DENISOV, ANDREA and SIMONE. - Brothers (A. b. 1664, d. 1730; S. b. 1682, d. 1741), princes of Myzeckij. At the beginning of the 18th century they were the most effective representatives of the Russian “Old Believers” without priests. They founded in northern Russia, near the River Vyg, a lay monastery, the Vygovskaja pustyn.
At the same time they also distinguished themselves as prolific writers of ascetical and polemical works. A. composed the *Pomorskie otvety*, i.e. the replies of the Russian northern folk in answer to 106 questions addressed by an “envoy” of the official Church to the “Old Believers.” The book has never been refuted by the state Church.
Bibl.: N. Barsov, *Bratija Andrej i Semen Denisov*, in *Pravoslavno obozrenie*, 18 (1865), pp. 55-91, 232-47, 412-38, 514-28; A. M. Ammann, *Storia della Chiesa russa e dei paesi limitrofi*, Turin 1948, p. 333.