62 BULLETIN 148, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



music is permitted, but the mass is generally accompanied by choral 

 singing, and the choirs are composed entirely of men and boys. 



The Orthodox Church consists at the present of 16 separate in- 

 dependent branches, who profess the same faith, use the same liturgy 

 (though in different languages), and are in communion with one 

 another. They are: 1-4, the patriarchates of Constantinople, Alex- 

 andria in Egypt, Antioch in Syria, and Jerusalem in Palestine; 5, 

 Cyprus; 6, Russia; 7, Carlowitz; 8, Hermannstadt (both in Austria- 

 Hungary); 9, Czernowitz in the Bukovina; 10, Bosnia and Herze- 

 govina; 11, Serbia; 12, Montenegro; 13, Bulgaria; 14, Rumania; 15, 

 Greece, and 16, Mount Sinai, consisting of only the monastery, 



THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH 



Russia received its Christianity in the tenth century, under Olga 

 and Vladimir the Great (984-1015), from Constantinople. The 

 Russian Church entirely agrees in doctrine and ritual with the other 

 branches of the Orthodox Church, while in administration it is dis- 

 tinct. At first under the jurisdiction of the patriarch of Constan- 

 tinople, it became in 1589 independent, establishing its own patriarch 

 in Moscow. Peter the Great (1689-1725) abolished the patriarchate 

 and set up the Holy Directing Synod in 1721 to rule the church of 

 Russia. ^^ 



The church in Russia is administered by 86 bishops, of whom 3, 

 those of Kiev, Moscow, and Petrograd, are always metropolitans, and 

 14 are archbishops. There are 481 monasteries for men and 249 

 convents for nuns. In America the Russian Church is represented 

 by an archbishop of Aleutia and North America with two suffragans, 

 the bishops of Alaska (with residence in San Francisco) and 

 Brooklyn. 



There are in Russia a great number of sects, most of which ac- 

 knowledge the doctrinal basis of the oriental church, but reject the 

 liturgy of the Russian Church as changed by the patriarch Nicon 

 (1654). They are called by the state church Rascolniki (separa- 

 tists) while they call themselves Starnovyertzi (of the old faith). 



266. Russian cover for altar table. — Made of purple croisson silk, 

 with a cross in the center. The sanctuary in an eastern church is 

 separated from the main body of church by the image screen (iconos- 

 tas), and the laity is not allowed there. In the middle, before the 

 "royal gates," stands the altar, called "throne," a solid square 

 stone, covered with a linen cloth down to the ground all around. 

 Over the linen cloth is laid a covering of some rich material, repre- 

 senting the "glory of God." Besides the "throne" is another table, 

 called the "altar of sacrifice" (prothesis) , on which are the sacred 

 vessels used in the celebration of the mass. These consist of the 



" Since the revolution of 1917 the patriarchate of Moscow has been restored. 



