to be ritually killed by the sectarians with the blow of a spear in the left side of the babys body (like in the case of crucified Jesus and in the Church rite of the Eucharist); then the sectarians drank the babys blood. The body of the sacrificed baby then had to be dried and changed into powder which in its turn had to be added to bread, used with the water for the sectarians Eucharist. But it was but Melnikov himself who confirmed the statement that this crime was never found and demonstrated by the juridical investigation (Melnikov, 1869, p. 388).
The doctrines of the majority of the Russian sects mostly originated in the folk milieu which contained in themselves religious images of salvation. Sectarian teachings were patterned in the frames of the Christian soteriological paradigm, accepting nevertheless the traditions of the Russian popular faith rather than the ideas of New Testament. The sectarians denied the authority of the letter of the Holy Writings and the scriptural tradition as such. On the other hand they believed in the revelation of the Holy Ghost as the principal source of their teachings. These two attitudes could not stimulate the process of formalization and systematization of the vague images into a coherent faith symbol.
The founder of the sect of the Christ-believers was a peasant from Kostroma, Danila Filippovich. The miraculous story tells us that the Lord Sabaoth, on a chariot of fire, among the heavenly powers, descended in the glory on Mount Gorodina (Vladimir district). The heavenly powers returned to Heaven but Lord Sabaoth stayed on the earth, obtaining the purest body of Danila Filippovich, who since then became the living God himself. His living place was near to the town of Kostroma. He taught about spiritual prayer which can stimulate the Divine Spirit to enter the body of the praying person. To show that the religious books of any kind are useless for salvation, he put old (written and published before Patriarch Nikons reform) and new books into a sack throwing it into the Volga river: Do not believe in the books. Believe in the Holy Ghost only!
He transmitted his teaching epitomizing it in Twelve Commitments:
1. I am God predicted by the prophets; I descended on the earth to save the human souls; there is no God but me.
2. There is no other teaching. Do not seek for it.
3. You are established on this teaching stay here firmly.
4. Keep Gods commitment, to catch the Universe (cf. Jesus told Simon, Stop being afraid. From now on you are going to catch people Lk 5:10).
5. Do not drink alcohol, do not commit the sin of flesh.
6. Do not marry. Married people must live with wives as if they are their sisters. If you are unmarried do not marry; if you are married become unmarried.
7. Do not use foul words; do not pronounce them.
8. Do not visit marriages and christenings; do not participate in drunk chats.
9. Do not steal. If you steal only a penny, in the other world this penny will be put on the top of your head and when it melts from the hellish fire you will be in pain.
10. Keep these commitments in secrecy; do not tell them even to your father and mother. If you are beaten with the belt or fired by flame be patient! Those who will be faithful will obtain the Heavenly Kingdom and spiritual joy on the earth.
11. Visit each other, share bread-salt, and be in love among you, keep my commitments, pray to God.
12. Believe in Holy Ghost.
There is no God besides Lord Sabaoth, but his son Christ perpetually incarnates in human bodies. The first Christ of the Christ-believers was Ivan Suslov. According to their legends, fifteen years before the miracle on Mount Gorodina, a hundred year old peasant woman gave birth to a son. A local priest refused to baptize him for some weeks; nobody agreed to become his Christian parents. But nevertheless there appeared a man who baptized the baby by himself giving him the name of John (Ivan). Until he was thirty years old he lived with his father but later Ivan was called by Lord Sabaoth Danila Filippovich to follow him. For three days he ascended Ivan Suslov to Heaven thus giving to him His Divinity. The preaching of Suslov became known to Czar Aleksey Mihailovich. He and his followers were captured but he refused to confess his crimes. That is why on Thursday he was crucified on the Kremlin wall near from the Spassky (Saviors) Gates. On Friday he was buried on the Skull Place but on Sunday night he was resurrected before witnesses. Then he appeared in front of his disciples in a village near Moscow where he continued to preach. He was captured again, tortured, and crucified; his skin was cut from his body. But one of the female disciples covered his body with a piece of cloth, and this cloth miraculously changed into his skin. He died but was resurrected again on Sunday. He was then captured for the third time. But this time, the queen Natalya Kirillovna who was ready to bear the future emperor Peter the Great, had a prophecy that her child will be born in safety only if all prisoners will obtain freedom. Ivan Suslov was liberated among them. He lived in Moscow for many years thereafter, eagerly spreading his teaching. In 1699 Danila Filippovich (who was already a hundred years old) came to Moscow from Kostroma to have a long talk with his divine son. It is told that on 1 January 1700, after a long ecstatic session (radenie), Danila Filippovich in the presence of all his followers ascended to Heaven. Suslov left Moscow, wandered in Russia for some years and came back home before his death on his centennial birthday. The sectarians believed, he died only as a flesh but his soul ascended in glory to Heaven to join his divine Father.
Suslov was followed by Prokopy Lupkin and there appeared a number of Christs after him. The sect of the Christ-believers was not a coherent, unified trend; it was divided into different branches, according to their understanding of the idea of Christs incarnation; most of the sectarians treated their leaders as images of Christ and not as the later reincarnations of the Son.
