Russian wandering

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In the history of Russian Orthodox religion the tradition of wandering (Russian: странничество, strannichestvo) was a special way of life, a form of piety, devotion, and the search of God, which consisted in rejecting the earthly ways of life. A person was called странник, strannik, literally "wanderer". It is similar to the concept of (Christian) pilgrimage and often is translated in English with this term. However, in Russian language pilgrimage is denoted by a different word: (Russian: паломничество, palomnichestvo). The major distinction is that pilgrimage has a finite goal: a visit of some holy place, while strannichectvo is the wandering way of life.^[1] It should be distinguished from aimless wandering, or wandering of the poor, vagrancy. For the purpose of this distinction, the terms "spiritual wandering" and "holy wanderer" were used.^[2]

Strannichestvo did evolve from the Christian tradition of pilgrimage. Some pilgrims carried out pilgrimage into several places spending a considerable part of their life for this. Over time it has evolved into a particular kind of spiritual feat, which could include pilgrimage. Stranniks were welcome by Russian common folk. In return for hospitality, strangers described the holy (and other) places they visited, peddled holy relics and texts.^[2]

Unlike European mendicant orders, Russian stranniks were ordinary people, rather than monks.^[3]

Superficially a Russian strannik and a vagrant looked alike in their way of life. The main difference is that for a strannik peregrination is a spiritual value, while for a vagrant or a travelling beggar it is an inevitable hapless state due to overwhelming circumstances.^[3]

In the last quarter of the 18th century, a priestless Old Believers tolk (denomination) emerged, who declared that the only way of salvation from the Antichrist was the clandestine, fugitive way of life. The reason for that was the belief that Peter the Great with his reform of the Russian church was the Antichrist and all state institutions are those of the Antichrist. This denomination was called stranniki ("wanderers") or beguny [ru] ("runaways").^[4]

• The Wanderer, a 1867 poem by Apollon Maykov
• The Enchanted Wanderer, a 1873 novel by Nikolai Leskov

• Yurodivy
• Asceticism
• Dziady (wandering beggars)
• Kalika