Confessor Leonty Stasevich: “Why are you persecuting me!”

Leonty (Stasevich)
(1884 - 1972), archimandrite, venerable confessor Memory of January 28, in the Councils of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church, the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Land of Vladimir, the Kholm and Podlyash Martyrs and the Ivanovo Saints

In the world, Lev Fomich Stasevich, was born on March 20, 1884 in the Polish city of Tarnogrud, south of Lublin, and was the only child in a peasant family. At the age of 15, he began working as a secretary in the Tarnogrud court, and after the death of his father, he received a blessing from his mother to go to study at the Kholm Seminary.

After graduating from the course in 1910, he entered the Yablochinsky Onufrievsky Monastery as a novice.

In 1912 he was tonsured into the mantle, and in the same year he was ordained to the rank of hierodeacon.

In 1913 he was ordained hieromonk and appointed monastery treasurer.

In August 1915, the monastery was evacuated due to the advance of the German army, Fr. Leonty moved to Moscow, to the Epiphany Monastery near the Kremlin, and entered the Moscow Theological Academy, but did not have time to graduate; in 1919 the Academy was closed.

Elevated to the rank of abbot.

In 1922 he was appointed rector of the Spaso-Evfimievsky Monastery in Suzdal.

In 1923, the authorities closed the monastery, converting its premises into a prison. Father Leonty was transferred to the Church of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God, and then to the Church of St. John Chrysostom in Suzdal. In the parish church, Father Leonty restored daily statutory services and daily sermons, which attracted the hearts of many believers who began to come here from the most remote places of the Vladimir diocese.

In 1924 he was elevated to the rank of archimandrite.

In 1930, the OGPU received a denunciation:
“Archimandrite Stasevich used to be a member of the White-Tikhonov group, but now it’s something special;
he sometimes has a massive gathering of people in his church, especially nuns, and the Suzdal intelligentsia in general; with his speeches in church, he undermines the authority of the Soviet government. In general, all the clergy, with the exception of the priest of the Znamenskaya Church (he... belongs to the renovationist group), belongs to the White-Tikhonov group. This group is often seen together. It is necessary to expose it.” On February 3, 1930, he was arrested and imprisoned in the city of Vladimir. “Calling was prohibited then,

– Father Leonty later said.
“ And I... really wanted to glorify the Lord with ringing.”
Climb the bell tower and let's ring the bell. I called for a long time. I go down from the bell tower, and they already meet me with handcuffs.” On February 13, the investigator interrogated the priest. Answering questions, Archimandrite Leonty said:

“I do not plead guilty to the charges brought against me and explain that I was not a member of any anti-Soviet groups and have not heard of the existence of such groups. I knew my co-prosecutors listed in the resolution, but did not have close acquaintance with them. I avoid all kinds of acquaintances and live in seclusion. I adhere to Sergiev’s orientation in church matters.”

On February 15, the investigation was completed. The indictment wrote:

“In the city of Suzdal, for a number of years, there was an anti-Soviet church group that united priests, monasticism, former people and merchants, for most of whom the Church was not a goal, but a fortress from which they could fire at the Soviet system and the Communist Party. Based on these data, 32 religious ministers and churchmen from former people of the city of Suzdal were arrested and prosecuted.”

On March 2, 1930, the OGPU troika sentenced Archimandrite Leonty to three years in a concentration camp. He was sent to serve his imprisonment in the Komi region. He worked as a paramedic in the camp.

Upon his release in 1933, he was sent to the parish in Borodino, Gavrilovo-Posad district, Ivanovo region.

On November 5, 1935, he was again arrested and imprisoned in the city of Ivanovo. He was charged with

“He was part of a group of active churchmen... He maintained connections with the foolish element... and presented the latter as “seers” and “saints”; attracted children of school and preschool age into religious activities by distributing various kinds of gifts to the latter; spread provocative rumors about the end of the world, the coming of the Antichrist and the fall of Soviet power.”

He pleaded not guilty. On February 15, 1936, a Special Meeting of the NKVD of the USSR sentenced him to three years in a forced labor camp; on February 22, he was sent to Karlag.

In the camp he worked as a paramedic and in general work. Father Leonty endured all the sorrows of prison with humility and meekness, and later said about that time: “I was in heaven, not in prison.” When they complained about grief to Father Leonty, he said: “This is not suffering yet. But how we used to eat in prison, and they would take us out, put us in a line and say: “Now we’ll shoot you!” They take aim, scare you, and then drive you back to the barracks.”