The main novelty in the Christ-believers communities was the interest to the allegorical interpretation of Bible according to the new revelations of the Holy Ghost. The way of salvation nevertheless remain unchanged: asceticism and the unity with the Holy Ghost on the mystical prayer sessions.
The well known in nineteenth century researcher of the sectarian movements A.P. Stchapov wrote that self proclamation of the simple peasants to be christs-redemptors and peasant women to be our ladies was a mystical apotheosis, or religious and mystical expression of the hopes of the oppressed serf-peasant rural population: crude, wild, self-styled confirmation of their human dignity and their civil rights (Stchapov,1867, p.188). Christ-believers were sure that the world was devoid of grace, that it was filled with evil but eschatological ideas as such were not widespread here. The sectarians were interested not in the coming end of the world but their personal renewal (the inner feeling of this renewal) in Gods Kingdom established on the earth. Despite of their real status and social existence they were certain that they were Gods people: You are fools, you are fools, simple village men. And these fools are like beets with honey. But in these fools the Lord God dwells, too (a sectarian verse).
The principle: Believe in the Holy Ghost which was a foundation of the Christ-believers tradition determined the vague, fluid, amorphous nature of the understanding of the revelation; this circumstance called to life new sectarian leaders christs; it also stimulated transformation of the original ideology including even the appearance of radically new ideas and trends.
III. THE CASTRATI.
The Castrati sect in its genesis was closely connected with the sect of Christ-believers. Considering castration to be the main and principal condition of salvation, it was the logical completion of the ascetic program of the Christ-believers.
The first sources on the history of the Castrati (Skoptsy in Russian) were the police investigation documents. The first official reaction on the Castratis activities was the decree of the empress Catherine II (2 June 1772) to colonel (then state councilor) Alexander Volkov to investigate and judge the Skoptsi from the town of Oryel (central Russia). In 1807 the Holy Synod proclaimed the Castrati sect to be the most dangerous and blasphemous heresy, and in 1835 this definition was included in the Law Codex of the Russian Empire. The Senate defined the Castrati as the enemies of the humankind, destroyers of the morals, criminals against laws Divine and civil (Varadinov, 1863. P. 84). In 1836 the heads of the districts were ordered to make lists of the Castrati sectarians; in the next year there appeared decree which forbade to give to the Castrati prizes and signs of distinguished service.
The founder of the Castrati sect was a peasant from the district of Oryel, Kondraty Selivanov. If the main idea of the Christ-believers was the perpetual and continuous reincarnations of Christ and his permanent presence on the earth, the Castrati had only one Christ who descended to the earth for the second time being incarnated in Russia. This Christ was Selivanov. He was also believed to be Emperor Peter III because this time Christ appeared in his glory and not in the image of a slave. His mission of redemption was to explain the way of salvation, that is castration. Selivanov was considered by his followers to be the author of Strady (Sufferings, or Labours), a special kind of auto-hagiography, and of Epistles.
Selivanov began to preach in one of the Christ-believers communities (ships) in the 1770s. He had to escape the persecutions from the side of his former fellow worshipers as well as from the authorities. He was arrested and exiled to Siberia where he lived in the town of Irkutsk. In 1795 he suddenly appeared in Moscow as Peter III. Selivanov was arrested again and sent to St. Petersburg where probably he had a conversation with the son of Peter III, the reigning emperor Paul I (who hated his mother Catherine II and admired his father). Selivanov recommended to the emperor to castrate himself (there is a sectarians poem about this conversation). As a result, he was put into an insane asylum. But at the beginning of the reign of Alexander I (1802), he was liberated from there by the request of the rich Castrati-merchants of St. Petersburg; after this he lived in liberty in their mansions. During this time Selivanov became very famous in the aristocratic circles of St. Petersburg, many very high officials and persons from the nobility visited his ecstatic sessions (radenie). According to one of the spiritual songs of the Castrati, Selivanov even had a secret meeting with the emperor Alexander I; that time his grandfather gave a prophecy to the czar about the defeat of the Russian troops at Austerlitz (during the war of Russia, Prussia, and Austria against Napoleon). In 1817 the merchant Solodovnikov built especially for Selivanov a mansion, where during the mystical ecstatic sessions two to three hundred believers gathered.
In 1820 Selivanov was taken by the authorities to Spaso-Efimyevsky monastery (the town of Suzdal) where he was completely isolated. He died in 1832 when he was extremely old (probably, more than one hundred years old) but his followers were sure that he only went into occultation which would be changed soon into his new appearance and glorification; it would be the beginning of the apotheosis of the Castrati just in this earthy life.
