Patriarch Nikon of Moscow in the context of "Alexis of Russia"

Old Believers or Old Ritualists (Russian: староверы, starovery or старообрядцы, staroobryadtsy) is the common term for several religious groups, which maintain the old liturgical and ritual practices of the Russian Orthodox Church, as they were before the reforms of Patriarch Nikon of Moscow between 1653 and 1657. The old rite and its followers were anathematized in 1667, and Old Belief gradually emerged from the resulting schism.

The antecedents of the movement regarded the reform as heralding the End of Days, and the Russian church and state as servants of the Antichrist. Fleeing persecution by the government, they settled in remote areas or escaped to the neighboring countries. Their communities were marked by strict morals and religious devotion, including various taboos meant to separate them from the outer world. They rejected the Westernization measures of Peter the Great, preserving traditional Russian culture, like long beards for men.

The Schism of the Russian Church, also known as raskol (Russian: раскол, pronounced [rɐˈskoɫ], meaning 'schism'), was an era of religious and social turmoil in Russia spanning from the late 1660s to the early 1690s, during which dissenters opposing the hierarchy of the Russian Orthodox Church appeared in great numbers, and were persecuted and suppressed by ecclesiastical and secular authorities.

The schism followed the liturgical and ritual reforms enacted by Patriarch Nikon at the behest of Tsar Alexis from 1652 to 1657, which aimed to remove all difference between the Russian rite and that of the Greek Orthodox Church, from which Christianity was imported to the nation. Both Tsar and Patriarch were convinced that local practices diverged from the Greek ones due to faulty transmission and scribal errors throughout centuries of Russian parochialism. Nikon's reforms engendered opposition from within the church in defense of traditional custom, voiced first by relatively minor figures such as priest Ivan Neronov, but later augmented by leading clergymen headed by Bishop Alexander of Vyatka and Archimandrite Spiridon Potemkin. Tsar Alexis attempted to reconcile the controversy by convening the 1666-1667 Great Moscow Synod, where the old rite was anathemized and declared heretical, and the reformed rite was proclaimed universally binding.

Defrocking, unfrocking, degradation, or laicization of clergy is the removal of their rights to exercise the functions of the ordained ministry. It may be grounded on criminal convictions, disciplinary problems, or disagreements over doctrine or dogma; but may also be done at their request for personal reasons, such as running for civil office, taking over a family business, declining health or old age, desire to marry against the rules for clergy in a particular church, or an unresolved dispute. The form of the procedure varies according to the Christian denomination concerned.

The words "defrocking" or "unfrocking" refers to the ritual removal of the frock-like vestments of clergy and ministers. These rituals are generally no longer practiced and were sometimes separate from dismissals from ordained ministry, leading some to contend that modern use of "defrocking" is inaccurate. However, others maintain "defrocking" as a common synonym for laicization, one particularly popular in English.

The Schism of the Russian Church, also known as raskol (Russian: раскол, pronounced [rɐˈskoɫ], meaning 'schism'), was an era of religious and social turmoil in Russia spanning from the late 1660s to the early 1690s, during which dissenters opposing the authority of the Russian Orthodox Church appeared in great numbers, and were persecuted and suppressed by the ecclesiastical hierarchy and secular government.

The schism followed the liturgical and ritual reforms enacted by Patriarch Nikon at the behest of Tsar Alexis from 1652 to 1657, which aimed to remove all difference between the Russian rite and that of the Greek Orthodox Church, from which Christianity was imported to the nation. Both Tsar and Patriarch were convinced that local practices diverged from the Greek ones due to faulty transmission and scribal errors throughout centuries of Russian parochialism. Nikon's reforms engendered opposition from within the church in defense of traditional custom, voiced first by relatively minor figures such as priest Ivan Neronov, but later augmented by leading clergymen headed by Bishop Alexander of Vyatka and Archimandrite Spiridon Potemkin. Tsar Alexis attempted to reconcile the controversy by convening the 1666-1667 Great Moscow Synod, where the old rite was anathemized and declared heretical, and the reformed rite was proclaimed universally binding.