In 1938, his prison term ended, and Father Leonty returned to Suzdal. He lived either in Suzdal or in villages and small towns with his spiritual children, performing services in their homes. By this time, most of the churches were closed, there was nowhere to serve, almost all the clergy were arrested.

In June 1947, he was appointed rector of the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity in the village of Vorontsovo, Puchezhsky district, and after some time - dean of all the churches in the region, of which there were only four in the entire region at that time.

On May 2, 1950, at the end of the liturgy, he was again arrested and sentenced to ten years in prison, sent to a forced labor camp in the city of Bratsk, Irkutsk region.

In 1955, after Stalin's death, he was released early.

On July 20, 1955, he was appointed rector of the Church of St. Michael the Archangel in the village of Mikhailovskoye, Seredsky district.

Like many elders, Father Leonty loved jokes and allegories.
Once such a joke helped him get rid of officials from the district executive committee who had come to check the activities of the community, and at the same time to look at the priest, who was famous as an extraordinary old man. A week before their arrival, he had prepared cabbage soup, which the guests did not eat, and due to the intense heat, the cabbage soup turned sour. They wanted to pour them out, but the elder strictly forbade pouring them out, and the cabbage soup stood in the heat in the corridor and fermented. Seeing officials approaching the house, Father Leonty took a pan of sour cabbage soup and put it on the fire. Such a smell spread throughout the house that the members of the commission, as soon as they entered the door, immediately hurried to leave and, without entering the temple, immediately left. In the summer of 1962, two priests who served with Father Leonty slandered him for selfish purposes, accusing him of neglecting the shrine. Archbishop Hilarion (Prokhorov) of Ivanovo and Kineshma, who was a relative of one of these priests, without understanding the essence of the matter, banned Archimandrite Leonty from the priesthood for a month. For Father Leonty, who served every day for many years, this became a great sorrow. “I cry and sob,” he said. “An awl will not hide in a bag, everything will come out, everyone will fly away.”

At the end of the month, when the time came to begin the service, the archbishop appointed Father Leonty to one of the distant and remote parishes at that time - to the Vvedensky Church in the village of Elkhovka, Teikovsky district. He served in Elkhovka for a year.

The flock in Mikhailovskoye asked to return the priest, but Archbishop Hilarion did not heed the requests of the believers, and in 1963 he himself was transferred to another department. Bishop Leonid (Lobachev) was appointed in his place. Having familiarized himself with the state of affairs, he immediately returned Archimandrite Leonty to the village of Mikhailovskoye.

Father Leonty returned to Mikhailovskoye when he was about eighty years old. Despite his physical weakness, he received everyone, confessed, talked, and prayed for those who came. There were so many people traveling to see Father Leonty that sometimes almost half of all passengers got off the train, which stopped at the Belino station, a kilometer from Mikhailovsky. To prevent people from coming to see the priest, the authorities canceled the train stop at this station.

“His confession was surprisingly fruitful, very spiritual and very humble,” testified Archbishop of Ivanovo and Kineshma Ambrose (Shchurov), “he never accused a person of his shortcomings, but tried to speak in such a way that the person would not be offended.”

On February 7, 1972, Father Leonty celebrated his last liturgy. The next day he became very weak and, raising his hands up, joyfully began to say: “We are going to God, we are going to God!”

Died on February 9, 1972. His relics are now in the Church of the Archangel Michael in the village of Mikhailovskoye.

Canonized in 1999 as a locally venerated saint of the Ivanovo diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church. Canonized as the Holy New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia at the Jubilee Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church in August 2000 for church-wide veneration.

Led like an animal

All his life, Father Leonty (Stasevich, 1884-1972) recalled how his father, a simple peasant, every time he came from the market, brought a wanderer with him and left him for the night. Unexpected guests thanked their hosts with songs and stories about the exploits of saints.

At the age of 25, having buried his father and provided for his mother, Lev Fomich (that was the name of the saint before his tonsure) entered the monastery, and in the 1920s, Patriarch Tikhon appointed Fr. Leonty as governor of the Suzdal Spaso-Evfimievskaya monastery. Its inhabitants supported the renovationist schism. They began to laugh at their abbot, at his “political backwardness and lack of understanding of the moment,” to be rude and threaten him, and some even beat him - at night, covering their faces, under the guise of robbers. They wanted their abbot, unable to bear such a life, to leave on his own. But Father Leonty endured, forgave and prayed for the offenders.

