The Cossacks are traditionally associated with the social stronghold of the Russian Orthodox Church, with a group of the most righteous champions of the Orthodox faith. However, the Don Cossacks went through a long historical path before they found themselves in the bosom of the Mother Church and became its modern defenders from unrighteous attacks. Faith for the Don Cossacks initially represented a broader concept of life than just a religious feeling, extending into mental models of behaviour, often being fixed exclusively in material objects, expressed in a rather situational pilgrimage. In the historical everyday life of the Cossacks, a rationalistic attitude towards religious faith, which is not typical for other social groups, can be traced. Such pragmatism stemmed from a special military type of religiosity, initially formed on the frontier territory of the Wild Field, where the origins of the Russian Cossacks were laid, from where through the centuries the Cossacks carried their noble attitude towards God and the Christian faith.

They had their own historical road towards the Orthodox church, much longer and more controversial than that of other groups of the Russian population, but this makes its final results no less significant. “The Second Sun of the Don” - the Ascension Military Cathedral in Novocherkassk - is historically the second of the three Patriarchal Cathedrals in modern Russia. But it was rivaled in architectural splendour and interior decoration by the St. Nicholas Old Believer Cathedral, which reflected by its very existence at the beginning of the twentieth century the strongest positions of the Old Believers on the Don, and in the church the service was led by the Old Believer Archbishop John Kartushin. Among the Don Cossacks, heterodoxy also became widespread, and among its historical examples, spirit bearers stand out, and today Kalmyk Cossacks remain committed to the Buddhist (Lamaite) religion. However, despite the existence of various variants of religious faith among the Don Cossacks, the positions of the Russian Orthodox Church today are dominant and unshakable on the Don.

pilgrimage, military type of religiosity, heterodoxy, Cossacks, priesthood, Old Believers, temple

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