Представления о ненасилии в общинах старообрядцев-федосеевцев (по материалам рукописи конца XIX– начала XX века)
Concepts of non-violence in the communities of the Fedoseevtsy Old Believers (based on a manuscript from the late 19th – early 20th century)

Summary/Abstract: The article compares the content of traditional religious prohibitions concerning theuse of any type of aggression against one’s neighbour in the Old Believers’ environmentwith modern social standards of moral behaviour protected by law and understood asinalienable fundamental human rights. The study is based on the material excerptedfrom a manuscript from the collection of the former Monastery in Wojnowo, in Mazury(Poland). The selected manuscript consists of texts that served to perform the Orthodoxrite of penance, therefore it contains several penance-related questions. Such questionsabout the committed sins asked by the confessor reminded the believers of what sins were.Apart from questions related strictly to religion, there were also those about communitymembers’ norms of behaviour, which referred to prohibitions concerning certain behavioursand words regarding other community members. Such questions were repeated multipletimes during every liturgical year during each penance and they shaped the believers’concepts of family and social relations and served to improve their worldview. Aggression,expressed in the use of physical force and uttering swear words against family members,neighbours and even household animals, resulted in the need for penance to be imposed:from daily obeisance and strict fasting to the prohibition to participate in the life of the community. The texts from the manuscript describe various forms of punishment foreach committed sinful act. The presented content exemplifies the normative-educationalfunction of religious rites considered in the historical perspective.

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