The history of Christianity knows some isolated occasions of the individual fanatical struggle with flesh in the form of castration because ...there are eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven (Matt. 19:12). But in Russia in the second part of eighteenth century and in the first part of nineteenth century the Castrati sect became a mass religious movement engaging in its activities hundreds of thousands of people. Persecutions by the authorities could neither destroy the sect nor discredit its charms so attractive to a part of the Russian population. Repression only stimulated religious fanaticism, making the sectarians faith in the truthfulness of their chosen way stronger. Exiles stimulated the spreading of the Castratis ideas outside both capitals (Moscow and St. Petersburg) as well as outside inner provinces and districts of the Empire: in such regions as Ural, Siberia, Caucasus, Bessarabia, and so on. The Castratis way of life, based on the principles of their faith, was also very attractive to common people. All objective observers noted that the Castrati were very hardworking and industrious, their ordinary life was cleaner and more authentic than the ordinary life of nonsectarian population. For example, the Castrati who lived in Yakutia, with its severe polar climate, were engaged in agriculture, they had millets, and they were famous for their rejection of drinking and for their moderate behavior.
In the first part of nineteenth century the Castrati sect was practically spread along all of Russia (with the exception of eight districts), but in the second half of nineteenth century it probably consisted of only some thousands of followers (mostly merchants, salesmen, craftsmen, etc.). One of the analytical notes of the Ministry of Inner Affairs stated that the forces of the Castrati are not great, only some thousands along the whole Empire and the sectarians as such could not do anything but by possessing colossal monetary resources they were be able to stimulate disorders (Nadezhdin, 1872, p. 167).
NEO-CASTRATI SECT. The natural decline of the religious fanaticism in the process of the routinization of charisma described by Max Weber, led to the rejection of the practice of castration, that is, coming back to the Christ-believers variety of the asceticism (spiritual castration). But from the other side it also stimulated some attempts to revive the original enthusiasm.
At the beginning of 1870s in Moldavia (and after it, in the Crimea) there appeared the so-called Neo-Castrati movement. To overcome a crisis in the movement, its leaders proclaimed a new coming of the Father-Redemptor. At the end of 1871 and in the first half of 1872 a circle of Chosen Ones (about 40 persons) was established; they were responsible even for the theoretical elaboration of the teaching (conversations about Angels, soul, Holy Ghost, etc.). Holy Chosen Ones were called the door to salvation; it was proclaimed that the Redemptor, transfigured in their souls, would act through them as through His capital and spiritual government. According to this trend of the sect, the teaching of the Holy Chosen Ones had its source from the precious store of the previous messages of the Redemptor: it had its roots in the Book of Seven Seals spoken of in the Revelation of St. John and which was unsealed by the Only Born Gods Son, Jesus Christ, but the Holy Chosen Ones obtained the power to complete and to fulfill everything given in the Revelation due to their holy vocation. Soon the time will come when the Redemptor Peter III (Selivanov) appears on the earth, changing the existing order of things and judging everybody; then the Castrati will obtain freedom and peace.
Christ, Gods Son, who was born from the Virgin Maria and appeared in the person of Kondraty Selivanov (Peter III) now entered the body of Kuzma Lisin, who was a peasant tailor. In his spiritual quest he was a member of such rationalistic sects as Duhobors (Spiritual Fighters) and Molokans (Sect of the Spiritual Milk) but after a serious illness caused by warmth of the soul he castrated with the great seal (i.e., cut off not only testicles but his membrum virile as well). In his prophecies he declared that he will go to St. Petersburg where the czar will recognize him, giving him a seat at his right hand and ordering the liberation of all the Castrati. Lisin sent his preachers forth throughout Russia. In the ecstatic sessions he gave them appointments after which they had to leave their families and native places to go to preach Lisins revelations. On the trial (1876) he said: According to the prophesy I was recognized as the Redemptor, and I believed in it. He did not apostate his faith and his mission, either during the trial or in prison. The researchers about this movement noted that it was important for it to believe in the possession of the spiritual force which is able to transfigure them into the beings of a special nature (Saharov, 1877, pp. 400-447).
The last Castrati communities were liquidated in Soviet Russia at the end of 1920s and at the beginning of 1930s but some old sectarians can be still found in the rural districts of Russia.
Like the Christ-believers, the Castrati rejected the authority of the Bible believing in the revelations of the Holy Ghost which were contained in the spiritual verses. These verses contained basic ideas of the Castratis worldview, and some events of the history of the sect, and moral norms and principles. These verses raspevtsy (preliminary songs) were sung during the prayer meetings of the sectarians (radeniya), the ecstatic practice of which was inherited by the Castrati from the Christ-believers.
In the view of the Castrati, principal evil of the world is rooted in the lepost (bodily beauty, sexuality, sex appeal, etc.) which prevents people to communicate with God. The way to perfection begins with the elimination of the cause followed by the liberation of heart and mind. Castration as elimination of the roots of lepost determines the overcoming of all weaknesses and sins caused by lepost. From the Russian popular faith the Castrati inherited vague, amorphous, and instable understanding of the heavenly powers and the mystery of redemption. G. Fedotov (1991, pp. 37-38) ( noted that the people did not forget about the stereological meaning of the Cross, but had a very weak idea of the sacrificial meaning of Christs death. According to the folk beliefs the central event in Christs mission of redemption was the baptizing of Christ (and the popular Russian name of Christianity is baptized faith), and the Castrati also understood the baptizing with fire (castration) as redemption. The information obtained from the Castrati did not contain any specific data regarding the rites accompanying the castration. Castration whitens the body and soul, causing the castrated one to be inspired by the direct contemplation of God.