And the people fell in love with the monk: people came to him in crowds, wanting consolation in the strange and terrible time that was coming. Father Leonty consoled him, and the authorities turned against him for the people’s love and the “influx of people into churches.”

Hieromonk Leonty (Stasevich) with cousins, aunt and nephews, June 8, 1916. Photo from the site .pstbi.ccas.ru

Back in Moscow, one blessed one spoke of Fr. Leonty that the time will come when he will be led down the street and chased with rifle butts. This prediction came true in 1935, when he was arrested.

The priest's few belongings were placed in a cart, and his hands were tied and tied to the cart by the neck like a domestic animal. On the way to the district department of the NKVD, many people shouted sarcastic words at him, laughed at him and beat him.

Father Leonty was given a sentence of 3 years in forced labor camps. He was sent to Karaganda and worked as a stove maker at the medical unit.

New martyrs and confessors of the Orthodox Church of the 20th century every day

Being a man of prayer who had acquired the gift of constant prayer, Father Leonty clearly saw the spiritual mood of those who came. The temple is full of people, and Father Leonty would say sadly: “There are only one and a half people in the temple.” And sometimes there were only a few singers in the temple, and he joyfully said: “Today we have a temple full of people.” Out of his humility, the elder did not tell anything about himself, and one can only guess about his spiritual life. He prayed for everyone. Every day he read the Psalter by heart. No one saw him when he was sleeping. Whenever you come to him, he is always dressed and ready to go when required. He knew everything about those who lived and worked next to him and zealously maintained the unity of his small community, not allowing anyone into their “family.” Father Leonty always dined with the people. They will give him something to eat alone, but he won’t, he goes to people, and they will simply eat from the same dish. He will also treat others, saying: “We have a spiritual commune.” Father Leonty lived in extreme poverty. In his cell there was only an old iron bed, an old table and a few stools. The elder did not like money and tried, if it fell into his hands, to quickly get rid of it. The salary for him was received by the woman who ran the household, and what fell into his hands, he put into the church mug, joyfully saying: “I’m free again.” On Easter 1969, Patriarch Alexy awarded Archimandrite Leonty a second pectoral cross with decorations. Some began to talk about how it was time to send Father Leonty out of state. There were people who mocked the elder’s weakness, tripped him up during the censing of the temple, and dropped heavy banners on him during the religious procession. Others, approaching the cross during his dismissal, said to him: “When will you leave here?” Father Leonty sometimes said in his sermon to the people: “People, why are you persecuting me? You sleep all night, but I don’t sleep, praying for you, so that you all go where I go.” He said to his loved ones: “Paradise has been open to me for a long time, but I live for you, so that you all can be saved.” The parishioners turned to Archbishop Feodosius (Pogorsky) of Ivanovo and Kineshma with a request to leave Father Leonty in Mikhailovskoye until his death. “Although he is weak and infirm,” they wrote, “his prayer before God is great.” Vladyka Theodosius left Father Leonty at the temple, but blessed him to perform the service with a second priest. By this time, due to physical weakness, the elder could no longer serve daily, but he attended church in prayer every day. When he walked from the house to the church, they supported him by the hands, and they carried a chair behind him so that Father Leonty, after walking a dozen steps, could sit down to rest. During the service, he went to the entrance in the same way with a censer or the Gospel. He reached the royal gates, sat down opposite them to rest, blessed the entrance, and then went to the altar to the throne. Father Leonty was in the church until his last day. He said: “What hours we serve are ours, and what hours we don’t serve are not ours.” When people began to feel sorry for him and say: “Father, you are tired, rest.” He answered: “You don’t feel sorry for me, but you ruin me.” And when they said: “Father, you are completely sick,” he answered: “God has no illnesses, it is our sins that make us sick.” While still alive, the elder was granted the gifts of clairvoyance and healing from the Lord. Not far from the village of Mikhailovskoye in the village of Tolpygino, Archimandrite Ambrose (later Archbishop of Ivanovo and Kineshma) served at that time. In those years, he often visited Father Leonty. “We were sitting at the table one day,” recalled Bishop Ambrose. - Everything was very simple. Father Leonty was eating and saying something. And then my liver was unhealthy. And I didn’t attach any importance to our conversation. But suddenly Father Leonty, without any question on my part, said: “Many people are now complaining about their liver, but they will live a long time.” I remembered these words, and soon all the painful symptoms disappeared.” In Mikhailovskoye, together with Archimandrite Leonty, Father John served as the second priest. He was rude and behaved impudently towards the elder. People saw this and asked Father Leonty to achieve the removal or transfer of Father John. To this Father Leonty replied: “No one will remove him. Only Father Ambrose will remove it.” “It was surprising for me to hear this,” the bishop recalled. - Why did I have to take it off? But when in 1977, after the death of the elder, I became a bishop by the will of God, I really had to remove Father John from his post. Thus, Father Leonty saw my life’s path with spiritual vision.” It happened more than once that Father Leonty sent priests who came to him to be blessed by Father Ambrose. This caused bewilderment, since he was then just a young archimandrite. But later, when Father Ambrose was elevated to the rank of bishop, the meaning of these actions became clear. One day, Father Leonty sent an acquaintance who came to visit him to the priest in the city to the station. At this time, the persecution had not yet ended and the priest could be ridiculed, or even beaten. Father Leonty instructed one woman to escort the priest, which he was dissatisfied with and said: “Why do I need a woman? I’ll get there myself.” But he still agreed. At the station they met a group of guys. Seeing the priest, they jumped up to him, knocked him down, wanted to beat him, but the woman accompanying him shouted at them: “Don’t you dare! This is my father! The guys were ashamed and retreated. The Church of the Holy Archangel Michael of God is decorated with