Can Orthodox Priests Marry? Rules, Wives and Bishops

Can Orthodox priests marry? Yes, but in a set order: a man marries first and is ordained afterwards. A married man can become a deacon, then a priest; a priest ordained single can no longer take a wife. Bishops are chosen from among monks and are never married. The rule goes back to the early centuries, the Orthodox Council of Crete restated it in 2016, and the Russian Church applies it strictly. Here is who can be married among the clergy, what happens when a priest is widowed, who the matushka is, why Catholics took a different path, and what it means if you marry in a Russian Orthodox church.

The short answer: yes, but before ordination

The principle fits in one sentence. The Orthodox council held in Crete in June 2016 put it this way: the priesthood is not in itself an impediment to marriage, but under the canonical tradition in force (canon 3 of the Quinisext Council), entering into marriage after ordination is prohibited. The Russian Church did not attend that council, but it applies the same rule, and draws the line even earlier: the document on the canonical aspects of church marriage, adopted by its Council of Bishops in 2017, rules out a church wedding for any member of the clergy from the rank of subdeacon upward.

In practice, a seminarian who wants to be both a priest and a married man has to decide beforehand: marry, then be ordained deacon, then priest. Once he is ordained, the door closes. This discipline rests on very old rules:

• the Apostolic Canons (canon 26) allow only readers and cantors to marry after entering the clergy;
• the Council in Trullo, also called the Quinisext Council, held in Constantinople in 691-692, forbids subdeacons, deacons and priests to marry after ordination, on pain of deposition (canon 6);
• the same council forbids bishops to live with a wife (canon 12);
• it explicitly rejects the Roman practice that required married priests to give up married life (canon 13).

Key takeaway: a married man can become an Orthodox priest; an Orthodox priest cannot become a married man. Everything is decided before ordination.

Deacons, priests, bishops: who can be married

The Orthodox Church distinguishes two kinds of clergy. The white clergy (белое духовенство) serve in parishes: deacons and priests, most of them married, or single men without monastic vows. The black clergy (чёрное духовенство) are the monks, bound by a vow of celibacy; bishops are chosen from among them.

Sources: Apostolic Canons 17, 18 and 26; Council in Trullo, canons 6 and 12; Council of Crete (2016); Russian Orthodox Church, document "On the canonical aspects of church marriage" (2017).

The wife has to meet conditions too. The Apostolic Canons exclude from the priesthood a man married twice after baptism (canon 17), or married to a widow or a divorced woman (canon 18). A priest's future wife is therefore in her first marriage, as he is, and she is Orthodox.

Bishops are always monks

At first nothing prevented a bishop from being married, and several bishops of the early centuries were. The Council in Trullo required the wife of a man elected bishop to separate from him by mutual agreement and enter a distant monastery (canon 48). Practice then settled: Orthodox bishops are chosen from among monks. A widowed priest can take monastic vows, and the path to the episcopate is then open to him.

One wife only: widowhood, divorce and remarriage

This is the hardest point of Orthodox discipline, and the one under debate today. A priest marries once. If he is widowed or divorced, he cannot remarry and remain a priest: the canons provide for his deposition. A Russian priest widowed at thirty therefore has three options: stay single, become a monk, or leave the priesthood to remarry.

For lay people the rule is far more flexible: the Church blesses a first marriage and accepts a second, even a third, as our article on remarrying in the Orthodox Church explains. The priest is held to a higher standard than his parishioners.

The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, which holds a primacy of honour in the Orthodox world, has started to soften this rule:

• in September 2018, its Holy Synod decided to allow, case by case, the remarriage of priests who were widowed or abandoned by their wives, with the ceremony reduced to a prayer in the family circle; a priest who leaves his wife for another woman remains excluded;
• in October 2019, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America forwarded the requests of three priests;
• in July 2025, a divorced priest from the Boston area was allowed to remarry and keep serving.

Several Orthodox Churches criticised this shift, the Russian Church among them, which saw it in 2018 as a departure from canonical tradition. In 2019, the Bulgarian Church's Metropolitan of Vidin summed up the objection: the Church has established that one cannot marry after ordination.

Key takeaway: an Orthodox lay person can remarry in church, up to three times; a priest of the Russian Church, never. Only the Patriarchate of Constantinople has granted exceptions, case by case, since 2018.

The matushka: the priest's wife

In Russia, people call a priest батюшка (batyushka, "little father") and his wife матушка (matushka, "little mother"). The word is both affectionate and respectful; parishioners use it on its own, as a title. The old popular term, попадья (popadya), survives mostly in folk tales and literature. The title changes from one Orthodox country to the next, whether or not it is one of the Slavic countries.

Sources: common usage in the local Orthodox Churches.

