Back to Bp Daniel for a minute. So he was allowed to continue as an Old Believer through his 5 years of Jordanville ? How did he manage to attend services, then ?
Assuredly, it's better that this Old Believer, formerly known as Dmitri Borisovich Alexandrov, joined Rocor than elsewhere. But I thought I read what you wrote, NCYet, earlier, as saying that he was allowed to stay in the Old Rite UNTIL
graduation, when he would have been expected to join the Nikonian Church.
Bp Daniel's case is puzzling indeed. Then there is his student, a relatively recent Bp John, consecrated in 2008 and given the title of 'of Caracas'.
Caracas was where St John Maximovitch's parents lived. As an aside, why were they not allowed to come to America, especially after St John was named Acting and then Ruling Archbishop of San Francisco ? Another puzzling aspect to Rocor history. Did they repose in Venezuela ? Does anyone visit their graves and take care of the site ? Do priests serve pannikhidas for them, the noble parents of the Wonderworker of the age ?
Another connection between St John and Old Believers is in the fact the iconographer Pimen Sofronov - who taught the future Bp Daniel of Erie and worked with him on various churches - was selected to fresco the Saint's crypt underneath Holy Virgin Cathedral. Personally, I would have much preferred that Nikolai Zadorozhny, an émigré from the Harbin region, had been awarded this honor, as I vastly prefer his style.
Why would an Old Believer - no matter how skilled an iconographer - been chosen ? Again puzzling.
I don't even care for Pimen Sofronov's icons adorning the walls and ceiling of St John's original burial place. They are OK but rather cold. One does not feel quite right looking at them ; rather, a little alienated. To me, it dimmed a little of the light in that holy room, now fixed up as a proper chapel. That is only my reaction ; doubtless many others like Sofronov's work.