a white tented bell tower. For a long time, one of the local rowdies threatened to knock her down with a rope using a tractor. Father Leonty warned him more than once that this intention could end badly for him. But the tractor driver only laughed evilly in response. Having received tacit approval from the authorities for this blasphemy, the tractor driver stocked up with an iron cable and went to destroy the bell tower, having drunk heavily before doing so to be sure. On the way, it was necessary to cross the Shacha River, which flowed a hundred meters from the temple. When he was driving on the ice, the ice could not stand it and the tractor fell into the water, along with the tractor he fell into the river and died of a broken heart. Father Leonty prayed earnestly and for a long time for the deceased, so that some even began to reproach him for this: “Father, why are you all praying for him, he got what he deserves.” And Father Leonty responded to this: “How can I not pray for him, if he comes to me every day, asking for prayers.” Early in the morning of April 16, 1970, parishioners arrived at the church and heard that Father Leonty was performing a memorial service for the newly deceased Patriarch Alexy. Everyone was shocked and stood silently. After the memorial service, Father Leonty was asked why he was serving a memorial service for the living Patriarch. Father Leonty responded to this: “His Holiness Patriarch Alexy died, but that night we saw him and prayed together that Metropolitan Pimen would be elected Patriarch.” The parishioners were confused for some time until they heard the official announcement of the death of Patriarch Alexy. Father Leonty, sitting at the table one day, said: “When I die, a lot of water will flow out of me.” Father John, who was there and treated the priest very rudely, interrupted him: “Stop talking nonsense!” After the death of the elder, Father John one day went to the cemetery to serve a memorial service and saw a spring under the mountain, went down to it and cried: “Father Leonty, forgive me for not believing you.” One day, Father John wanted to make repairs in the church house, which required official permission from the authorities at that time. Father Leonty, as abbot, forbade him to seek such permission, saying: “You can’t do repairs - it will be worse.” This was in 1962, Father Leonty was soon banned, and then transferred to another parish for a year. Father John, left alone, immediately submitted an application to the district executive committee to allow him to repair the house. A decisive answer came from the district executive committee: “The house must be demolished by the 20th of the next month.” I had to obey the order and demolish the house, after which there was nowhere for the priests to live. The inner world of the carnal man of the twentieth century has become petty and chaotic. Fights over any issue have become common in almost every family. And the families themselves became fragile, for both believers and non-believers now lived in the same family. To people entangled in everyday quarrels and strife, Father Leonty said: “Don’t take everything to heart, look through your fingers.” He was a great man of prayer and cried a lot about human sins, but these tears were hidden from human eyes, only the Lord knew about them. One spiritual daughter of an elder said: “I don’t remember what year I came to him, that year our church was closed for a while because there was foot-and-mouth disease in the cattle. Father was lying on the bed and crying, and I began to ask him: “Father, why are you crying?” And he tells me: “I’m not the only one crying, and books are crying.” Shortly before his death, Father Leonty himself began to choose a place for his burial. He wanted to be buried near the wall of the second altar, but then he said that the whole place would be rolled under asphalt and therefore he should not be buried there. Indeed, this entire place was covered with asphalt after the death of the elder. There was also a small cemetery next to the temple, but about that too, Father Leonty said that he did not want to be buried here, because he did not want people to ride on it. Subsequently, the cemetery was indeed plowed up and overrun. Father Leonty asked to be buried in the general village cemetery. On December 26, 1971, during the prayer service for water, Father Leonty had some kind of vision, but he did not talk about it in detail, but only said after the prayer service that a great miracle happened on that day and if the people knew who he was, then it would be a turn would have stood from Mikhailovsky to Moscow and there would have been no rest for him either day or night. He ordered the water from the prayer service that took place that day to be saved and used only drop by drop. On February 7, 1972, Father Leonty celebrated his last liturgy. The next day he became very weak and, raising his hands up, joyfully began to say: “We are going to God, we are going to God!” On February 9, when the hours were being read in the church, Father Leonty received the Holy Mysteries of Christ at home. After the liturgy, the singers came to him and began to sing church hymns. At half past four in the afternoon the elder became worse and lost consciousness, and at four o’clock in the afternoon his soul departed to the Lord. Shortly before the death of Father Leonty, Archimandrite Ambrose visited him. During the tea party, Father Leonty said to himself: “When I die, they will dress me in a robe, then unmask me and dress me in monastic clothes, they will put one cross on me, then they will take it off and put on another.” When Father Leonty died, Archbishop Theodosius blessed Archimandrite Ambrose to perform the funeral service for the deceased elder. Arriving in Mikhailovskoye, Father Ambrose saw that the body of Father Leonty was dressed not in monastic attire - a mantle and hood, but in priestly robes. There was little time left before the funeral service began, and Father Ambrose immediately began to re-dress the elder’s body. Looking at the cross, he noticed that the cross was very richly decorated, and Father Ambrose asked to replace it with a simpler one, and here he remembered the words of Father Leonty, which were spoken to him shortly before his death. In the 8th year of the death of Father Leonty, there was a great drought everywhere in Russia: the grass withered, the rivers became shallow, the forests were burning. And in this heat, a few tens of meters from the elder’s grave, a spring gushed out, the water from which turned out to be healing, and many people drinking this water, through the prayers of the Reverend Confessor Leonty, began to receive gracious help from the Lord. The relics of the venerable confessor Leonty are now in the Church of the Archangel Michael in the village of Mikhailovskoye.

