Leonid (Skobeev)

Early years, studies and military service

Born on February 19, 1851 in the village of Spassky, Ruzsky district, Moscow province (now the Odintsovo district of the Moscow region ) in the family of a priest ^[1] .

In 1868 he graduated from the district religious school and entered the Moscow Theological Seminary . In 1872, at his own request, he was dismissed from the 4th grade of the seminary. In 1874 he graduated from the 3rd Alexander Military School and was promoted to ensign ^[1] .

Since August 8, 1874 - an officer of the St. Petersburg King Friedrich-William III of the Life Guards Regiment , stationed in Warsaw . Promoted to second lieutenant . A participant in the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878 , where in particular he fought near Plevna and participated in the assault on Philippopolis . It is made in assignments . He was awarded the Order of St. Anne of the 4th degree with the inscription "For Courage" ^[1] .

Since March 22, 1880 - an officer of the 4th regiment of the Nesvizh regiment, Field Marshal Barclay de Tolly . He graduated from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Warsaw and the Military Law Academy. He was promoted to captain of the staff . July 1, 1887 resigned ^[1] .

He was married, but widowed ^[1] .

Church service before the revolution

In 1892 he entered as a volunteer at the St. Petersburg Theological Academy ^[2] .

June 28, 1893 he became a monk. On July 4 of that year, he was ordained a hierodeacon . December 11, 1894 was ordained to the rank of hieromonk ^[1] . According to the opinion of Anton Kartashev, he became a monk for the sake of a career and had the nickname "hiero-captain". The characteristic given by Kartashev was very unflattering: “The temper is violent, the course of action is criminal” ^[3] .

In 1896 he graduated from the St. Petersburg Theological Academy with a candidate ’s degree in theology ^[1] , being 47 out of 49 graduating from this theological academy with a candidate’s degree ^[2] .

On September 28 of the same year he was appointed superintendent of the Tulchinsky Theological School. On April 19, 1900 was awarded the pectoral cross issued by the Holy Synod ^[1] .

On April 8, 1901 he was appointed rector of the Lithuanian Theological Seminary in Vilna and rector of the Vilnius Trinity Monastery, in connection with which he was elevated to the rank of archimandrite on April 23 of the same year ^[1]

On September 5, 1903, the rector of the Lithuanian Theological Seminary and the Trinity Monastery was relieved of his post and appointed rector of the Penza Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery . June 9, 1906 was transferred by the rector of the Novgorod-Seversky Transfiguration Monastery of the Chernigov diocese . February 24, 1909 was transferred by the rector of the Desert Assumption Monastery of the Mogilev Diocese . On January 30, 1910, he was dismissed from his abbot and enrolled in the brotherhood of the Ryazan Trinity Monastery, but on May 28 of the same year he was appointed rector of the Smolensk Avraamiev Monastery . In 1914 he left the abbot. In 1917 he was appointed rector of the Intercession-Bodinsky monastery in Astrakhan ^[1] . None of these monasteries “could not establish a calm course of monastic life” ^[4] .

In the book of Archpriest Vladislav Tsypin, “The History of the Russian Church,” Archimandrite Leonid is described in such a way: “he finished his academic education in half (though he had received medical, military and legal education before), he was astonished by the combination of complete mediocrity and ambitious claims. It was said that when he was an archimandrite, he served in the parish churches, contrary to the charter, decorated his lady with a staff. He was told that such liberties were unacceptable, and he, angry, objected: “What else! My fellow students have long become bishops, but they are not telling me to serve with the staff! "He tirelessly sought the episcopal ordination" ^[5] .

According to the data of A. I. Krasnov-Levitin and V. M. Shavrov , cited by them in the book “Essays on the History of Russian Church Troubles”: Bishop Leonid before the Revolution “not only never expressed any sympathy for the Renovationists, but, on the contrary, was always extreme conservative and staunch monarchist. “Every third word he uttered was: Emperor-emperor,” said A. I. Vvedensky ” ^[6] .

Church ministry after the revolution

On January 17 (30), 1919, due to the absence of Archimandrite Athanasius (Sambikin), Archbishop Joasaph (Kallistov) was appointed manager of the Moscow Sretensky Monastery with the blessing of Patriarch Tikhon , about which the Moscow Diocesan Council sent him a decree on February 8. On March 11 of the same year, the Moscow Diocesan Council, in addition to the decree of February 8, let Archimandrite Leonid know that the latter “from the time he took control of the Sretensky Monastery should receive a fraternal circle in the part owed to the share of the rector of this monastery until the return of Archimandrite Athanasius” . Archimandrite Leonid ran the monastery until July of that year ^[7] .

July 12, 1920 "as the oldest archimandrite" ^{[3] was} consecrated bishop of Kovrovsky, vicar of the Vladimir diocese. The consecration was performed by Patriarch Tikhon with a host of bishops. He stayed in Kovrov for a very short time ^[8] .

