Lipovan

Lipovans or Lippovans (Old Faith Believers, Old Rite Followers) are a small (about 40,000) Slavic ethnic group of Russian origin residing in the delta of the Danube River in Tulcea county of eastern Romania.

They emigrated from Russia over 200 years ago as dissenters with the mainline Russian Orthodox Church. They settled along the Prut River in modern Ukraine and in the Danube delta. They have maintained strong religious traditions that predate the reforms of the Russian Orthodox Church undertaken during the reign of Patriarch Nikon.

Sources

• Second-Hand Souls: Selected Writing by Nichita Danilov (translated from Romanian by Sean Cotter),
• Les Lipovenes, qui sont-ils?, in the French language,
• Council of Europe: Romanian Site of Citizenship,
• Agnosticism/Atheism with Austin Cline: Romania: Religious Freedom Report 1999 at About.com