Berryton, Kanasa (3/25/2005) - A new Akathist Hymn has been composed for Hieromartyr Leonid Ivanovich Feodorov by Subdeacon Randolf L. Brown. This work has been submitted for ecclesiastical approbation but has not yet been approved. It is offered here for private use. To view this new Akathist Hymn in Adobe pdf format please click here. The Supplementary Canon can be viewed here.

Hieromartyr (Priest-Monk) Leonid Ivanovich Feodorov was born in a pious Russian Orthodox family on 4 November 1879 in St. Petersburg, Russia. He was primarily raised by his mother, Liubov Dimitrievna, as his father was a cook and often worked very long hours. He entered the St. Petersburg Theological Academy.

In 1902, he left his studies at the Petersburg Spiritual Academy and travelled abroad. He was well read in the works of Soloviev and Bulgakov. He frequented the fledgling Russian Catholic community in St. Petersburg, along with his mother becoming acquainted with Frs. Alexei Zerchaninov and Eustachy Susalev, the Abrikosova and Ushakova families and others of the Russian Catholic community, and he eventually embraced Catholicism as a Russian Greek Catholic.

He was ordained to the diaconate, and two days later to the priesthood in Constantinople by the hand of Bulgarian Catholic Bishop +Mikhail Mirov. He never abandoned a vision of unity between Russian Orthodoxy and Catholicism. He truly believed full unity was possible without abandoning any of the liturgical, spiritual, and theological treasures of the Russian tradition.

 
Metropolitan +Andrei Sheptytsky received Leonid as a monastic novice, Leonid having long been drawn to the life of St. Theodore the Studite and his Rule. In 1913 he became a monk and was sent by Metropolitan Andrei to assist in the formation of a new Studite foundation in Kamenica. After his return to tsarist Russia, in connection with the beginning of World War I he was exiled to Tobolsk, Siberia.

In 1917, he was released and appointed Exarch of the Russian Greek Catholic Church at the Synod in St. Petersburg. His second imprisonment came in 1923 by the Bolsheviks, and lasted ten years. From 1926 to 1929 he served his term in Solovki and later in exile in various places, and finally Viatka. He died as a martyr for church unity on 7 March 1935.

“We expect that the Exarch is on the road to glorification through beatification. Of course, it is much too early to talk about this, but all of us were strongly impressed by his holiness, strengthened by the crown of martyrdom and death; this certainly supports our expectations. On the other hand, as a Russian Catholic, as Exarch, as someone who died at the hands of the Bolsheviks, it seems to us that he will be right in the center of attention of the entire Church.”

- from Metropolitan Sheptytsky’s letter to Prince Volkonsky of 4 May 1935

The Hieromartyr Leonid Ivanovich Feodorov was beatified on June 27th, 2001, by His Holiness Pope John Paul II. In his life he never ceased to pray and be a victim for Church unity, always faithful to the full practice of his Russian liturgical tradition. His day of commemoration by the Church has been established as his date of repose, March 7/20.

Submitted by Subdeacon Randolph L. Brown