The Castrati in fact had no teaching about the resurrection of the dead and about the fate of the souls of the dead people at all. They rejected prayers for the dead, had no special burial rites (there were only rare testimonies that the dead were buried in the ritual prayer vestments).
The Castrati community existed as an independent kingdom with the founder of the community at its head. The communities were called ships and their leaders captains, masters and prophets (but not Christs in the manner of the Christ-believers). Every ship had its master and teacher, chosen from the number of the prophets; this position could be given to either men or to women. Captain was a keeper of faith and something like a manager of the communal life. She-captain was an assistant of the male Captain and coordinator. The members of the community were called brothers-captains, white sheep, pigeons, birds of paradise, and so on.
A building which was used for the prayer meetings (sometimes it was called cathedral) was no different from the houses of common people or from usual huts of the peasants. The prayer room was large (for fifty or even a hundred of the participants); it contained benches along the walls. The rite of consecration of such rooms is unknown to us. The room was often divided into two parts: for male and female believers. The portrait of Selivanov was often hung on the wall. The Castrati from the town of Saratov often said that they had no need of the churches: their own bodies as the place where the Holy Trinity dwelled were the better temples then the ordinary churches.
The Castratis attitude towards the cult of icons and relics was definitely negative. They said: We have alive images/icons and alive relics or: icons are made by human hands; they do not hear, they do not speak, and thus, they are not able to send any happiness to us. So, they treated the Orthodox Christians as the idolatrous pagans. The Castrati from the town of Kaluga said about the icons: There is grass (i.e., colors) in front and wood behind.
Nevertheless, they did not protest against the Orthodox pictures of didactic character that had no mysterious meaning. For example, at the home of one Castrati a lithograph printed by the approbation of Moscow spiritual censure was found: in its center were depicted Christ as a kind shepherd with a sheep in his hands and the angels around of them as if they were dancing in the circle. Around Christ there was the inscription: I have found the lost sheep. The title of the picture was: The True Image of the Repentance.
The picture Crucifixion of flesh was also very popular among the Castrati and Christ-believers. It was approved by the spiritual censure (1845) and printed in Moscow. It contained the images of a Christian who won victory over his flesh, and the allegorical images of world, devil and a person who obtained the monastic dignity and took the Christs Cross: there was an image of a monk crucified on the cross holding a lamp in each hand, with the lock on his mouth; to the right there was an image of the Flesh as a woman with a Turkish styled dress she stood on the hell shooting into the monk with a bow; in front of the monk stood the Devil giving the monk a piece of paper attached to the spear, with the inscription: Go down from the cross; a falcon sat on the spear. Behind the Flesh there was an image of the Church, and the image of Christ was placed above everything he held the crown in one his hand and the laurels in another one (arrows, swords, and shield were depicted to the side of Christ).
The everyday clothes of the male believers did not differ from the clothes of the followers of the Orthodox Church. Women did not wear ornaments such as ear-rings and finger-rings; their heads were covered by black cloths. During the prayer sessions the Castrati wore special long white shirts, in some communities the women wore a dress above the shirt. During the sessions the sectarians were barefooted or used some special simple socks. An essential paraphernalia of the sessions was a piece of white cloth or handkerchief which was called cover or banner. It was used in different ways during the prayer sessions playing the role of a symbol of purity; sometimes the sectarians raised it up as a flag or put it on the face of the prophet absorbed in a deep trance, and so on.
To be continued
THE CASTRATI (SKOPTSY) SECT IN RUSSIA:
HISTORY, TEACHING AND RELIGIOUS PRACTICE.
IRINA A. TULPE, EVGENY A. TORCHINOV.
FACULTY OF PHILOSOPHY, ST. PETERSBURG STATE UNIVERSITY, ST.PETERSBURG, RUSSIA.
1. CHRISTIAN SECTERIANISM IN RUSSIA: GENERAL SURVEY.
The history of the Christian Sectarianism in Russia began in the second half of the seventeenth century. Some of its trends (e.g., small groups which lost their old significance) after different changes and transformations exist even today being a kind of relic of a social and religious conflict which was very serious in the old times but is now almost forgotten.
It is the sectarian teachings and forms of the religious service that mostly appeared the religious dissidence of the Russian folk: non-Orthodox and openly antiecclesiastical by its nature. The ways to achieve religious salvation discovered by mystical and rationalistic sects differed essentially from one another but all of them were grounded in the direct connection with God which excluded the Church as mediator between the believers and God.
