person
The Archimandrite
the archimandrite
also: архимандрит, the archimandrite, Father Archimandrite
The elderly, plain-featured, shy head of the N-sky monastery, about seventy, whom the princess showers with rapturous, performative devotion on her visits; he answers her only in clipped, deferential military phrases.
Reading notes
- The Princess §3 the Father Archimandrite
An archimandrite is a senior monastic rank in the Orthodox Church, typically the superior of a monastery, ranking just below a bishop -- addressed with the honorific "your Reverence" or, in more elevated address, treated like minor nobility, which is part of why the princess can call him "ваше сиятельство"-adjacent honors as though he were a courtier.
- The Princess §6 'Just so, Your Excellency... I hear... I understand...'
The archimandrite's clipped, deferential replies ("так точно... слушаю-с... понимаю-с") are stock parade-ground answers of a subordinate to a superior officer, complete with the obsequious "-s" suffix (a fossilized form of "sudar'," "sir/madam") -- Chekhov is quietly noting that even a monastic superior answers a wealthy patroness in the register of military deference, not spiritual authority.