[Agrarian]

Very nice article -- thanks for the translation. And thanks for the ping, jb6. I was a bit confused by the title, expecting something Catholic because of the "saying mass" bit -- Orthodox and also Eastern Catholics would say that a priest "serves the Liturgy," but the idea is clear.

It is interesting that he has all of those medals on him. I've never seen an Orthodox priest with those -- I wonder if they are military medals, since generally Orthodox awards to priests come in different forms. The Russian Church has a particularly complex system of awards (gold cross, jeweled cross, palitsa, miter, etc...) that I can't even begin to understand. But none of them are these kinds of medals.

[Romanov]

They're most military medals, I think I also saw an Order of Lenin, but not 100% sure. That's a strange medal for a priest to wear...

[struwwelpeter]

The priest didn't take Holy Orders until 1961, and served as a combat field medic in WWII. What I found most interesting was this statement:

In answer to the question, what awakened this faith in him - was it what he witnessed or experienced during the war? The answer is - no, not even the war. He simply grew up in a religious family. He always attended church, even during those days when it was - to put it mildly - frowned upon. And despite being scolded: 'How could you, you're a komsomolets!', attending God's services became for Lev Avdeevich - Father Levan - a conscious and strong free choice, while faith became a beacon which lit his path during his entire life.