www.byzcath.org Forums Mysteries: The Life of Worship Old-Ritualists Forum Latest contact with Agafya Lykova

This is a Google translation of the following website:

http://rpsc.ru/news/novosti-mitropolii/2011/poezdka-svyashchennika-k-agafe-likovoj

In early November, Priest Vladimir Goshkoderya (Orenburg) made ​​a trip to Sayan taiga to Agafya Lykova. For the first time during his stay in the taiga Lykov Russian Orthodox Old Rite priest of the Church visited the place where many years ago, conservatives have come to save their souls. 's father Vladimir is not simply been away, his journey was a response to a letter of appeal to the Agafya Metropolitan Cornelius. In her letter she writes , that her ancestors had lived and prayed with priests who were subsequently tortured novoobryadtsami "savage tortures." I kept communion with Lykovy Irgizskogo monastery, and they had a book about the Metropolitan Ambrose and always prayed for him. Within two days of his stay in Agafya about. Vladimir, with the blessing of Bishop Cornelius took her to confession, made ​​a crown servant of God Agafya baptism, after which she vouchsafed taking Holy Communion.

Saying goodbye to o.Vladimirom, Agatha Karpovna requested that the book Vasily Peskov, "Taiga deadlock," tells of Lykov life, Orthodox Christians are treated with caution, as it found the author's own inventions. And as Agatha needs help around the house, especially in spring and autumn agricultural works and firewood for the winter. Assistant Orthodox Old Believer she needed, having a spiritual father. We call on Christians to respond to this call (phone number - 89058427009).

Related documents:
•Treatment Agafya Lykova


Treatment Agafya Lykova
October 27, 2011

http://rpsc.ru/news/regional/obrashchenie-agafi-likovoj2

In the address of the Moscow Archdiocese received a letter from Agafya Lykov, staroobryadki living in the taiga. Recluse asks her close-minded people who have the ability and desire to leave the world for a while, to come to her help with the house and farm. Her letters asking for help have been posted on the Metropolis.

Editorial puts another letter Agafya Lykova.

Willing to help please contact Agafya Lykova by phone:
8-916-123-30-77 (Natalia)

Here are some lines from the letter:

"Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, have mercy on us. Amen.

With a low triple prostration, Agafya Karpovna, Metropolitan Cornelius.

Greetings from a person and damp earth, and I wish you from God dobrago good health and even more vsakago welfare. And it shall be protected by God and the prayers of the Most Holy Lady the Theotokos, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church from all divisions and heresies, unshakable, and az, Agatha, pass all bow to stand firmly in the faith of Christ, to observe the sign of cross, dedicated by God and the holy apostles and saints fathers ... "

"... Winter is coming, one assistant did not wait. Last winter hardly suffered, only thank God stayed alive by your holy prayers ... "

"But even with a low bow bow all Agafya Karpovna, do not leave Christ's sake pardon a wretched orphan, needy in distress, a man assistant Christian believer, if you will be on in the kingdom of heaven. Holy Zlatoustyi John: "Who is in trouble tormented orphan does not eliminate, even in a good position it is not reckoned."

"... Everywhere sent a letter and asked that no news from nowhere man to good [will find to live on] and that the relatives, my father gave me the blessing to go there to live. By how relatives had gone, from the water terribly sick, and the second, the spiritual root of our fraternity is not ... "

That text is downright bizarre and incoherent to the point of utter incomprehensibility.

Actually, with patience, one can make sense of most of it, if one is familiar with Agafya Lykova. She is the last survivor of a family of priestless Old Believers who fled to the taiga, the forested wildernesses, back in the late 30s or early 40s (if memory serves). Agafya is in her 60s now, I believe, and has been having increasing difficulty in the last couple of years managing to continue on her own in the harsh winters there. This is the second or third time that she's reached out, seeking someone to come and reside there.

She has also now apparently accepted the sacred Mysteries from a Old Believer priest, Father Vladimir. Her family had been bespopovtsy; Pomortsy or Stranniki, I think.

The reference to 'Vasily Peskov, "Taiga deadlock"' should actually read 'Lost in the Taiga'. It is an excellent book that Peskov, a Russian journalist, wrote about the Lykov family after the family was first discovered in the wilderness by a group of geologists doing natural resource explorations.

Prayers for Agafya, that she receive the needed assistance and that God grant her many years.

