Leonty (Krechetov)

Born in 1912 in Yekaterinburg .

Until 1972, he worked as a worker, lived and worked in the village of Verkh-Neyvinsky, Sverdlovsk Region , was a parishioner of the Russian Drevto-Orthodox Church (RDC) - one of the trends in the Old Believers. He raised ten children: three of them became priests, one became a deacon, and the granddaughter took monastic vows.

After retirement, in 1972, he was ordained a priest , served in the village of Vankovo ​​in the Krasnovishersky District of the Perm Region (170 km from the city of Solikamsk ) in a wooden old believer church.

On July 7, 1977, he was ordained Bishop of Perm, continued to live and serve in the village of Vankovo.

In the Starobryadets publication (No. 39; May 2007 ), Olga Todoshchenko’s memoirs about the bishop and his family were published. In particular, they say that Bishop Leonty

He showed an unfamiliar picture: a white-bearded old man-ruler out of the service could often be seen in a peasant shirt with a plane in his hands. Krechetov with his sons not only strengthened and expanded the community, but also rebuilt the village. First, they cut down strong and high huts of relatives who had come down here by blood and faith, and set up a church house and a hotel with it. Then he taught the building wisdom of the locals. And then they took the brigade contract for the whole of the local economy, specifying their percentage of apartments for the communal youth.

Bishop Leonty organized the Old Belief community in Solikamsk . Initially, divine services were held in the apartments of believers, and in 1992, the Krechetov family council decided to start building a wooden ancient Orthodox church in Solikamsk in honor of St. Basil the Great. The author of the project was the youngest son of Bishop Leonty Viktor Krechetov, who was also in charge of the construction team. On November 4, 1995 , the temple was consecrated, after which worship began to be held regularly in it. The priest of the temple was the priest Konstantin Krechetov. In 1998, he became seriously ill, and his brother, Priest Nikanor Krechetov, who was the abbot of the temple in Vankovo, began to serve in the church.

Work on the arrangement of the temple were made after the death of Bishop Leonty - so, in 1999 , the bell tower was built. However, in February 2000, the temple almost completely burned down, but after a few months it was rebuilt again (as before, under the leadership of Viktor Krechetov), ​​and in October 2000 it was consecrated again.

In 1988, Bishop Leonty, due to disagreements with the hierarchy of the RDC, withdrew from it. Being a strict zealot of the Old Believers' traditions, he believed that the church leadership was too compromising in relation to the Moscow Patriarchate , accused the leadership of the RDC Archbishop of heresy. For these actions, he was deprived of his episcopal dignity, but in fact continued to govern the diocese. In 1991, he single-handedly dedicated two bishops (Philaret of Poti and Ion of Tbilisi) for the newly formed Slavic-Georgian ancient Orthodox church, which included the Old Believers' parishes of Georgia. The ACC did not recognize this church.

In 1993, Bishop Leonty and his son, Priest Nikanor Krechetov, brought repentance in separation from the ACC at a meeting of the Council of the Archdiocese of the ACC (Bishop Leonty himself was not present due to illness, and was represented by Father Nikanor Krechetov).

In February 1996, Bishop Leonty was reinstated in the rank of bishop at the Consecration Cathedral of the RDC, since "he sincerely repented and admitted his departure to the schism in 1988 was a big mistake."

• Old Believer hierarchs. Moscow 2002. p. 88.

• Community of the city of Solikamsk
• About the temporary departure of Vladyka Leonty from the RDC
• On the formation of the Georgian Old Orthodox Church
• On the return to the ACC