I believe there are two and only two ways of increasing priest levels.
1) Make a priest a prophet. You can only do this to one unit (which actually doesn't have to be a priest), and it will become a level 3 priest, or a level 4 priest if it already was a level 3 priest.
2) There exists one or two artifacts (const-8) that will raise a priest's level by 1.
For the most part, you're stuck with the priests you're given.
Same way you commune mages. Communing raises ALL magic paths the mage already has, including holy. So, you just need a priest that has astral (or blood) magic as well as holy.
Hellpower will do it, as will propheting, power of the spheres (which is redundant with the crystal shield, btw), communion, and two unique boosters. Those are the ones I know.