Neil

Compris.
merci!

Tom,

Thanks for this - I'm always glad to hear of how Agafya is doing. She really is among the very last of the truly isolationist Old Believers - those who cut themselves off even from communal lives (unless there are more out there in the taiga, as has been found a couple times in the past).

It was especially interesting that she references her ancestors living and praying with priests who were tortured. I'm presuming that she is speaking here of historical events of which she knows from oral history, as I don't remember from the book that the Lykovs had been popovotsy at anytime in their own remembered history.

Many years,

Neil

Actually, the family was discovered in 1978 - and their best estimate at the time was that they had already been living in total seclusion for a half-century then. At the time that they were encountered, Agafya's Father was still alive and I believe at least a couple of her siblings. I see from an old thread that I described Agafya as 65 - that was back in 2008, so she's about 68 or 69 now.

The family were Skritniki or Hiders, (I mistakenly wrote Stranniki - Wanderers earlier). Skritniki, originally documented in the mid-19th century, shunned all contact with secular society. Most lived in huts deep within the forests (as the Lykovas did), a smaller number wandered through wilderness areas with no fixed abode. When forced by authorities or circumstance into more conventional environments, they isolated themselves to the maximum extent possible. Some subsisted nocturnally and some perceived the actual practice of isolation as essential to their salvation.

There had been efforts made to resettle Agfaya after the deaths of the other family members, but she made the choice to remain. Relatives, themselves Old Believer bespopovtsy but living in villages, were located; she visited them but found society too different from the only life she had known and found her spiritual life to be distressed by it.

She did make some compromises with total isolation, allowing herself to be transported briefly for needed medical care and accepting some foodstuffs (but nothing with a UPC/barcode - a mark of the Anti-Christ to the strictest of the Old Believer bespopovtsy). Much of what was urged on her though, in terms of creature comforts, she declined as not in keeping with the lifestyle (there was a phrase she used, it was one not uncommon among bespovotsy in earlier times, but it slips my mind at present).

About a decade ago now, another group of Skritniki were accidently discovered by census takers touring remote regions. They were a remnant community of three elderly women in the Komi Republic in the Urals. Despite being the sole inhabitants of an isolated, otherwise-deserted village, they ventured out only at night and did not socialize, even among themselves. I'm not sure what happened with them in the aftermath of being found, but my impression was that they refused any offers to change their lifestyle.

Many years,

Neil

My heart is very concerned for our dear sister Agafia.
I am wondering if she ever received the helpers she requested?
There are a few of us Old Believers in the States who have kept watch concerning news on her over many years.We would like to be the ones to help her, yet, in reality we would more likely need to learn from her!
She clings tenaciously to her convictions concerning the dangers of worldiness (mirschenie) and the System of Antichrist and in this she is a strong example to all of us.

I myself read Lost in the Taiga in "99 and treasured it. Living myself as an Orthodox Christian in an Old Order Amish community I found a link between the Old Order way of Life and Orthodox ritual and beliefs.
The book was given me by a seeker among the Amish actually.
After reading it I set out to discover the Old Believers with my journeys taking me as far away as Alaska then Romania where I lived at the monastery and village and was baptized by them.
In time a small mission was made in Tennessee with hopes of establishing a sort of Old Order Orthodox settlement.We desired
nothing innovative but rather a path of rediscovering a more ascetic path, following the examples of saints and ofcourse our Lord.
We know of no others likeminded though. We compromise to reach out....in ways such as this.
Could you possibly provide a way for us to write to dear Agafia?
Spasi Hristos!

Emma,

Welcome to the Forum. I'm not aware of how one might contact Agafia but I'll keep my eyes open for any information along that line.

Perhaps Tom, who posts here as 'Polish American', has run across something in his ongoing research on the Old Ritualists/Old Believers. (We're very much indebted to Tom for the incredible amount of high quality information on the faithful of the Old Rite that he has contributed to the forum.)

I, and I suspect others here as well, would be very interested in learning more about your own community as I don't know that any of us have been aware of an Old Rite community in TN.

As someone with long-standing interests in both the Old Rite and the Plain Peoples, I'm intrigued by the transition that you describe from Old Order Amish to Orthodoxy. (I've only once previously known someone who came to Eastern Christianity from an Anabaptist community. Martha was a Mennonite missionary in Ukraine and shortly afterwards converted to Eastern Orthodoxy. She was not a member here, but posted on another site to which I belong; she reposed in the Lord just a year ago, at the young age of 41 - may her memory be eternal.)

