Blessed Leonid Feodorov

Life story

Leonid Feodorov was born on 4 November 1879 in St Petersburg into a Russian Orthodox family. He studied at the St Petersburg Theological Academy and gradually became convinced of Catholic teaching. He was received into the Catholic Church in Rome on 31 July 1902. He then adopted the Byzantine rite and was ordained a priest in Constantinople in 1911; in 1913 he was tonsured a Studite monk at Kamenica in Bosnia.

In 1917, after the February Revolution in Russia, Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky named him the first exarch of the Russian Catholics, and Pope Benedict XV later confirmed the appointment. His headquarters were in Petrograd.

In 1923 he was tried in Moscow along with Archbishop Jan Cieplak and others and sentenced to ten years. In 1926 he was sent to the Solovki camp in the White Sea, where he went on celebrating the liturgy in secret. He was moved to Pinega in 1929 and completed his sentence in 1932.

He stayed in Vyatka (now Kirov) and died there on 7 March 1935, worn out by his years of imprisonment. Pope John Paul II beatified him on 27 June 2001 in Lviv during a Byzantine-rite liturgy. He has not been canonised; his feast is 7 March.

Works and witness

• Received into the Catholic Church in Rome on 31 July 1902
• Ordained priest in Constantinople in 1911; Studite monk from 1913
• First exarch of the Russian Catholics from 1917
• Tried in Moscow in 1923 and held at Solovki from 1926
• Beatified on 27 June 2001

Saints from the same country

Saint Sergius of Radonezh, Saint Seraphim of Sarov, Saint Olga of Kiev, Saints Boris and Gleb

References

• Icshrine.org, Bl. Leonid Feodorov (Ukrainian Greek Catholic shrine, biography)
• Wikipedia, Leonid Feodorov (dates of Solovki, Pinega and 1932)

Written by Anawim from documented history. Some details about ancient saints rest on tradition and are marked as such.