172 Before the first diocesan newspaper began publication in 1860, very few obituaries of clergymen were printed. As such news- papers gradually began to open in every diocese, it became standard for priests’ obituaries – usually several pages long – to be published. Te obituaries of rural priests, who comprised approximately ninety percent of all priests, were writen by either their fellow clergymen or their sons. Since they almost always discuss the lives, both personal and profes- sional, of the deceased from cradle to grave, these obituaries provide rich biographical information about village priests. Similar to hagiog- raphy, they also provide an outline of what the author revered in the values he invokes when he praises the deceased, thereby also afording a window into the ideals of the parish clergy. Lastly, because clergy- men and their families were supposed to adhere to a “model piety” that parishioners could strive to emulate, the values described in obituaries shed light on how Russian Orthodox Christians were ideally to live their lives. Te following obituary of a village priest was writen by his son, Ivan Orlovskii (1869–1909), and was published in 1905. Prior to 1869, the parish clergy was a caste-like estate, and clergymen’s sons were required to receive permission from ecclesiastical authorities to obtain secular employment. Ivan’s generation, given secular status at birth, were tech- nically not members of the clerical estate. Yet because most clergymen’s sons continued to receive their education in theological schools, which reserved admission for clergymen’s sons, and because the vast major- ity of clergymen’s families intermarried and very few individuals from An Obituary of Pries Ioann Mikhailovich Orlovskii twelve Laurie Manchester Orthodox Christianity in Imperial Russia : A Source Book on Lived Religion, edited by Heather J. Coleman, Indiana University Press, 2014. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/asulib-ebooks/detail.action?docID=1826991. Created from asulib-ebooks on 2022-11-04 18:34:43. Copyright © 2014. Indiana University Press. All rights reserved.