Skoptzy

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The Skoptzy (Cyrillic alphabet скопцы, also transliterated as Skoptzi, Skoptsi, Scoptsy and other spellings) were a secret sect of Christianity in Russia. It was an offshoot of the sect known as the "People of God". The name itself is a plural of "skopets", which is a now-archaic word meaning "castrated one" in the Russian language.

The Skoptsi were first discovered by the civil authorities in 1771 in the Orel region. A peasant, Andrei Ivanov, was convicted of having persuaded thirteen other peasants to castrate themselves. His assistant was another peasant, known as Kondratii Selivanov. A legal investigation followed. Ivanov was knouted and sent to Siberia. Selivanov fled, but was arrested in 1775.

Skoptsism, however, increased, and Selivanov escaped from Siberia and proclaimed himself the Son of God incarnate in the person of the late Peter III of Russia. Peter had been popular among the Raskolniks (schismatics, or dissidents) because he granted them liberty of conscience, and among the peasants because when pillaging the convents he divided their lands among the labourers. Selivanov claimed the title "God of Gods and King of Kings," and announced his accomplishment of the salvation of believers through self-inflicted sexual mutilation.

For eighteen years he lived in St Petersburg, in the house of one of his disciples, receiving double homage as Christ and tsar. In 1797 he was rearrested by order of Tsar Paul I and imprisoned in a madhouse. Under Alexander I Selivanov regained his liberty, but in 1820 was again shut up, this time in a monastery at Suzdal, where he died in 1832 in his hundredth year. Skoptsism was, however, not exterminated, and grave scandals constantly arose.

The most remarkable feature of this extraordinary sect has always been the type of people who joined it. Nobles, military and naval officers, civil servants, priests and merchants were to be found in its ranks, and so rapidly did the numbers increase that 515 men and 240 women were transported to Siberia between 1847 and 1866 without seriously threatening its existence. In, 187? many trials of Skoptsi took place all over Russia. In 1874 the sect numbered at least 5444, including 1465 women. Of these 703 men and 100 women had mutilated themselves.

Repressive measures were tried along with ridicule: Skoptsi were dressed up in women's clothes and paraded with fools' caps on through the villages. In 1876, 130 Skoptsi were sentenced in a batch to transportation. To escape prosecution some of the sect emigrated, generally to Romania, where some of them have mixed with old believer exiles known as Lipovans. The well-known Romanian writer I.L. Caragiale acknowledges that toward the end of the 19th century all the horse-powered cabs in Bucharest were driven by Russian skoptzy (scopiti in Romanian). But though the law was strict in Russia — every eunuch being compelled to register — Skoptsism continued to hold its own.

As their title indicates, the main feature of the sect was sexual mutilation. This they called their "baptism of fire." Of this there were two kinds, the "lesser" and "greater seal" (i.e. partial and complete mutilation). In this the Skoptsi maintained that they were fulfilling Christ's counsel of perfection in Matthew xix. 12 and xviii. 8, 9. A terrible operation with similar purpose was sometimes performed on the women. The earliest records of such female genital mutilations date from 1815. Usually the breasts only were amputated, according to the 1911 encyclopedia. Other accounts suggest that the labia were also removed.

The Skoptsi did not absolutely condemn marriage, and some were allowed to have one child, those at Bucharest two, before being fully admitted. They were not pessimists, desiring the end of the species, but aim rather at the perfection of the individual. Their religious ceremonies include hymn-singing, addresses and frenzied dancing ending in ecstasy, like that of the Chlysty and the Muslim whirling dervishes. Strict oaths of secrecy were demanded from all members, who form a kind of mutual-aid association.

Meetings were held late at night in cellars, and last till dawn. At these the men wore long, wide, white shirts of a peculiar cut with a girdle and large white trousers. Women also dressed in white. Either all present wore white stockings or were barefoot. They called themselves "White Doves."

The society was not always content with proselytism. Bribes and violence were used, children were bought from poor parents and brought up in the faith^{[citation needed]}. The Skoptsi were millenarians, and looked for a Messiah who would establish an empire of the saints, i.e. the pure. But they did not believe the Messiah would come until the Skoptsi number 144,000 (Rev. xiv. I, 4), and all their efforts were directed to reaching this total. The Skoptsi's favorite trade was that of money-changer, and in St. Petersburg there was for long a bench known as the "Skoptzy's Bench." By 1911, there was said to have been a tendency on the part of many Skoptsi to consider their creed fulfilled by chaste living alone.

The Skoptsi sect is believed to now be defunct.

[edit] See also

Shakers - believed in total chastity
Origenes - Christian author who castrated himself

[edit] References

Anatole Leroy-Beaulieu, The Empire of the Tsars (Eng. trans., 1896), vol. iii.
E. Pelikan, Geschichtlich-medizinische Untersuchungen über das Skopzentum in Rußland (Gießen, 1876)
K. K. Grass, Die geheime heilige Schrift der Skopzen (Leipzig, 1904) and Die russischen Sekten (Leipzig 1907 &c).
Engelstein, Laura (1999). Castration and the heavenly kingdom: a Russian folktale. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press. ISBN 0-8014-3676-1.

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.