In czarist Russia the Orthodox faith was the state official religion; during the Synod period when there was no patriarchy in the Russian church (1721-1917) the Russian Orthodox Church was a part of the state ruling machine. Church as well as state considered sectarian dissent to be a dangerous enemy; therefore, they took harsh police measures to eliminate the sectarian movements. In the 40s of nineteenth century, the sectarian problem was given over for to solve to the Ministry of the Inner Affairs (MIA, i.e., the Ministry of Police). Thus, the majority of our information concerning the leaders of the communities of the sectarians, about their teachings, about the forms of the religious services of the sectarians as well as about their ways of life and their traditions, and so on that is, all information which was the foundation for innumerable antisectarian publications and governmental decrees was extracted from the materials kept in the archives of MIA, including the materials of the trials, reports of the repented sectarians, priests and special officers of the Ministry, and so on. The origination of the major part of the sources determined the critical apprehension of them by contemporary researchers.
II. THE CHRISTBELIEVERS.
The first sectarian movement by the time of its appearance was a sect of the Christ-believers but the sectarians called themselves the Cod people. The term Christ-believers reflects the main point of their doctrine: every adept is able to become Christ. This sect is well known in the Russian literature as hlystovstvo or hlystovschina: there was an existed opinion that on their gatherings, after attainment of some ecstatic states the believers beat themselves with belts (hlyst in Russian), repeating the words: I am beating myself, I am seeking for Christ (Sebya hlyschu, Hrista ischu). In this case, the word hlyst may be translated as flagellant. But there are no documents from the sectarian communities supporting the view that such a practice really took place anywhere. The necessity of flagellation does not also follow from the religious teaching of the sectarians. The accusations that the sectarians engaged in bloody sacrifices were also absolutely groundless (Melnikov,1869, p.387). Melnikov reproduced a legend (he referred to The Investigations of Dmitry of Rostov) about christlings (baby-christs) which were the fruits of the so-called Christs love. According to The Investigations they had to be ritually killed by the sectarians with the blow of a spear in the left side of the babys body (like in the case of crucified Jesus and in the Church rite of the Eucharist); then the sectarians drank the babys blood. The body of the sacrificed baby then had to be dried and changed into powder which in its turn had to be added to bread, used with the water for the sectarians Eucharist. But it was but Melnikov himself who confirmed the statement that this crime was never found and demonstrated by the juridical investigation (Melnikov, 1869, p. 388).
The doctrines of the majority of the Russian sects mostly originated in the folk milieu which contained in themselves religious images of salvation. Sectarian teachings were patterned in the frames of the Christian soteriological paradigm, accepting nevertheless the traditions of the Russian popular faith rather than the ideas of New Testament. The sectarians denied the authority of the letter of the Holy Writings and the scriptural tradition as such. On the other hand they believed in the revelation of the Holy Ghost as the principal source of their teachings. These two attitudes could not stimulate the process of formalization and systematization of the vague images into a coherent faith symbol.
The founder of the sect of the Christ-believers was a peasant from Kostroma, Danila Filippovich. The miraculous story tells us that the Lord Sabaoth, on a chariot of fire, among the heavenly powers, descended in the glory on Mount Gorodina (Vladimir district). The heavenly powers returned to Heaven but Lord Sabaoth stayed on the earth, obtaining the purest body of Danila Filippovich, who since then became the living God himself. His living place was near to the town of Kostroma. He taught about spiritual prayer which can stimulate the Divine Spirit to enter the body of the praying person. To show that the religious books of any kind are useless for salvation, he put old (written and published before Patriarch Nikons reform) and new books into a sack throwing it into the Volga river: Do not believe in the books. Believe in the Holy Ghost only!
He transmitted his teaching epitomizing it in Twelve Commitments:
1. I am God predicted by the prophets; I descended on the earth to save the human souls; there is no God but me.
2. There is no other teaching. Do not seek for it.
3. You are established on this teaching stay here firmly.
4. Keep Gods commitment, to catch the Universe (cf. Jesus told Simon, Stop being afraid. From now on you are going to catch people Lk 5:10).
5. Do not drink alcohol, do not commit the sin of flesh.
6. Do not marry. Married people must live with wives as if they are their sisters. If you are unmarried do not marry; if you are married become unmarried.
7. Do not use foul words; do not pronounce them.
8. Do not visit marriages and christenings; do not participate in drunk chats.
9. Do not steal. If you steal only a penny, in the other world this penny will be put on the top of your head and when it melts from the hellish fire you will be in pain.
10. Keep these commitments in secrecy; do not tell them even to your father and mother. If you are beaten with the belt or fired by flame be patient! Those who will be faithful will obtain the Heavenly Kingdom and spiritual joy on the earth.