In June 1921 ^{[8] he was} appointed bishop of Vernensky and Semireisky , vicar of the Turkestan diocese. I couldn’t leave for my destination (Verny was renamed Alma-Ata the same year), since Moscow’s connection to Central Asia was extremely difficult at that time due to the civil war ^[9] .

He lived in Moscow ^[10] . Krasnov-Levitin and Shavrov described Bishop Leonid, who at that time was 70 years old, as a fat, short stature old man and described him as a typical representative of the "old-regime episcopate" ^[6] .

Care for update

According to Krasnov-Levitin and Shavrov, “When a plan for a church coup arose, St. Petersburg and S [ergy] Kalinovsky, who joined them, faced a difficult obstacle: there was not a single bishop who agreed to lead them. True, Bishop Antonin Granovsky has long been an inveterate renewalist, but <...> until very recently, he did not give his final consent to cooperate with living clergy. In addition, this man, independent, courageous, possessing the temperament of a rebel, always aroused in the churchmen a feeling close to fear, “you never knew what he would throw out” (A. I. Vvedensky expressed it). It was then that the name of the provincial bishop, who accidentally lived in Moscow at that time, surfaced. Bishop Leonid was convenient for living clergymen in one more respect: the name of Antonin, the “troublemaker” and the rebel, was too odious, it could immediately alert the patriarch; the name of resolutely nothing remarkable Bishop Leonid attached to the whole church-living venture in the eyes of the patriarch a relatively harmless character ” ^[9] .

On May 18, 1922, priests Alexander Vvedensky, Yevgeny Belkov, and Sergius Kalinovsky for the third time appeared to Patriarch Tikhon and demanded that the patriarchal office be transferred to them. The demand was presented in the form of a document entitled “Memorandum of the Initiative Group of the Progressive Clergy Living Church” and signed “Your Holiness unworthy servants: Vvedensky, Belkov, Kalinovsky”; on this document, the Patriarch imposed a resolution in which he instructed "the persons named below to accept and transfer ... the synod affairs ... [and the affairs] of the Moscow diocese " to the bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Agafangel (Preobrazhensky) and Bishop Innocent Klinsky (Letyaev) , and before his arrival Bishop Vernensky Leonid (Skobeev) ^{[11] [12]} .

On the evening of May 18, in one of the Moscow hotels where Alexander Vvedensky lived, the first organizing meeting of the new VTsU took place, where Bishop Leonid arrived. When he appeared, everyone stood respectfully and came under the blessing. Bishop Leonid immediately agreed to head the autocratic Supreme Church Administration ^[12] . Alexander Vvedensky on behalf of the Petrograd group and Sergey Kalinovsky on behalf of the Moscow "progressive" clergy respectfully welcomed in his person the head of the new church administration ^[9] . Then he was appointed manager of the Moscow diocese.

On the night of May 19, Patriarch Tikhon was taken from the Trinity Metochion to the Donskoy Monastery and for a year imprisoned “under the strictest guard, completely isolated from the outside world, in the apartment above the monastery gates, in which the bishops who were at one time lived” ^[13] .

On May 19, the “Initiative Group” arrived at the Trinity Compound, where they were waiting for Bishop Antonin (Granovsky) , who arrived to head the new administrative apparatus - in response to a written request from the “Living Church Initiative Group”. Having occupied the Trinity Compound, the “Supreme Church Administration”, represented by Vvedensky, Kalinovsky and Belkov, did not wait for either Metropolitan Agafangel or Krasnitsky who had left for him, but immediately set to work under the direction of Bishop Antonin, who was forbidden to serve, ^[11] immediately began to dispose of everything, behaving as if he were in a conquered country " ^[13] and completely ousted Bishop Leonid from the leadership ^[14] .

On May 30, the clergy of the Moscow diocese, who joined the renovationism, were elected chairman of the Moscow diocesan administration ^[15] .

On June 3, 1922, at the Trinity Compound, along with Bishop Antonin, he performed the first Renovation consecration, ordaining Bishop Ioannicius (Chantsev) . On June 11, along with Bishop Ioannikius, he ordained the bishop of the widow Archpriest John of Albina without first being tonsured a monk ^[16] . Nikolai Bezpalov, a secretary of the GPU, who managed to get abroad and publish unknown details of the GPU’s work at the Trinity Compound, where, after the arrest of Patriarch Tikhon, the ground floor was given under the dormitory of the GPU staff, and the second was the renovated Higher Church Administration, wrote: “Lunches began “Ending in grand drinks. One such feast, aimed at instigating the initiation into the bishops of a Petrograd priest, a certain father Ivan [Albinsky], dragged on all night and ended in a fight between drinking buddies. Only in the morning, the crumpled and disheveled “clergymen” went home with the giggling of the Chekist residents of the compound. On the same day, a scandal broke out. The newly consecrated Bishop of Father Ivan revealed the theft of a large sum of money. One of the leaders, Bishop Leonid, was convicted of theft. The case almost reached the Moscow criminal investigation department , but was put out by Krasnitsky ” ^[17] .

