Originally posted by Iconophile:
He was the first and so far only Exarch of the Russian Catholic Church
Daniel,
Actually, Blessed Kliment Sheptytsky, brother of Metropolitan Andrew, succeeded Blessed Leonid as Exarch. Father Sergei Soloviev, of blessed memory, a relative of Vladimir, was appointed Vice-Exarch in 1923. Father Archimandrite Fabian Abrantovich, MIC, and Father Andrej Cikoto, MIC, both of blessed memory, were the Apostolic Administrator and Administrator, respectively, of the Apostolic Exarchate in Harbin (China) of the Russian Byzantine Catholics. None of these recieved episcopal ordination because of the circumstances of the time. (Blessed Leonid is reputed to have repeatedly avoided recieving it).
The Russian Church also had at least two other hierarchs; both were
episcopus ordinans with only titular jurisdictions. They were Bishops Alexander Evreinov (consecrated in 1936) and Andrei Katkov (consecrated in 1958), both of blessed memory. Bishop Andrei reposed in 1996.
There are photos of Blesseds Leonid and Kliment online at:
History of Russian Catholic Church [
rumkatkilise.org]
and of Archimandrite Fabian and Bishop Andrei at:
Harbin Exarchate [
rumkatkilise.org]
BTW, anyone interested in sites with photos, bios, etc of candidates for sainthood may want to see the following sites:
Hagiography Circle [
newsaints.faithweb.com]
Major Persecutions of Catholics in the 20th Century
[
holycross.edu]
(Both are excellent reference sites; the latter is owned by a priest whom I knew when he was a scholastic and a superb history teacher at the Jesuit high school that Dr. John and I attended - oh so very long ago - just rec'd an invite to my 40th reunion
).
Many years,
Neil
