 In the 18th - 19th centuries, the Popovtsy lived in communities on the Vetka Island on the Sozh River, in Starodub, along the Irgiz River, in monasteries of the province of Nizhny Novgorod along the Kerzhenets River, although they were scattered throughout Russia and even far beyond its boundaries.In the late 18th - early 19th century their spiritual centre was located in Moscow at the Rogozhskoye cemetery.In 1846, the Popovtsy convinced Amvrosii (Popovich, 1791-1863), a deposed Greek Orthodox bishop of Bosnia (who had been removed under Turkish pressure) to become an Old Believer and to consecrate three Russian Old Believers priests as bishops.