11. Visit each other, share bread-salt, and be in love among you, keep my commitments, pray to God.
12. Believe in Holy Ghost.
There is no God besides Lord Sabaoth, but his son Christ perpetually incarnates in human bodies. The first Christ of the Christ-believers was Ivan Suslov. According to their legends, fifteen years before the miracle on Mount Gorodina, a hundred year old peasant woman gave birth to a son. A local priest refused to baptize him for some weeks; nobody agreed to become his Christian parents. But nevertheless there appeared a man who baptized the baby by himself giving him the name of John (Ivan). Until he was thirty years old he lived with his father but later Ivan was called by Lord Sabaoth Danila Filippovich to follow him. For three days he ascended Ivan Suslov to Heaven thus giving to him His Divinity. The preaching of Suslov became known to Czar Aleksey Mihailovich. He and his followers were captured but he refused to confess his crimes. That is why on Thursday he was crucified on the Kremlin wall near from the Spassky (Saviors) Gates. On Friday he was buried on the Skull Place but on Sunday night he was resurrected before witnesses. Then he appeared in front of his disciples in a village near Moscow where he continued to preach. He was captured again, tortured, and crucified; his skin was cut from his body. But one of the female disciples covered his body with a piece of cloth, and this cloth miraculously changed into his skin. He died but was resurrected again on Sunday. He was then captured for the third time. But this time, the queen Natalya Kirillovna who was ready to bear the future emperor Peter the Great, had a prophecy that her child will be born in safety only if all prisoners will obtain freedom. Ivan Suslov was liberated among them. He lived in Moscow for many years thereafter, eagerly spreading his teaching. In 1699 Danila Filippovich (who was already a hundred years old) came to Moscow from Kostroma to have a long talk with his divine son. It is told that on 1 January 1700, after a long ecstatic session (radenie), Danila Filippovich in the presence of all his followers ascended to Heaven. Suslov left Moscow, wandered in Russia for some years and came back home before his death on his centennial birthday. The sectarians believed, he died only as a flesh but his soul ascended in glory to Heaven to join his divine Father.
Suslov was followed by Prokopy Lupkin and there appeared a number of Christs after him. The sect of the Christ-believers was not a coherent, unified trend; it was divided into different branches, according to their understanding of the idea of Christs incarnation; most of the sectarians treated their leaders as images of Christ and not as the later reincarnations of the Son.
The main novelty in the Christ-believers communities was the interest to the allegorical interpretation of Bible according to the new revelations of the Holy Ghost. The way of salvation nevertheless remain unchanged: asceticism and the unity with the Holy Ghost on the mystical prayer sessions.
The well known in nineteenth century researcher of the sectarian movements A.P. Stchapov wrote that self proclamation of the simple peasants to be christs-redemptors and peasant women to be our ladies was a mystical apotheosis, or religious and mystical expression of the hopes of the oppressed serf-peasant rural population: crude, wild, self-styled confirmation of their human dignity and their civil rights (Stchapov,1867, p.188). Christ-believers were sure that the world was devoid of grace, that it was filled with evil but eschatological ideas as such were not widespread here. The sectarians were interested not in the coming end of the world but their personal renewal (the inner feeling of this renewal) in Gods Kingdom established on the earth. Despite of their real status and social existence they were certain that they were Gods people: You are fools, you are fools, simple village men. And these fools are like beets with honey. But in these fools the Lord God dwells, too (a sectarian verse).
The principle: Believe in the Holy Ghost which was a foundation of the Christ-believers tradition determined the vague, fluid, amorphous nature of the understanding of the revelation; this circumstance called to life new sectarian leaders christs; it also stimulated transformation of the original ideology including even the appearance of radically new ideas and trends.
III. THE CASTRATI.
The Castrati sect in its genesis was closely connected with the sect of Christ-believers. Considering castration to be the main and principal condition of salvation, it was the logical completion of the ascetic program of the Christ-believers.
The first sources on the history of the Castrati (Skoptsy in Russian) were the police investigation documents. The first official reaction on the Castratis activities was the decree of the empress Catherine II (2 June 1772) to colonel (then state councilor) Alexander Volkov to investigate and judge the Skoptsi from the town of Oryel (central Russia). In 1807 the Holy Synod proclaimed the Castrati sect to be the most dangerous and blasphemous heresy, and in 1835 this definition was included in the Law Codex of the Russian Empire. The Senate defined the Castrati as the enemies of the humankind, destroyers of the morals, criminals against laws Divine and civil (Varadinov, 1863. P. 84). In 1836 the heads of the districts were ordered to make lists of the Castrati sectarians; in the next year there appeared decree which forbade to give to the Castrati prizes and signs of distinguished service.
The founder of the Castrati sect was a peasant from the district of Oryel, Kondraty Selivanov. If the main idea of the Christ-believers was the perpetual and continuous reincarnations of Christ and his permanent presence on the earth, the Castrati had only one Christ who descended to the earth for the second time being incarnated in Russia. This Christ was Selivanov. He was also believed to be Emperor Peter III because this time Christ appeared in his glory and not in the image of a slave. His mission of redemption was to explain the way of salvation, that is castration. Selivanov was considered by his followers to be the author of Strady (Sufferings, or Labours), a special kind of auto-hagiography, and of Epistles.
