1)
In her letter to Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna, of February 6/19, 1918, written from Tobolsk, Grand Duchess Olga Nicholaevna informs her that:
"...Elena [Princess Elena Petrovna of Serbia] occasionally writes. She said that Marya and Gulia [Prince S. M. Putiatin and his wife, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, the Younger] are going to have a little one, and Aunt Mavra [Grand Duchess Elizabeth Mavrikievna] announced that 'Ioanchik' [Prince John Constantinovich] was made a subdeacon, and it seems will proceed further in clerical rank. He is terribly pleased, but his wife does not approve. I can understand how she must feel. It seems to me that to be a priest’s wife, a matushka, would not be very merry."
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2)
As most of you know, in the Orthodox Church, the parish clergy — deacons and priests — are married. Monks and bishops take a vow of celibacy.
So the fact that Pr. John was married would not have been an impediment to his being ordained a priest.
3)
Then, in July 2008, a Russian priest posted this intriguing excerpt on a Yahoo Group that discusses church matters.
"Addendum to Tserkovnie Vedomosti, No. 708, March 2/15, 1918, p. 329:
"On March 3, in the St. John Convent on Karpovka [where St. John of Kronstadt is buried in St. Petersburg], during the Divine Liturgy, Prince Ioann Konstantinovich was ordained to the Diaconate. On the following Sunday he was elevated to the rank of priest.”
"Ioann Konstantinovitch is married to the Montenegrin Princess Elena Petrovna, whom he is divorcing, accepting monastic tonsure, and will become, as is expected, elevated to the rank of bishop."
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Of course, Pr. Elena was Serbian, not Montenegrin, and it is highly unlikely that Pr. John was planning to divorce her in order to become a bishop — after all, they still had small children.
Which leaves us all wondering: Is the first part of this announcement, placed in the official publication of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, accurate?
It seems odd that neither of Prince John's sisters, Abbess Tamara and Pr. Vera, ever mentioned that their martyred brother was a priest. But, then again, Prince John's wife and mother are cited by Grand Duchess Olga Nicholaevna as her source for this information.
The priest who originally posted that excerpt in 2008 asked for confirmation or futher details from anyone who might know more about this matter, but, to this day, it doesn't seem that anyone has come forward to add to the tale.