Hegumen Damascene (Orlovsky)

“The Lives of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia in the 20th Century. January". Tver. 2005. pp. 405–436

Notes: The True Orthodox Church is the name given by the OGPU apparatus for the convenience of processing documents for the arrest of Orthodox Christians with the subsequent initiation of “cases” against them. Now Furmanovsky district.
[1] Federal Security Service of Russia for the Vladimir region. D. P-8248. T. 1, l. 2-3. [2] Ibid. L. 156. [3] Ibid. L. 212. [4] Directorate of the FSB of Russia for the Ivanovo region. D. 8433-P, l. 7. [5] Ibid. L. 12. [6] Ibid. L. 19-20. [7] Ibid. D. 8597-P, l. 166. [8] Ibid. L. 35. [9] Ibid. L. 322. [10] Ibid. L. 325. Source: www.fond.ru/

“Christ is Risen, guys!”

Rev. Leonty in his life. Icon. Image from the site alchevskpravoslavniy.ru

In exile, on the night of Easter, the guards once again asked the priest if he was renouncing God. Hearing a negative answer, they dipped him headlong into the latrine pit by a rope, repeating the question. In response they heard the greeting: “Christ is Risen, guys!” The punitive gymnastics were repeated many times, the priest’s answer did not change.

“Now we will shoot”

When to o. Later, after all his exiles, people came to Leonty with their troubles; he often (not to everyone and not always) told “incidents” from life in the camp:

“Sick, tired after work, I was just about to go to bed when I heard a cry: “Get up, line up on the street!” We go out into the yard and hear the command: “Lie down!” We all fall face down in the dirt. Again the cry: “Get up!” We all get to our feet, but then again: “lie down.” And so many times.