Selivanov began to preach in one of the Christ-believers communities (ships) in the 1770s. He had to escape the persecutions from the side of his former fellow worshipers as well as from the authorities. He was arrested and exiled to Siberia where he lived in the town of Irkutsk. In 1795 he suddenly appeared in Moscow as Peter III. Selivanov was arrested again and sent to St. Petersburg where probably he had a conversation with the son of Peter III, the reigning emperor Paul I (who hated his mother Catherine II and admired his father). Selivanov recommended to the emperor to castrate himself (there is a sectarians poem about this conversation). As a result, he was put into an insane asylum. But at the beginning of the reign of Alexander I (1802), he was liberated from there by the request of the rich Castrati-merchants of St. Petersburg; after this he lived in liberty in their mansions. During this time Selivanov became very famous in the aristocratic circles of St. Petersburg, many very high officials and persons from the nobility visited his ecstatic sessions (radenie). According to one of the spiritual songs of the Castrati, Selivanov even had a secret meeting with the emperor Alexander I; that time his grandfather gave a prophecy to the czar about the defeat of the Russian troops at Austerlitz (during the war of Russia, Prussia, and Austria against Napoleon). In 1817 the merchant Solodovnikov built especially for Selivanov a mansion, where during the mystical ecstatic sessions two to three hundred believers gathered.
In 1820 Selivanov was taken by the authorities to Spaso-Efimyevsky monastery (the town of Suzdal) where he was completely isolated. He died in 1832 when he was extremely old (probably, more than one hundred years old) but his followers were sure that he only went into occultation which would be changed soon into his new appearance and glorification; it would be the beginning of the apotheosis of the Castrati just in this earthy life.
The history of Christianity knows some isolated occasions of the individual fanatical struggle with flesh in the form of castration because ...there are eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven (Matt. 19:12). But in Russia in the second part of eighteenth century and in the first part of nineteenth century the Castrati sect became a mass religious movement engaging in its activities hundreds of thousands of people. Persecutions by the authorities could neither destroy the sect nor discredit its charms so attractive to a part of the Russian population. Repression only stimulated religious fanaticism, making the sectarians faith in the truthfulness of their chosen way stronger. Exiles stimulated the spreading of the Castratis ideas outside both capitals (Moscow and St. Petersburg) as well as outside inner provinces and districts of the Empire: in such regions as Ural, Siberia, Caucasus, Bessarabia, and so on. The Castratis way of life, based on the principles of their faith, was also very attractive to common people. All objective observers noted that the Castrati were very hardworking and industrious, their ordinary life was cleaner and more authentic than the ordinary life of nonsectarian population. For example, the Castrati who lived in Yakutia, with its severe polar climate, were engaged in agriculture, they had millets, and they were famous for their rejection of drinking and for their moderate behavior.
In the first part of nineteenth century the Castrati sect was practically spread along all of Russia (with the exception of eight districts), but in the second half of nineteenth century it probably consisted of only some thousands of followers (mostly merchants, salesmen, craftsmen, etc.). One of the analytical notes of the Ministry of Inner Affairs stated that the forces of the Castrati are not great, only some thousands along the whole Empire and the sectarians as such could not do anything but by possessing colossal monetary resources they were be able to stimulate disorders (Nadezhdin, 1872, p. 167).
NEO-CASTRATI SECT. The natural decline of the religious fanaticism in the process of the routinization of charisma described by Max Weber, led to the rejection of the practice of castration, that is, coming back to the Christ-believers variety of the asceticism (spiritual castration). But from the other side it also stimulated some attempts to revive the original enthusiasm.
At the beginning of 1870s in Moldavia (and after it, in the Crimea) there appeared the so-called Neo-Castrati movement. To overcome a crisis in the movement, its leaders proclaimed a new coming of the Father-Redemptor. At the end of 1871 and in the first half of 1872 a circle of Chosen Ones (about 40 persons) was established; they were responsible even for the theoretical elaboration of the teaching (conversations about Angels, soul, Holy Ghost, etc.). Holy Chosen Ones were called the door to salvation; it was proclaimed that the Redemptor, transfigured in their souls, would act through them as through His capital and spiritual government. According to this trend of the sect, the teaching of the Holy Chosen Ones had its source from the precious store of the previous messages of the Redemptor: it had its roots in the Book of Seven Seals spoken of in the Revelation of St. John and which was unsealed by the Only Born Gods Son, Jesus Christ, but the Holy Chosen Ones obtained the power to complete and to fulfill everything given in the Revelation due to their holy vocation. Soon the time will come when the Redemptor Peter III (Selivanov) appears on the earth, changing the existing order of things and judging everybody; then the Castrati will obtain freedom and peace.
Christ, Gods Son, who was born from the Virgin Maria and appeared in the person of Kondraty Selivanov (Peter III) now entered the body of Kuzma Lisin, who was a peasant tailor. In his spiritual quest he was a member of such rationalistic sects as Duhobors (Spiritual Fighters) and Molokans (Sect of the Spiritual Milk) but after a serious illness caused by warmth of the soul he castrated with the great seal (i.e., cut off not only testicles but his membrum virile as well). In his prophecies he declared that he will go to St. Petersburg where the czar will recognize him, giving him a seat at his right hand and ordering the liberation of all the Castrati. Lisin sent his preachers forth throughout Russia. In the ecstatic sessions he gave them appointments after which they had to leave their families and native places to go to preach Lisins revelations. On the trial (1876) he said: According to the prophesy I was recognized as the Redemptor, and I believed in it. He did not apostate his faith and his mission, either during the trial or in prison. The researchers about this movement noted that it was important for it to believe in the possession of the spiritual force which is able to transfigure them into the beings of a special nature (Saharov, 1877, pp. 400-447).
