Pilgrims bow to St. Constantine and St. Arcady, Part 4 of 5. Паломники поклоняются святым мощам шамарских чудотворцев, Часть 4 из 5

The local Old Believers invite pilgrims to their homes. Anatoly is our landlord. He is giving shelter to a group of pilgrims in his large wooden house. In the middle of the house stands large russian oven serving as a bed to one of the guests. Anatoly is a father of three sons. He runs a small saw-mill in his barn. The work is hard. It is not easy to move huge logs. Anatoly works alone. He owns a large plot but is able to cultivate only a small part of it. Old Believers are hard-workers. They don't smoke and drink moderately, mostly red wine. Unlike other places in Russia here you can see elderly men walking along the streets! It is amazing thing taking into account the fact that average life expectancy of a man in Russia is only 59 years so you will not see a single elderly man in Moscow metro. Many families in Shamary have five and more children. Old Believers are suspicious to such "benefits" as television. Large part of Shamary population are Old Believers. But the ruling Moscow Patriarchate has a rival new-rite temple in this small village and people say that plans exist to reopen a new-rite missionary monastery here! Is the ruling New-Rite Russian Church really keen to wipe Old Rite Russian Church off the face of the earth? If this occures, the final result will be that Chinese come and replace the Russians in this country.
According to Alexander Solzhenitsyn, in 19th Century there were 12 million of Orthodox Old Believers in Russia. Solzhenitsyn thinks that Old Believers represent the best part of Russian people. Many modern researchers share the opinion that the 20th Century disasters of Russia are the consequences of 17th Century schism of Russian Orthodox Church.
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