On June 18, he was appointed manager of the Moscow Renovation Diocese with the title of Bishop of Krutitsky. On July 1, he was elevated to the rank of archbishop ^[15] .

At about the same time, on the initiative of Vladimir Krasnitsky, he was de facto removed from participation in the activities of the All-Russian Central Council, although he formally was a member of it until the renovation All-Russian Local Council, which took place in 1923 ^[15] .

At the Penza and Orel Renovationist Dioceses

On July 6, 1922, Archbishop Leonid, who became unnecessary to Krasnitsky, was appointed Archbishop of Penza and Saransk, Chairman of the Renovated Penza Diocesan Administration ^[15] .

In August, he arrived in Penza and stated that “he does not recognize any innovations, no elements of the“ people's church ”and that everything should go truly and anciently” ^[18] . Entering into communion with Ioannikiy Smirnov , he insisted on the “complete surrender” of the Putinites, meaning, among other things, that all the “clergy” put up by Putyat during the years of his stay in the schism should resign, promising that everyone would later be restored to their own places and without a piece of bread will not remain ^[19] . Using a mandate from the All-Ukrainian Central University, Leonid managed to secure several city churches, including the Intercession Church ^[18] .

As a result, the entire St. John’s group (the “Putin's church”) was practically dissolved in renovationism. Following this, relying on Ioannikiy Smirnov, Leonid (Skobeev) organized a “diocesan administration”, which was based on the composition of the former Putin’s Diocesan Council ^[19] : the chairman was Leonid (Skobeev) himself, the secretary was Ioannikiy Smirnov. Members: Ievsky - a drunken nobleman; Cathedral ringer Kolya; Subdeacon Putyata Ivan Shagaev; “Priest” Chukalovsky, previously deprived of his dignity for illegal cohabitation and reinstated by Leonid in a priestly rank; "Priest" P. Vilkin, the right hand of John of Smirnov. Later, the following additional members were added to the Diocesan Council: N. G. Sokolov (a local history teacher appointed by the All-Ukrainian Central University, who graduated from the St. Petersburg Theological Academy) and the “priest” Shmonkin, who accepted the surname of the Archangels. In the spring of 1923, both became candidates for the bishops ^[18] .

In September of that year, he left the diocese and returned to Moscow ^[15] .

On October 4 of that year, he was appointed Archbishop of Oryol and Livensky, chairman of the renovation Oryol diocesan administration. The department was located in the Peter and Paul Cathedral of Orel ^[15] .

In February 1923 he left the diocese and returned to Moscow ^[15] .

As Chairman of the Renovationist Moscow Diocesan Administration and at Rest

On March 26, 1923, he was appointed Archbishop of Krutitsky, Vicar of the Moscow Renovationist Diocese, and Chairman of the Renovationist Moscow Diocesan Administration ^[15] .

In April-May 1923 he was a member of the "Second All-Russian Local Council" ^[15] (the first renovationist).

On May 4, 1923, it was renamed Archbishop of Kolomenskoy, Vicar of the Moscow Renovationist Diocese, with the chairman remaining as the Renovationist Moscow Diocesan Administration ^[15] . At the Krutitsky department, he was replaced by Alexander Vvedensky ^[20] , in whose episcopal consecration, held on May 6, Leonid (Skobeev) also took part ^[21] .

On December 18, 1923, he was relieved of control of the Kolomna Vicarate and removed from the renovationist Moscow diocesan administration. In January 1924, he was re-elected chairman of the renovationist Moscow diocesan administration ^[15] .

September 3, 1924 dismissed retired with the right to receive a pension. He lived in Moscow ^[15] .

In October 1925 he attended the "3rd All-Russian Local Council" (the second Renovationist) with a decisive voice.

In 1927-1928, he twice unsuccessfully appealed to the update leadership with a request for reinstatement in the rank of a member of the Synod and equalization of rights with its other members ^[15] .

September 25, 1928 was elevated to the rank of Metropolitan ^[15] .

On February 25, 1931, in honor of the 80th birthday, he was appointed an honorary member of the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church in the USSR. On April 1 of the same year, he was awarded the right to present the cross for worship ^[15] .

He died on January 19, 1932 outside of fellowship with the Church. He was buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery in Moscow ^[15] .

• Krasnov-Levitin A. E. , Shavrov V. M. Essays on the history of Russian church unrest . - M .: Krutitsky Patriarchal Compound, 1996 .-- 672 p. - (Materials on the history of the Church. Book 9). - ISBN is missing. Archived November 12, 2018 on Wayback Machine
• Lavrinov Valery, archpriest. The renovationist schism in the portraits of his figures. - M .: Society of Church History Fans, 2016. - 736 p. - (Materials on the history of the Church. Book 54). - ISBN 978-5-9906510-7-4 .