Russian Orthodox Church

The Russian Orthodox Church , also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (Russian: Московский патриархат, romanized: Moskovskiy patriarkhat), is an <a href="/facts/Autocephaly/qngSvDo7">autocephalous</a> <a href="/facts/Eastern_Orthodox_Church/5n20Akh5">Eastern Orthodox Christian</a> church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The <a href="/facts/Primate_(bishop)/N60QPnf0">primate</a> of the ROC is the <a href="/facts/Patriarch_of_Moscow_and_all_Rus%2527/p6ljc41N">patriarch of Moscow and all Rus'</a>.
The <a href="/facts/History_of_the_Russian_Orthodox_Church/A3xUnL6S">history of the ROC</a> begins with the <a href="/facts/Christianization_of_Kievan_Rus%2527/choLUG12">Christianization of Kievan Rus'</a>, which commenced in 988 with the <a href="/facts/Baptism/wEY6gtGA">baptism</a> of <a href="/facts/Vladimir_the_Great/0AQqr2mf">Vladimir the Great</a> and his subjects by the clergy of the <a href="/facts/Ecumenical_Patriarch_of_Constantinople/KtWbL8K8">ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople</a>. Starting in the 14th century, <a href="/facts/Moscow/AcFYpQUR">Moscow</a> served as the primary residence of the Russian <a href="/facts/List_of_metropolitans_and_patriarchs_of_Moscow/WNj6FJ5d">metropolitan</a>. The ROC declared <a href="/facts/Autocephaly/qngSvDo7">autocephaly</a> in 1448 when it elected its own metropolitan. In 1589, the metropolitan was elevated to the position of patriarch with the consent of Constantinople. In the mid-17th century, a series of reforms led to <a href="/facts/Schism_of_the_Russian_Church/mTXtr4Dd">a schism in the Russian Church</a>, as the <a href="/facts/Old_Believers/E0IVqAgk">Old Believers</a> opposed the changes.
The ROC currently claims exclusive <a href="/facts/Canonical_territory/XTe6Y8a2">jurisdiction</a> over the Eastern Orthodox Christians, irrespective of their ethnic background, who reside in the former <a href="/facts/Republics_of_the_Soviet_Union/slVCXCrh">member republics</a> of the <a href="/facts/Soviet_Union/m7wWsPto">Soviet Union</a>, excluding <a href="/facts/Georgia_(country)/ccBF8bBE">Georgia</a>. The ROC also created the <a href="/facts/Autocephaly/qngSvDo7">autonomous</a> <a href="/facts/Orthodox_Church_in_Japan/Ujr1xzm6">Church of Japan</a> and <a href="/facts/Chinese_Orthodox_Church/JPwhxQD0">Chinese Orthodox Church</a>. The ROC <a href="/facts/Diocese/Uts2PByI">eparchies</a> in <a href="/facts/Belarusian_Orthodox_Church/6rFDNeIN">Belarus</a> and <a href="/facts/Latvian_Orthodox_Church/37rxT8dz">Latvia</a>, since the fall of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, enjoy various degrees of self-government, albeit short of the status of formal ecclesiastical autonomy.
The ROC should also not be confused with the <a href="/facts/Russian_Orthodox_Church_Outside_of_Russia/aboB9YtW">Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia</a> (or ROCOR, also known as the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad), headquartered in the <a href="/facts/United_States/P0sCdLe5">United States</a>. The ROCOR was instituted in the 1920s by Russian communities outside the <a href="/facts/Soviet_Union/m7wWsPto">Soviet Union</a>, which had refused to recognise the authority of the Moscow Patriarchate that was de facto headed by <a href="/facts/Metropolitan_bishop/p0M89wH9">Metropolitan</a> <a href="/facts/Patriarch_Sergius_of_Moscow/A8WvRBp7">Sergius Stragorodsky</a>. The two churches <a href="/facts/Act_of_Canonical_Communion_with_the_Moscow_Patriarchate/6JCps93B">reconciled on 17 May 2007</a>; the ROCOR is now a self-governing part of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Russian Orthodox Church open-in-new

Russian Orthodox Church