And then they announce a curfew, but just when you start to warm up, the command to go outside is heard again. They could torture people like this for whole nights, and in the morning the convicts had to go to work.

Father Leonty also recalled: “It used to be that in prison after dinner, at night, they would suddenly take us out, put us in a row and say: “Now we will shoot.” They take aim, they scare you, and then they drive you back to the barracks.”

Denunciation from our own, help from strangers

Archimandrite Leonty (Stasevich). Photo from the site .pstbi.ccas.ru

By 1939, Father Leonty was freed and returned to Suzdal. He served secretly, from home. Already in the 50s, one of the priests who collaborated with the authorities reported on him. Three days before his arrest, the elder, anticipating his fate, began to prepare to leave. He distributed his property and money to spiritual children and people in need. O. Leonty was given 10 years and sent into exile in Komi.

The prison authorities identified Fr. Leonty into the cell of a repeat offender. Father, as soon as he entered there, bowed to the ground. The guards were waiting for the seasoned criminal to torture the “priest.” And when a couple of hours later they looked into the cell, they discovered: a repeat offender, kneeling in front of the priest, sobbing like a child, and the priest was stroking his head.

The camp prisoners respected Father Leonty so much that they did not allow the authorities to offend him, threatening him with a riot.

“When will you leave here?”

Church of the Archangel Michael in the village of Mikhailovskoye (Vladimir region), where Arch. Leonty was rector. Photo from the site koap46.blogspot.ru

Amnestied Fr. Leonty only in 1955, after the death of Stalin. When the priest was 85 years old, Patriarch Alexy I awarded him the second pectoral cross. Illness and age made themselves felt, but Fr. Leonty loved the service and people very much. And he served.

When the priest was transferred from the village of Mikhailovskoye for some time, the parishioners turned to the bishop: “The Orthodox people of the village of Mikhailovskoye make a touching request to you. We ask you, may the Lord help you to send our precious beloved lamp Leonty.” And the priest was eventually returned.

But even during this period of his life there were ill-wishers who plotted intrigues against the old, kind and faithful priest who had served in the camps. Several times when the priest burned incense during the service, they tripped him and he fell to the floor. It was as if heavy banners were accidentally dropped on him. And there were people who angrily asked the priest straight to his face: “When will you leave here?!”

The elder often said in his sermons, and as always, meekly: “People, why are you persecuting me? You sleep all night, but I don’t sleep - I pray for you!”

Indeed, the spiritual children did not see Father Leonty sleeping. They remember that the elder lived in extreme poverty. The furniture he had was an iron bed, an old table and several stools, and behind a partition there was a tiny kitchen with a Russian stove.

And persecution... Christ in the Gospel said to his disciples: “Remember the word that I said to you: a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you too; If they have kept My word, they will keep yours.” Father Leonty suffered, prayed, but was not surprised, understanding these words well.

After the death of the priest, all the clocks in the house rang

The elder preached simply and vitally. He often repeated: “What goes around comes around.” He advised “not to take everything to heart, to turn a blind eye to temptation.” When they felt sorry for him, saying that he was tired, Leonty replied: “You don’t feel sorry for me, but you are ruining me.” And about illnesses he said: “God has no illnesses, it is our sins that make us sick.”

On the 40th day after the priest’s death, all the clocks in his house rang at 15.30 and 16.00. One day the electric bell rang in the morning, although no one came.

On this day, one of his spiritual daughters had a dream: she seemed to be walking through some garden where many vegetables grew, and then entering a wonderful garden in which Elder Leonty was sitting in a dazzling white robe. She wanted to approach him, but some voice said: “You can’t come here.”

Furmanov resident Nadezhda Ryleeva recalls: “I was very little when I saw him for the first time. We lived then on Devya Gora (Furmanov center - M.K. ), we were sitting with our girlfriends on the street, playing, we saw an old man coming, he greeted us politely, but I couldn’t open my mouth, he fascinated me so much. There was some kind of glow coming from him, some kind of grace emanating. I just wanted to look at him, admire him.”

The elder walked on foot from Mikhailovskoye to Furmanov (8 kilometers) to perform religious services. Apparently, it was on one of these trips that the girl saw him. He “hooked” her for life.