Many years,

Neil

Thank you...sadly the Old Believer mission in Tennessee is dormant, at least for the present.There were, however, 8 baptisms in a local creek there in 2000 and services were held for sometime through the benevolence of the priest from Oregon until the families relocated.
My journey to the Old Belief was indeed interesting but not surprising,but a logical progression for an Orthodox Christian seeking continuity with an Old Order way of life. There are actually many similarities between the Old Order Amish and the Old Believers. Both groups isolated them from mainstream influence in pre-Renaissance time thus preserving some folk old ways that we may get a glimpse. This is not to say however that they agree on fundamental doctrinal points.
Some similarities that I noticed were in both groups the first line of a chant is often begun by a male cantor then others join in. Also, chant is plain chant, no harmony.The Amish believe that they must sing in "one voice".
I am not an expert by any means but have only made some observations through my own experiences.
Similarities with beliefs about the system of the world being "antichrist" would be the strongest resemblance I would say.
Although,we suffer much from what the Amish label as "the drift" toward this magnet of worldly involvements,and some groups to a lesser or greater degree.Some in both groups live without "papers" and this in fear of entangling too closely in "The System".

I found that after living Old Amish for a number of years I was better prepared to live in the sometimes austere and simple villages and monasteries of Romania.

Agafia no doubt holds to her taiga existence because she holds to the belief that apparently was commonly held especially by some priestless Old Believers that "salvation is in the wilderness". This was a saying passed downfrom her grandmother and is mentioned in the book about the family's survival.
This perhaps can be interpreted in many ways.
But, one thing I have noticed myself is that since I first read "Lost in the Taiga" in "99, I have since had the priviledge to graze on writings from the Philokalia and also the sayings of the desert fathers. I have many times read similar words such as these that her grandmother instilled in their memories. This makes me believe that there in the Siberian wilderness Karp Lykov trained his family with daily readings in such books.In fact I often have found obscure references to certain Old Believer traditions in such ancient writings.
What is indeed fascinating is when one finds groups of different backgrounds, on opposite sides of the globe and centuries removed from one another coming to similar if not identical conclusions from the Holy Scriptures and seeing similar traditions interpreted in their lives.
I notice this especially with Agafia's refusal to accept any gift with a bar-code on it and the same among some old order groups because of the fear of the coming "Mark of the Beast".
I was told at the monastery in Romania to do away with any documents that had such.I know of amish families that forego travel and other things because they are not willing to use "papers" of identification with barcodes and now chips. Not many wish to speak about such dreadful subjects but we must remember that for our Taiga sister and hermit it is a major concern.perhaps there is more to be considered???I know also of Old Believers in this country and in Romania that have been much troubled over the same issue.Well, I hope I've not veered off the thread but it is very pertinant to Agafia and her spiritual struggles. I do not think it is an accident that her story is out among us in the world.

Thank you, Neil, for your kind words. Fortunately, now that I am retired, I have the opportunity to keep up with the latest news on the internet in English on Old Believers and Old Ritualists.

Unfortunately, I do not have any information on how to contact Agafya Lykova. Maybe some of our readers who are proficient in Russian can find an address or email contact for her.

One may write to Aman Tuleyev, the Governor of the Kemorovo Oblast, Russian Federation. http://www.ako.ru/

He is in contact with Agafya via post very frequently. Unfortunately, Mr Tuleyev speaks only Russian, Bashkir and Kazakh.

Alexandr

Christ is Born! Glorify Him!
Thank you Mr. Alexandr for the information.
In years past when I lived in the Old Believer villages and monasteries in Romania I communicated by using the Erie Prayerbook.
Since the prayerbook is in Old Slavonic with an English translation on the opposite page I was able with much care to find words in which I could write letters and converse meaning especially of a spiritual nature.I also was able to follow the Divine Services to the "T"! By so doing over a length of time I taught myself to recognize letters and read Russian.This was pre-google translate and such tools as are now availble. I am in no way conversant but have those I know that are.
The English motto "Where there is a will there is a way", has become mine!
There are a few that I know that would like to write to Agafia, so; again, in behalf of all of us, Spasi Hristos!