person
Father Paisy
also: о. Паисий, Paisy
A priest connected to Chekhov's own family (identified only through the letter's unnamed 'uncle,', who had both financed him and supplied gossip about him); recently raised to archimandrite and reportedly linked to the Abyssinian missionary interest stirred up by the Ashinov affair, with a history of erratic, possibly fugitive behavior (having once fled without a passport) and a scandal involving his wife and 'loose women' too delicate to publish. Provisional identification pending further research; distinct from the unrelated fictional building porter in "From the Diary of an Assistant Bookkeeper."
Reading notes
- To A. S. Suvorin, 14 February 1889. Moscow. §6 What I know about Father Paisy
SENSITIVITY: this passage and \S7 concern a genuinely delicate family matter -- a priest connected to Chekhov's own family, involving his wife, alleged 'loose women,' fanaticism, and financial dependence on Chekhov's unnamed uncle. Chekhov himself treats it as too intimate to make public without permission. The translation renders this plainly and without added commentary or softening, per corpus policy of faithful, unsoftened rendering; this note flags the sensitivity for editorial awareness, not to editorialize on the content itself.
- To A. S. Suvorin, 14 February 1889. Moscow. §7 his new rank (archimandrite), Abyssinia
Chekhov links Paisy's recent promotion to archimandrite and his interest in Abyssinia to the same missionary fervor stirred up by the contemporary Ashinov affair (\S5), suggesting Paisy may have been caught up in the same wave of Russian Orthodox missionary enthusiasm toward the Horn of Africa.
- To M. Ye. Chekhov, 13 March 1891. Petersburg. §3 Archimandrite Paisy
The same Father Paisy first discussed, still provisionally, in (1889), where Chekhov describes him as connected to "my uncle" -- who had financed him and supplied intimate, unpublishable gossip about a scandal -- and as recently raised to the rank of archimandrite. This letter, two years later, confirms the connection: it is Mitrofan Yegorovich himself (Chekhov's uncle, the addressee here) who has evidently asked after Paisy's whereabouts, and Chekhov reports he is now at the Sarov Hermitage, found via an inquiry at the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.