Molokans

Noun

Molokan (plural Molokans or Molokane or Molokany)

1. A member of a Christian sect that evolved from "Spiritual Christian" Russian peasants who refused to obey the Russian Orthodox Church, beginning in the 1600s in the Russian Empire as an indigenous adaptation of the Protestant movement from Europe. Named for their heresy of eating (including dairy foods), instead of fasting, during Lent.
   • As the Molokany are said to be well supplied with money the chances are that they are less flighty and unpractical than their predecessors, but if ever a National crisis arises here, and they refuse to assist in the defense of their adopted land and its institutions, they may regret that they did...1905 January 13, “Guests of Dubious Desirability”, in The New York Times, volume LIV, number 17,170, New York, N.Y., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 8, column 5
2. A general term used (in place of a specific term) in literature and news in and about the Russian Empire to label a member of any Spiritual Christian sect (real or imagined: Holy Roller, Doukhobor, Sabbatarian, Quaker, Mormon, etc.), pacifist, dissenter, non-conformist, coward, wimp.