WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

starets
    n 1: a religious adviser (not necessarily a priest) in the
         Eastern Orthodox Church

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

110 Moby Thesaurus words for "starets":
   Methuselah, abecedarian, angel, antediluvian, antique, authority,
   back number, boss, bwana, certified teacher, chef, chief,
   church dignitary, conservative, dad, docent, doctor, dodo, dominie,
   don, ecclesiarch, educationist, educator, elder, elder statesman,
   employer, fellow, fogy, fossil, fud, fuddy-duddy, goodman, granny,
   great soul, guide, guru, has-been, holy man, husband, illuminate,
   instructor, intellect, intellectual, liege, liege lord, longhair,
   lord, lord paramount, lover of wisdom, maestro, mahatma,
   man of intellect, man of wisdom, mandarin, master, mastermind,
   matriarch, melamed, mentor, mid-Victorian, mossback, mullah,
   old believer, old crock, old dodo, old fogy, old liner, old man,
   old poop, old woman, old-timer, oracle, overlord, padrone, pandit,
   paramount, paterfamilias, patriarch, patron, pedagogist, pedagogue,
   philosopher, pop, pops, preceptor, professor, pundit, rabbi,
   reactionary, regular old fogy, relic, rishi, sage, sahib, saint,
   sapient, savant, scholar, schoolkeeper, schoolmaster,
   schoolteacher, seer, seigneur, seignior, square, teacher, thinker,
   traditionalist, wise man, wise old man