"Oh, how strange I was"

Many have noticed the insight of Fr. Leonty and the effect of his prayer. His spiritual children remember that the priest could sometimes joke and thus save a person from some kind of misfortune. One summer, he did not allow women to throw away sour cabbage soup for a whole week, and when an inspection from the district executive committee came to his village, he put this pan on the fire, and the unexpected guests immediately retreated from the unbearable smell. Every time the elder recalled this incident, he laughed merrily and said: “Oh, how strange I was, how strange I was!”

Prayer for the Patriarch

The Church of the Archangel Michael, in which the priest served, was decorated with a beautiful bell tower in a tent style. One local tractor driver kept threatening to pull her down with a rope using a tractor. Father Leonty warned him more than once that this could end badly for him. The tractor driver laughed evilly in response.

Having received approval from the authorities, the tractor driver took the iron cable and drove to the temple. On the way we had to pass through a river. It was spring, the ice gave way and the tractor and driver fell through the ice.

Father Leonty prayed for a long time for the deceased, so that some even began to reproach him: “he got his own.” And o. Leonty replied: “How can I not pray for him when he himself walks every day and asks for prayers?”

And one morning, April 16, 1970, parishioners during the service heard Fr. Leonty performs a memorial service for the newly deceased Patriarch Alexy. People were confused: maybe the priest got it wrong because of old age?

After the funeral service, Fr. Leonty was asked: why did he serve a memorial service for the living patriarch? Father Leonty replied: “Patriarch Alexy died, but that night we saw him and prayed together that Pimen would be elected patriarch.”

And after some time they reported the death of Patriarch Alexy I (Simansky).

Preached by Fr. Leonty is simple. Sermons often included practical advice. One summer he kept saying: “We must thank God for giving us a lot of mushrooms.” And he urged the people to pick mushrooms more diligently.

Some laughed at him and even complained to the diocese that he was talking about such low everyday things in church;

however, in fact, that year turned out to be a lean year, and mushroom reserves helped people feed themselves in the winter.

People often went to Fr. Leonty with his everyday problems. To those entangled in everyday quarrels and strife, he often said: “Don’t take everything to heart, look through your fingers.”

The holy spring clogged up during the drought

The source was discovered in 1972, after the death of Father Leonty, who served in the Archangel Michael Church for decades. Or rather, a spring gushed at this place, and many remembered the prophecy of the old man, who said before his death: “When I die, a lot of water will flow from me.” He also predicted a drought, which actually happened in 1972, not only in our area. Forests and peatlands were burning, the heat was unbearable.

And then - a spring... The water in it turned out to be healing, and immediately the people became famous for its wonderful properties. For more than 20 years, people went to the source, simply collecting water in cans and cans, until a chapel and a bathhouse appeared here in 1996. The glory of the holy place doubled and flew throughout the cities and villages of the country.

There are a great many cases of healing from illnesses. The barren give birth to children, the blind restore their sight, those who have lost hope find it. But according to everyone’s faith...

Father Leonty was famous for his prophecies. Many testimonies have been preserved about how the elder, after one of the liturgies in 1966, left the church and said that thousands of people had died in Tashkent: “the earth is already shaking from human sins.” People who heard this doubted: this had not yet been reported on either radio or television. Imagine their surprise when, after some time, they heard about the tragedy in Uzbekistan.

Leonty predicted the opening of the Red Church in Ivanovo. But in Soviet times there was no question of returning the temple. At the same time, the elder assured that “when the Red Church opens, the whole earth will shake.” The hunger strike of Orthodox activists, which was written about by all the media in the world, is proof of this.

One day Father Leonty talked with one of the parishioners about cinema. He said that after his death “a movie will be filmed in Mikhailovsky.” In the summer of 1985, Nikolai Gubenko actually filmed a film here about the consequences of a tornado that hit the region.

Father often gave people practical advice. For example: “We must thank God for giving us a lot of mushrooms.” The advice turned out to be valuable, because the year when this was said was a lean year: stocks of mushrooms helped to survive the winter.

Elder Leonty was kind to people. One day a boy walked past his house and looked most downcast. "What's happened?" – asked the old man. It turned out that the boy was late for the train, where he was in a hurry to sell the berries he had collected. “What do you need money for?” – asked the priest. I needed money for a shirt. Then Leonty bought all the berries from him, and the old man had enough money for a new shirt.

