Thread: Who the hell are you, Ваше Сиятельство?

Friends, can anybody help me to complete this table of Russian-English titles. I was looking for the material for my project and got really confused.

Ваше Величество - (king) - Your Majesty
Ваше Высочество - (prince) - Your Highness
Ваше Превосходительство - (military commanders) - (?)
Ваша Честь - (dudge) - Your Honor
Ваша Светлость -(regular aristocrat (?) - (?)
Ваше Сиятельство - (?) - (?)
Ваше Преосвященство - (high level of priesthood) - (?)
Ваше Преподобие - (high level of priesthood) - Your Eminence

I almost choked on my food when I saw the subject title. Принц Сомали thought it was someone curious enquiring about his mysterious personage. As far as the honorable name calling thing goes I'm not too sure which one exactly means what.

Originally Posted by chubby

Friends, can anybody help me to complete this table of Russian-English titles. I was looking for the material for my project and got really confused.

Ваше Величество - (king) - Your Majesty
Ваше Высочество - (prince) - Your Highness
Ваше Превосходительство - (military commanders) - (?)
Ваша Честь - (dudge) - Your Honor
Ваша Светлость -(regular aristocrat (?) - (?)
Ваше Сиятельство - (?) - (?)
Ваше Преосвященство - (high level of priesthood) - (?)
Ваше Преподобие - (high level of priesthood) - Your Eminence

Ваша Светлость -- to the lesser or distant relatives of the royal family; to "светлейший князь" -- a special "duke with distinction" title, normally granted for a very remarkable accomplishment, to foreign sovereign dukes (such as the Grand Duke of Luxembourg) -- "Your Grace".

Ваше Сиятельство -- to the other nobles -- "Your Lordship".

There are also "Your Imperial Majesty", "Ваше Императорское Величество", to the Emperor and his wife.

"Your Imperial Highness", "Ваше Императорское Высочество", to the Russian Grand Dukes (Великие Князья), children and grandchildren of the Emperor. Notice that just "Your Highness" is used for the other princes, who are not Grand Dukes. That's the decreasing order of importance:

Ваше Императорское Величество/Your Imperial Majesty
Ваше Императорское Высочество/Your Imperial Highness
Ваше Высочество/Your Highness
Ваша Светлость/Your Grace
Ваше Сиятельство/Your Lordship
Ваше Благородие/Sir (that's for the nobles without any title)

bad manners, thank you very much! It was a lot of work for you. You are a God-send to me.

By the way, do you know the difference between Ваше Преосвященство and Bаше Преподобие? Isn't one of them a catholic and another an orthodox?

Originally Posted by chubby

bad manners, thank you very much! It was a lot of work for you. You are a God-send to me.

By the way, do you know the difference between Ваше Преосвященство and Bаше Преподобие? Isn't one of them a catholic and another an orthodox?

я твой враг, chubby,мы убежим, HA HA HA HA

Originally Posted by chubby

bad manners, thank you very much! It was a lot of work for you. You are a God-send to me.

By the way, do you know the difference between Ваше Преосвященство and Bаше Преподобие? Isn't one of them a catholic and another an orthodox?

There are five different terms. In the increasing order:

Ваше Преподобие (диакон, иерей, иеромонах)
Ваше Высокопреподобие (архидиакон, протодиакон, протоиерей, архимандрит, схиархимандрит)
Ваше Преосвященство (епископ)
Ваше Высокопреосвященство (архиепископ, митрополит)
Ваше Святейшество (Патриарх Московский и всея Руси)

Translating that into English is not very straightforward. I know the following terms in English (increasing order):

Your Lordship, Your Excellence (bishop, obviously equivalent to Ваше Преосвященство)
Your Grace, Your Excellence (archbishop, apparently equ. to Ваше Высокопреосвященство)
Your Eminence (cardinal, might be equ. to Ваше Высокопреосвященство)
Your Beatitude (patriarch, no real equivalent in Russian)
Your Holiness (Pope, apparently equal to Ваше Святейшество)

As you can see, there are no equivalents to Ваше Преподобие and Ваше Высокопреподобие; they are simply addressed as "father", quite similraly to the Russian "отец" and "батюшка", which are used for the ranks below "епископ", from whence "Владыко" is used.