person
Father Fyodor Orlov
Father Fyodor
also: о. Федор Орлов, Fyodor Ilyich, the archpriest, благочинный
A good-looking, well-fed archpriest (rural dean) of about fifty, dignified, stern, and exhausted from Holy Saturday services; he dictates the harshly worded letter condemning his fellow clergyman's lapsed son as a "pagan." Married, and therefore permanently barred from becoming a bishop despite his evident gift for rhetoric.
Reading notes
- The Letter §1 The archpriest, Father Fyodor Orlov
"Благочинный" (blagochinny) names an office, not a rank: a senior parish priest appointed to oversee and inspect the clergy of a district (a rural dean), answerable to the diocesan bishop. Orlov's authority over Father Anastasy in this story -- and his role in the coming investigation -- flows from this supervisory office, not from any higher ordination.
- The Letter §72 If you hadn't married, Father Fyodor, you'd be a bishop by now
In the Russian Orthodox Church only celibate (monastic) clergy may be consecrated bishops; married priests, however able, are permanently barred from the episcopate. Anastasy's flattering remark is also a real structural fact about Orlov's career ceiling -- his talent for rhetoric can carry him no higher than archpriest because he is married.