Old Believers in Lithuania
Perhaps the most secretive traditional religious community in Lithuania, the Old Believers came as refugees from Russia in late 17th century. They settled in small villages away from the main roads. Some of these are so well hidden that even today they can only be reached by minor dirt roads, and only with a good paper atlas instead of a GPS system.
Many such villages have since died out and their houses are crumbling but perhaps more frequently than not the church of such village is still offering rare celebrations of the Holy Mass for the Old Believers who are periodically returning there from larger cities (outside these rare dates the churches are locked). Today the cemetery is often the liveliest place in such localities as the relatives come to visit the graves of their forefathers.
Some of the Old Believer village churches are true masterpieces of wooden architecture, such as the one in forest-clad Perelozai (Jonava District Municipality) or the one in Jurgėliškė (Švenčionys District Municipality) with its tower unfortunately collapsed.
Two Old Believer village churches in Aukštaitija region with two different fates. The elaborate tower in Jurgėliškė, Švenčionys district (left picture, 1935) leaned more and more every year until it finally collapsed in 2008 (the picture was made after the collapse). The church in Perelozai, Jonava district (right picture, 1905) stood decrepit for decades but was refurbished recently. All this despite Perelozai being completely abandoned in the 1970s and all the wooden homes crumbled since. Both churches are still used for rare masses. Both of them may only be accessed by gravel or dirt roads. ©Augustinas Žemaitis.
The Old Believer community (and its church with a shiny dome) in Vilnius is also away both from the city center and main thoroughfares, in the southern district of Naujininkai. This community, however, is livelier, and the 3-hour long masses led by ordinary people rather than priests are still frequent there.
Old Believers think that after the Nikon reforms of the Russian Orthodoxy (17th century) no priest ordination is valid. So they have no hierarchy and even no altars, the iconostasis making the back wall in their churches. Traditional Old Believers even used to refuse to eat from the same dishes as people from other faiths and so they had separate plates and cups for non-Old Believer guests.
There are 43 Old Believer churches in Lithuania. Most of them are located in the Aukštaitija region and some in Dzūkija. 0,9% of the total population follow the faith.
An urban Old Believer church in Kaunas, established in 1906 by those Old Believers who moved away from the villages. ©Augustinas Žemaitis.
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November 4th, 2018 - 19:40
I’M Interested in Yittish-Hebrew Jewish community
November 5th, 2018 - 09:51
It is described in the following articles:
Jews in Lithuania
Judaism in Lithuania
August 10th, 2023 - 07:25
Hi, I’m coming to Lithuania veteen August and September for vacation. I’ve beeb interviewing Estonian Old Believers in many years. I have done master’s thesis on Old Belivers for the Universiry of Oulu in Finland. Would YouTube have a list of Old Believer churches in Lithaunia.Juha Eskola juhaouluu44@gmail.com
August 19th, 2023 - 04:54
Youtube rarely have such lists, but you may find them elsewhere online.
I have made a Youtube video about arguably the prettiest Old Believer church in Lithuania, however: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9izr0bSvjU