Leonid of Poshekhonye

Holy Venerable Leonid of Poshekhonye was a disciple and companion in struggle of the Venerable Adrian of Poshekhonye. On 13 September 1540, on the eve of the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, the Venerable Adrian and the elder Leonid came to the wild Poshekhonye forest, between the villages of Belti, Patrabolshim, Shelshedolsky and Ukhorsky, and stopped on the bank of the river Votkha. There the old man who was guiding them suddenly became invisible. The amazed travellers began to sing the canon and the service of the feast, thanking God with tears. As a herald of the future monastery, the place of the glorifying of God, a sound of bells was heard through the surrounding villages. Three years Adrian and the elder Leonid lived in desert solitude, enduring want, overcoming the devil's temptations and the reproaches of evil men, and then they set about carrying out their cherished intention.

Choosing a suitable time, the ascetics went to Moscow to Metropolitan Macarius to ask a blessing for building, in the Poshekhonye land, on the river Votkha, a monastery and a church in honour of the Dormition of the Mother of God. Saint Macarius blessed them, gave them the charter for building and ordained the hierodeacon Adrian presbyter and abbot. In Moscow the Poshekhonye hermits also found generous benefactors, who gave rich gifts for raising the church. Returning to their desert on 31 May 1543, the abbot Adrian laid the foundation of the church with a refectory in honour of the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God. Having adorned and consecrated the new church, he set about organising the monastery. The strict rule of Cornelius of Komela was introduced in the monastery. Possessing nothing of their own, content with little in all things, the monks spent most of their time in prayer, in church and in cell, and much time went also to reading Holy Scripture, reading not aloud or beautifully but in a humble and gentle voice: one reads and the second reflects on what is read.

Six years after the founding of the monastery the elder Leonid reposed in peace in the Lord, and the Venerable Adrian and the brethren buried him with honour. The brethren had multiplied by then. The monks built three cells to live in and a fourth for cooking and baking bread. Saint Adrian began to think of raising a great stone church and gathered a considerable sum. But a year after the repose of the elder Leonid, in 1550, in Great Lent, in the night of 5 to 6 March, armed robbers burst into the monastery and, after torturing him, strangled the Venerable Adrian.

Saint Leonid is commemorated on 5 June, with the Synaxis of the Saints of Rostov and Yaroslavl, in the new style.