One day in the spring, the priest picked up a rook with a broken leg that had fallen from a tree. I took him home and named him Monk. He joked: “Well, I have to go, I need to feed the Monk.”

The priest always felt the mood of the parishioners. Sometimes, when there were many people at the service, but those who did not come by faith, he sighed: “There are only one and a half people in the church.” And sometimes, when almost only singers were present at the service, he rejoiced: “Today we have a full church.”

“Let’s go to God!”

Reliquary with the relics of Saint Leontius in the Church of the Archangel Michael in the village of Mikhailovskoye. Photo from the site koap46.blogspot.ru

Father Leonty dreamed of dying during the service. This is what happened on February 9, 1972. Before his death, he exclaimed: “We are going to God!”

While still alive, the priest once said: “When I die, a lot of water will flow out of me.” And in the year of the elder’s death, the summer was very hot and dry, but in the village of Mikhailovskoye, not far from the grave of Fr. Leonty filled a spring with healing water.

Now the Rev. Confessor Leonty (Stasevich) is widely revered by the people. The temple in the village of Mikhailovskoye, Ivanovo region, where his holy relics are located, is almost always open. Pilgrimage groups arrive one after another. They turn to the elder as if he were alive, tell him about their troubles, those who suffer, especially from persecution, slander, unfair and gross accusations, pray, and feel help.

Based on materials from the book of Abbot Damascene (Orlovsky) “Lives of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian 20th Century”

Venerable Leonty (Stasevich), confessor

Memory January 28 / February 10

(MP3 file. Duration 4:13 min. Size 3.1 Mb) Read by Hieromonk Ignatius (Shestakov)

Reverend Leonty[1] was born on March 20, 1884 in the Polish city of Tarnogrod, south of Lublin, and was the only child in a peasant family.
At the age of 15, he began working as a secretary in the Tarnogrud court, and after the death of his father, he received a blessing from his mother to go to study at the Kholm Seminary. After completing the course in 1910, he became a monk at the St. Onuphrius Monastery in Yableczna. Three years later he was ordained a presbyter and given the obedience of the monastery treasurer. During the First World War (August 1915), the monastery was evacuated due to the advance of the German army. Then the Monk Leonty moved to Moscow, to the Epiphany Monastery near the Kremlin, and began to study theology at the Theological Academy of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. When the academy was closed by the Bolsheviks in 1919, Leonty did not abandon his studies. Three years later, he received the appointment of abbot to the ancient Spaso-Evfimievsky Monastery in Suzdal and labored there until its closure. Then he became the rector of two Suzdal churches and made every effort to save the faith.

In 1924 he was appointed archimandrite, and in 1930 he was sent to a concentration camp, where he spent three years. Released in 1933, Saint Leonty again took up pastoral duties at the parish in Borodino. In 1935 he was arrested again and in February 1936 he was sentenced to three years in prison. After his release, he returned to Suzdal, but continued his pastoral service in secret, without appearing openly in churches. And only in 1947 he began to serve in the Vorontsov parish church in the Volga region.

In May 1950, he was arrested for the third time. Anticipating the arrest, three days before Leonty distributed all his property and icons to numerous spiritual children. Although he was 66 years old at the time, he was sentenced to ten years in prison, and some of his spiritual children to eight years. In 1955, after Stalin's death, he was released early and began serving as a parish priest in the church in the village of Mikhailovskoye. There he led a strict ascetic life, performing the entire daily cycle of services and the Divine Liturgy every day.

The spiritual radiance of Saint Leontius attracted many people to him, which caused not only persecution by the authorities, but also the jealousy of some priests. They achieved their goal: St. Leonty was removed from ministry in 1962. Although this decree was canceled a month later, Saint Leonty was assigned to a remote and inaccessible church in Zhelshovka, despite his 78 years of age. This, however, did not prevent his spiritual children from coming to him for confession and consolation.

In 1964, at the request of believers, the Monk Leonty was able to return to Mikhailovskoye, where he continued his saving ministry until his blessed death on January 27 (February 9), 1972. He predicted the day of his death and the appearance of a source of healing waters at his grave. Since then, many miracles have not ceased to occur through the prayers of Saint Leontius.

[1] Canonized as the holy new martyrs and confessors of Russia in August 2000. Since 2003, the Polish Orthodox Church has venerated the memory of St. Leonty in the Cathedral of the New Martyrs of Kholm and Podlaski on the first Sunday after June 1.