The same titles crossed the Atlantic: in North America, a priest's wife is called Matushka in parishes of Russian tradition, including the Orthodox Church in America, Presvytera in Greek parishes and Khouria in Antiochian ones.

No canon defines her role, but it is real. The matushka shares the life of a family entirely built around the parish: Sunday and feast-day services, transfers decided by the bishop, often modest income. She frequently sings in the choir, teaches Sunday school or looks after parishioners.

Priestly dynasties

Orthodox priests have children, and many have large families. In imperial Russia, the clergy formed a genuine social estate, the духовное сословие: priests' sons went to seminary, their daughters married seminarians, and a parish often passed to the son-in-law of the priest who served it. That pipeline shaped far more than the Church: the physiologist Ivan Pavlov, Nobel laureate in medicine in 1904, the writer Nikolai Chernyshevsky and the painter Viktor Vasnetsov were all priests' sons who went through seminary.

Why Catholics chose celibacy and the Orthodox did not

During the first millennium, East and West both ordained married men. The paths then diverged. In the West, the demand for clerical continence spread until the Second Lateran Council, in 1139, declared null any marriage contracted by clerics from subdeacon upward. In the East, the Council in Trullo chose the opposite as early as 691-692: it protected the marriage of priests, citing the Roman practice in order to reject it.

The line is less clear-cut than people think, because the Catholic Church also has married priests:

• the Eastern Catholic Churches (Ukrainian Greek Catholic, Maronite, Melkite and Romanian Greek Catholic, among others) ordain married men under the same rule as the Orthodox: marriage before ordination, celibate bishops;
• former Anglican clergymen who are married and become Catholic can be ordained priests, notably in the ordinariates created by Benedict XVI in 2009;
• permanent deacons, restored by the Second Vatican Council, can be married men;
• in 2019, the synod on the Amazon proposed ordaining married men in remote regions; Pope Francis did not take up the proposal in his exhortation Querida Amazonia in 2020.

Sources: Council of Crete (2016); 1983 Code of Canon Law, canon 277; Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, canon 373.

What it means for your church wedding

If you marry a Russian Orthodox woman in church, in Russia or abroad, the priest who receives you is quite likely a married man and a father. The rite itself, the crowns, the exchange of rings and the paperwork are covered in our guide to getting married in a Russian Orthodox church, and the Russian wedding traditions fill in the family side.

Since 2022 I have helped Western men marry Russian women, and when the plan includes a church wedding, my advice to the men I accompany does not change:

• address the priest as "Father" followed by his first name (отец Андрей, Father Andrei), or "batyushka" if your future wife does; never by his surname;
• don't be surprised to meet his wife and children at church: the matushka is part of the parish, and asking her advice is perfectly natural;
• if you are Catholic, say so at the first meeting: a mixed marriage is possible in the Russian Church, but it requires the bishop's agreement, and each priest has his own sensibility; our article on Orthodox-Catholic mixed marriage sets out the conditions;
• plan the preparation ahead: the 2017 document recommends that the couple go to confession and take communion before the ceremony; for a non-Orthodox groom, the question is settled with the priest.

Frequently asked questions

Can an Orthodox priest marry after ordination?

No. Marriage must come before ordination to the diaconate; in the Russian Church, it must even come before the subdiaconate. A priest ordained single stays single.

Can Orthodox priests have children?

Yes. A married priest lives an ordinary married life, and many are fathers of large families. The canons even defended this right against the Roman practice, as early as the 7th century.

Can an Orthodox priest get divorced and remarry?

Not if he wants to remain a priest. In the Russian Church and most Orthodox Churches, a priest who remarries after divorce or widowhood is deposed. The Patriarchate of Constantinople has allowed case-by-case exceptions since 2018.

Can an Orthodox bishop be married?

No. Bishops are chosen from among monks, who are bound by a vow of celibacy. A widowed priest can become a monk, then a bishop.

What do you call an Orthodox priest's wife?

In Russia, матушка (matushka). In Greece, presvytera; in Serbia, popadija; in Arabic-speaking Churches, khouria.

How is this different from Catholic priests?

Latin-rite Catholic priests are bound to celibacy, with exceptions such as former Anglican clergymen. The Eastern Catholic Churches ordain married men, as the Orthodox do.

In summary

An Orthodox priest can be married on three conditions: marry before ordination, have only one wife, and give up any prospect of becoming a bishop. The Russian Church applies these rules strictly; only Constantinople has opened a door, since 2018, to the remarriage of widowed priests. For a mixed couple, the consequence is concrete: the priest who marries you often knows married life from the inside. Our guide to getting married to a Russian woman covers every step, from the civil ceremony to the church wedding.

If you are planning a wedding with a Russian woman, in church or not, write to me: I answer personally, and I'll tell you what is feasible in your situation.