The last Castrati communities were liquidated in Soviet Russia at the end of 1920s and at the beginning of 1930s but some old sectarians can be still found in the rural districts of Russia.
Like the Christ-believers, the Castrati rejected the authority of the Bible believing in the revelations of the Holy Ghost which were contained in the spiritual verses. These verses contained basic ideas of the Castratis worldview, and some events of the history of the sect, and moral norms and principles. These verses raspevtsy (preliminary songs) were sung during the prayer meetings of the sectarians (radeniya), the ecstatic practice of which was inherited by the Castrati from the Christ-believers.
In the view of the Castrati, principal evil of the world is rooted in the lepost (bodily beauty, sexuality, sex appeal, etc.) which prevents people to communicate with God. The way to perfection begins with the elimination of the cause followed by the liberation of heart and mind. Castration as elimination of the roots of lepost determines the overcoming of all weaknesses and sins caused by lepost. From the Russian popular faith the Castrati inherited vague, amorphous, and instable understanding of the heavenly powers and the mystery of redemption. G. Fedotov (1991, pp. 37-38) ( noted that the people did not forget about the stereological meaning of the Cross, but had a very weak idea of the sacrificial meaning of Christs death. According to the folk beliefs the central event in Christs mission of redemption was the baptizing of Christ (and the popular Russian name of Christianity is baptized faith), and the Castrati also understood the baptizing with fire (castration) as redemption. The information obtained from the Castrati did not contain any specific data regarding the rites accompanying the castration. Castration whitens the body and soul, causing the castrated one to be inspired by the direct contemplation of God.
The Castrati in fact had no teaching about the resurrection of the dead and about the fate of the souls of the dead people at all. They rejected prayers for the dead, had no special burial rites (there were only rare testimonies that the dead were buried in the ritual prayer vestments).
The Castrati community existed as an independent kingdom with the founder of the community at its head. The communities were called ships and their leaders captains, masters and prophets (but not Christs in the manner of the Christ-believers). Every ship had its master and teacher, chosen from the number of the prophets; this position could be given to either men or to women. Captain was a keeper of faith and something like a manager of the communal life. She-captain was an assistant of the male Captain and coordinator. The members of the community were called brothers-captains, white sheep, pigeons, birds of paradise, and so on.
A building which was used for the prayer meetings (sometimes it was called cathedral) was no different from the houses of common people or from usual huts of the peasants. The prayer room was large (for fifty or even a hundred of the participants); it contained benches along the walls. The rite of consecration of such rooms is unknown to us. The room was often divided into two parts: for male and female believers. The portrait of Selivanov was often hung on the wall. The Castrati from the town of Saratov often said that they had no need of the churches: their own bodies as the place where the Holy Trinity dwelled were the better temples then the ordinary churches.
The Castratis attitude towards the cult of icons and relics was definitely negative. They said: We have alive images/icons and alive relics or: icons are made by human hands; they do not hear, they do not speak, and thus, they are not able to send any happiness to us. So, they treated the Orthodox Christians as the idolatrous pagans. The Castrati from the town of Kaluga said about the icons: There is grass (i.e., colors) in front and wood behind.
Nevertheless, they did not protest against the Orthodox pictures of didactic character that had no mysterious meaning. For example, at the home of one Castrati a lithograph printed by the approbation of Moscow spiritual censure was found: in its center were depicted Christ as a kind shepherd with a sheep in his hands and the angels around of them as if they were dancing in the circle. Around Christ there was the inscription: I have found the lost sheep. The title of the picture was: The True Image of the Repentance.
The picture Crucifixion of flesh was also very popular among the Castrati and Christ-believers. It was approved by the spiritual censure (1845) and printed in Moscow. It contained the images of a Christian who won victory over his flesh, and the allegorical images of world, devil and a person who obtained the monastic dignity and took the Christs Cross: there was an image of a monk crucified on the cross holding a lamp in each hand, with the lock on his mouth; to the right there was an image of the Flesh as a woman with a Turkish styled dress she stood on the hell shooting into the monk with a bow; in front of the monk stood the Devil giving the monk a piece of paper attached to the spear, with the inscription: Go down from the cross; a falcon sat on the spear. Behind the Flesh there was an image of the Church, and the image of Christ was placed above everything he held the crown in one his hand and the laurels in another one (arrows, swords, and shield were depicted to the side of Christ).
The everyday clothes of the male believers did not differ from the clothes of the followers of the Orthodox Church. Women did not wear ornaments such as ear-rings and finger-rings; their heads were covered by black cloths. During the prayer sessions the Castrati wore special long white shirts, in some communities the women wore a dress above the shirt. During the sessions the sectarians were barefooted or used some special simple socks. An essential paraphernalia of the sessions was a piece of white cloth or handkerchief which was called cover or banner. It was used in different ways during the prayer sessions playing the role of a symbol of purity; sometimes the sectarians raised it up as a flag or put it on the face of the prophet absorbed in a deep trance, and so on.
To be continued