The Khlysts or Khlysty (, "whips") were an underground Spiritual Christian sect, which split from the Russian Orthodox Church and existed from the 1600s until the late 20th century. The New Israel sect that descended from the Khlysts still exists today in Uruguay. Name The members of the sect referred to themselves by various names, including "God's People" (liudi bozh'i), "followers of Christ's faith" (Khristovovery), or simply "Christs" (Khristy). The appellation "Khlysty" is a derogatory term applied by critics of the sect. The origin of the term is disputed. It is probably a corruption of the group's aforementioned self-designation of Khristy, but may also allude to the sect's practice of ritual self-flagellation; the Russian word khlyst means a "whip" or "thin rod". It is also possible that the word is related to the Greek word Khiliaste (meaning "chiliast" or "millennialist"), or klyster ("one that purges"). Origins According to its own oral tradition, the sect was founded in 1645 by Danilo Filippov (or Daniil Filippovich), a peasant of Kostroma and a runaway soldier. He was said to have become a "living god" after the Lord of Hosts descended upon him on Gorodino Hill, Vladimir Oblast. He delivered twelve commandments to his disciples, which forbade (among other things) sexual intercourse, drinking and swearing. He later named as his successor Ivan Suslov, a peasant of Murom. Suslov, transformed by Filippov into a "new Christ", acquired a following of twelve apostles, along with a woman who was given the title of "Mother of God". The tradition relates that Suslov was crucified twice by the Russian authorities, but rose from the dead each time. There is no written evidence to support this story, or to confirm the existence of Filippov. The first historical references to the Khlysty are found in the writings of the Old Believers, a Christian community which resisted the 17th-century reforms of the Russian State Church. The Old Believers condemned the Khlysty as heretics, and warnings about them can be found in letters dating from around the 1670s. The Orthodox Church also attacked the Khlysty; Dimitry of Rostov wrote against them in An Investigation of the Schismatic Faith (c. 1709). Suslov died around 1716, at which time Prokofii Lupkin became the new "Christ". The oral tradition claims that Lupkin was the son of Filippov, but this is unlikely to be true. Lupkin was a trader, and made use of his frequent journeys