Leonid Feodorov

Leonid Ivanovich Feodorov ( _ru. Леонидъ Ивановичъ Фёдоровъ; 1879 - 1935) was a bishop and Exarch for the Russian Catholic Church, in addition to being a survivor of the GULAG. After painstaking investigation, he was beatified by Pope John Paul II on June 27 2001.

Early life

Feodorov was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia on November 4, 1879 into a Russian Orthodox family. After his graduation from the Second Imperial Gymnasium in 1901, he enrolled in the Orthodox Ecclesiastical Academy in order to study for the priesthood in the Russian Orthodox Church. After much soul-searching, he left the academy in the summer of 1902 in order to embrace Catholicism. He traveled to the Vatican by way of Austrian-ruled Lviv, where Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church blessed his mission.

Conversion and ordination

On July 31, 1902, Feodorov formally converted to Catholicism in Rome. After studying in the Pontifical College at Anagni he was ordained a priest at Constantinople by Bishop Mikhail Mirov of the Bulgarian Greek Catholic Church on March 25 1911. He spent the following years as a Studite hieromonk in Bosnia and Ukraine.

Dissident

On the eve of the First World War, he returned to Saint Petersburg whereupon he was immediately exiled to Tobolsk in Siberia as a potential threat to the Tsar's government which held Russian Orthodoxy as its state religion.

After the February Revolution, the Provisional Government ordered the release of all political prisoners. A three day Synod of the Russian Catholic Church opened in Saint Petersburg under the leadership of Metropolitan Andrey. The Metropolitan appointed the Hieromonk Leonid (Feodorov)' as Exarch of the Russian Catholic Church. Rumors have circulated since then that Metropolitan Andrey also secretly consecrated Hieromonk Leonid as a bishop. As if to confirm the rumors, a photograph survives of Exarch Leonid dressed in the vestments of a bishop.

Open persecution of religion began in 1922. The clergy were forbidden to preach religion to anyone under eighteen years of age. Then, all the churches were closed. in 1923, all Catholic priests and bishops were rounded up and placed on trial for counter-revolutionary activities. In what was described as a political show trial in every sense of the word, future Commissar of Justice Nikolai Krylenko acted as public prosecutor. According to witnesses, Krylenko attempted to paint all religious practice as a political conspiracy against the Soviet State. At one point, he turned to the defendants in the dock and screamed,

"Your religion, I spit on it, as I do on all religions -- on Orthodox, Jewish, Mohammedan, Lutheran, and the rest." [ Captain Francis McCullagh, "The Bolshevik Persecution of Christianity," E.P. Dutton and Company, 1924. Page 224.]

With the verdict and sentences already decided upon, Exarch Leonid was sentenced to ten years in the GULAG.

The GULAG

After serving three years in Solovki prison camp, Exarch Leonid was released and exiled to Mogilev, in Belarus. After continuing to spread Greek-Catholicism, he was arrested again and returned to Solovki.

In Solovki, Roman Catholic Mass was offered in a chapel which had been restored for the purpose with the permission of the guards. Exarch Leonid would offer the Divine Liturgy of the Russian Catholic Church every other Sunday. When the camp authorities cracked down on this in 1929, the Masses continued in secret.

Release and death

On August 6, 1929, Exarch Leonid was released to the town of Pinega in the Arkhangelsk Oblast and put to work making charcoal. After continuing to teach the Catechism to young boys, he was transferred to the village of Poltava, Ukraine, where he completed his sentence in 1932. He chose to reside in Viatka, where, worn out by the rigours of his imprisonment, he died on March 7 1935.

Legacy

On June 27 2001 Exarch Leonid Feodorov was beatified by Pope John Paul II. He remains deeply venerated among Russian Catholics.

Quotes

* "When I fel overwhelmed by misfortune, the greatest joy that the Lord can give me is to go to the altar, to put my forehead against it (as on the day of my ordination to the priesthood), and to feel the presence of the only reality. Not only does calm return, but my body seems to be annihilated; the only true life begins, the life of thatwhich is intangible." [Fr. Paul Mailleux, S.J., "Exarch Leonid Feodorov, Bridgebuilder Between Rome and Mocow," page 166.]

* "I am not a Jacob wrestling with God, but a Job lying on his dung-hill. i have assimilated Western thought and its clarity, but, in fact, I am solidly rooted in the passive Eastern nature and remain rebellious to any action. The book, the cell, the presence at the altar and at lengthy church ceremonies, and above all the solitude and withdrawal from the world -- this is the atmosphere which suits me; it is there that I feel like a fish in the water. I cannot led an active and contemplative life at the same time. You know how much I love the Jesuits, but their ideal (to unite contemplation with action) is not within my means." [Fr. Paul Mailleux, "Exarch Leonid Feodorov," page 181.]

* "If the Soviet Government orders me to act against my conscience, I do not obey. As for teaching the Catechism, the Catholic Church holds that children must be taught their religion, no matter what the law says. Conscience is above the law. No law which is against the conscience can bind." [Captain Francis McCullagh, "The Bolshevik Persecution of Christianity," Dutton and Company, 1924, page 192.]

* "My whole life has been based on two principles: the love of the Church to which I am united, and the love of my country, which I adore. If I do not care whether I am sentenced to ten years imprisonment or to be shot, it is not because I am a fanatic... Since I joined the Catholic Church my sole object has been to reconcile my country to that Church which I believe to be the One True Church." [ Captain Francis McCullagh, "The Bolshevik Persecution of Christianity," page 238.]

* "The true messianism of the Russian Church is not what the Slavophiles have imagined, but it is the example of suffering. It is in this way that she shows that she is the continuation of Christ in this world." [ Fr. Paul Maileux, "Exarch Lenid Feodorov," page 204.]

References

External links

* [http://www.redemptorists.org.uk/red/mag/russian1.htm "The Servant of God Exarch Leonid Feodorov."]
* [http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintl46.htm Biography]