The article deals with the history of relations between the Orthodox Church and the state and society. The importance of the religious component as a factor that played one of the key roles in the relationship between the state and society in Russia in the 19th - early 20th centuries is emphasized. The history of the development of responsibility for crimes against faith is traced. Particular attention is paid to this type of religious crime as sacrilege. The definition of “sacrilege” is given as a property encroachment directed at sacred or consecrated objects, as well as at church property. A detailed description of this type of crime is given and, using examples of judicial precedents of the law enforcement practice of the Russian Empire of the 19th century, its features are shown. The novelty of the study lies in the fact that it traces the evolution of the concept of “sacrilege” in Russian legislation of the 19th - early 20th centuries and determines the main trends in the field of law enforcement in relation to these crimes. It is proved that, despite the all-Russian tendency to gradually mitigate punishments for committing many religious crimes at the beginning of the 20th century, mitigation of responsibility in relation to sacrilege did not happen.