AGAFIA'S STORY: OLD HERMIT LIVES ALONE DEEP IN SIBERIAN FOREST, SEEKS HELP (STA BREAKING NEWS and ARCHIVES)

by STANews , Thursday, September 18, 2014, 08:49

Photo by RT

Russian babushka Agafia, whose family fled civilization nearly a century ago, was born in the wilderness of the deep Siberian taiga. RT visited Agafia, who is the only living person of a family of the 'Old Believers' denomination of the Orthodox church.

In the mid-17th century, the leader of Russia’s Orthodox church, Patriarch Nikon, introduced radical reforms in Russia. Many couldn’t accept the changes and became known as 'Old Believers.'

To avoid religious persecution first from the Orthodox Church and then from the Soviets, many families fled to some of the most remote corners of the country.

In 1978, one such family was discovered by a group of geologists in the remote Russian Republic of Khakassia, Siberia. The Lykovs, a family with four children, hadn’t seen other human beings for decades.

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http://rt.com/news/188532-russia-agafia-siberian-forest/