AVVAKUM, PETROVIC. - Russian protopope; one of the first and most important leaders of the internal schism of the Russian Church (raskol); b. in 1620-21 at Grigorovo, in the governorship of Nizhniy Novgorod, burned alive at Pustosersk on 14 Apr. 1681.
Son of a priest, AVVAKUM entered the clerical state in his youth. Deacon in 1641, priest in 1643, he was appointed archpriest (protopope) at Yuryevets-Povolzhsky in 1652. His excessive zeal brought him the enmity of his parishioners, and within two months he had to flee to Moscow, where he was attached to the service of “Our Lady of Kazan.” From Lent 1653, in agreement with some other priests of the capital, he entered into conflict with Patriarch Nikon, who was beginning his liturgical reforms by ordering the sign of the cross to be made with three fingers instead of two, and suppressing the *metanies* (or Eastern genuflections) during the recitation of the prayer of St. Ephrem. To AVVAKUM and his companions, these innovations—already in use in Russia but now taken from the Greeks—seemed alterations of the patrimony of the faith contained in the current liturgical forms. This was enough to give rise to the schism or *raskol*, of which AVVAKUM was the first leader and first doctor.
AVVAKUM was cruelly persecuted. As early as 1653 he addressed a petition to Tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich (1645–1676) against Patriarch Nikon’s innovations; and immediately the series of his exiles began. Sent first to Tobolsk, then to Dauria, he was recalled to Moscow in 1664. Soon relegated to Mezen, he was brought before the Moscow Synod of 1666, where he was degraded and excommunicated as “a defamer of the Church and of the Tsar.” In September 1667 he was definitively consigned to Pustosersk, where he remained until his execution. Condemned to be burned in a cage, he endured his terrible fate without a word, after making the sign of the cross with two fingers. Three of his disciples were burned with him.
About 1672–73 AVVAKUM wrote his autobiography, in which he recounts, with a sincerity beyond all suspicion, his life and the persecutions he endured; a document of the first order for understanding the origins of the *raskol* and the internal life of the Russian Church in the 17th century. Besides this autobiography, he left about sixty writings, which may be divided into three groups: 1) exegetical discourses; 2) supplications, mainly addressed to the Tsar; 3) polemical or didactic letters addressed to his followers.
**