Eschatological Psychosis: СРСД

Eschatological Psychosis: СРСД
[My goodness! And a translator at that!]

Сказания о русских святых для детей: Вступление

(This post is part of a series of translations of Aleksandr Khudoshin's Stories about Russian Saints for Children. Explanatory post here.)
............."fathers"? Whose fathers? Now, each of us has our own father, yes, that's clear. But a father of the Church- he is like a father to all, to all who come to him and appeal to him.....Should a poor man come, thin, poorly dressed, with a pale face- the dear father will take him, hug him, press him to his chest, cry together with him over his afflictions. And will teach him the necessary way, and help with words and deeds, and sometimes will give money. Now, is that not a father? But among the Church fathers there are very special fathers, they are called "elders".
...........

I was unsure about what tense to use from "Пришёл богач..." onward. Ultimately I think the hypothetical conditional best reflected the spirit of the original, but if anyone has better suggestions, or thinks I've misread something, do let me know!

More minor uncertainties:

• обращаться as "to appeal" (something like "to turn to" strikes me as more etymologically accurate, but clunky)
• пышно разодетый as "lavishly dressed" (especially when плохо одетый is "poorly dressed"). It seems that разодетый doesn't have a precise English equivalent, implying something perhaps along the lines of "decked out"; ie, implying a level of extravagance above the fairly unmarked English "dressed" or "clothed"; again, if I'm wrong, please speak up!

[This brought to mind my poem: [Sorry, this is an interjection by this blog, emigres....]

XXXIII. Fall’s Leaves

"Suppose there should come into your assembly a poor man in shabby clothes...”-James 2

Today stripped to shiverin’ bones, donnin’ shabbies

I met my Maker’s kin, so lofty, sleek, oft dire fabbies.

Yesterday on Paradox Trail, non martyred wailing lot

Espied, but wait, there, aside the Tree, a Divine Plot.

Peeking exploding light, laughin’ played among leafs

Poor knights ‘nointed for bumblin’ bundlin’ gold sheafs

Mean rags, fabric coarse, roughed, bruised, torn callin’

‘Neath high canopy coverings strewn o’er Fall’s fallen.

Angel doves, floating feathers flying, ragged moaning coos

Deepening, haunting symphonies crescendos, His soft woos,

Ravaged, hungered leaves, strewn, felled far from Bloody Tree

So many, colored, stripped, offerings mean, for Thee.

8/14/10
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• прижимает к сердцу translated literally is "pressed to the heart", which isn't something we really say in English. Is it common to replace "heart" with "chest" in contexts such as these, or does it imply something stronger or different?
• над его горем: over his afflictions? over his sorrows? in sorrow, in grief?
• нужную дорогу as "necessary way"- is this too literal? Would "right" or "proper" have been more in the spirit of the original?
• Ну как же не отец? as "Now, is that not a father?" Went largely on feeling, there. Does it work? [ :) ]
• есть и совсем особые отцы in general confused me. Anyone care to explain the и there (I have a vague memory that it may be related to a superlative construction, but I may be making that up)? Also совсем особые seems to demand something stronger than "very special", but I'm not sure what. 

Nearly a decade and a half later I again find myself confronted with chronic insomnia, and only now have I resolved, like my eight-year-old self, to try to make use of these wakeful hours. I've given up on sleep, for now, and will instead translate, chapter by chapter, Aleksandr Khudoshin's Stories about Russian Saints for Children.