Leontius Grimalsky

Holy Hieromartyr Leontius Grimalsky, a priest, was born on 10 July 1869 in the village of Lodyzhenka, Uman district, Kiev province, in the family of the psalm-⁠reader Stepan Grimalsky. His full name was Leontius Stepanovich Grimalsky. In 1892 he graduated from the theological academy in Kiev and became a teacher at the church school in the village of Rusalovka, Uman district. In 1893 he married. On 31 July 1894 he was ordained priest for the church in the village of Peschanovo, Zvenigorod district, Kiev province. In 1914 he was moved to the church in the village of Rogi, Uman district, where he served until 1931. In 1922 he was raised to the rank of archpriest, and in 1928 he received the palitsa. In 1931 he moved to the village of Zhigalovo, Shchelkovo district, Moscow region, where his son-⁠in-⁠law, the priest Nicholas Khoryuzov, served at the church of Saint Nicholas; here Father Leontius carried out the duties of psalm-⁠reader with the right to perform services.

On 4 April 1932 he was appointed to the church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul in the village of Lytkarino, Ukhtomsky district, Moscow region. In 1935 the archpriest Leontius received the pectoral cross with ornaments. In July 1937 he was transferred to the church in the village of Ilyinsky Pogost, Solnechnogorsk district, and on 31 October of the same year appointed to the Dormition church in the village of Gzhel, Ramenskoe district, where not long before the priest Nicholas Khoryuzov, transferred there, had been arrested.

On 26 January 1938 the archpriest Leontius was arrested and put in prison in Kolomna. On 30 January the investigator questioned him. He asked where his son-⁠in-⁠law Khoryuzov was. He answered that his son-⁠in-⁠law was arrested by the NKVD and he did not know why. He admitted a friendly bond with him, visits and mutual material help; after Khoryuzov's arrest, his wife lived with him. Asked in what year he had received the rank of archpriest, he answered that it was in 1922, for long service. Asked what opinions he had held about the elections to the Supreme Soviet and about the danger of war, he said that he had held no such talks, since nobody had addressed such questions to him and he himself avoided them.

On 8 February the investigators questioned a witness, who said that people unknown to him came to Grimalsky's, among them some servants of the cult, and two from Moscow, one introducing himself as an artist, the other as an NKVD worker; he did not know the purpose of the visits, for in his presence they did not talk, and the priest, as soon as he came, went to a little room. The guests stayed at most a day and left. From Grimalsky's words he heard dissatisfaction with Soviet power only once, in connection with meat deliveries. On 9 February 1938 the investigator questioned Father Leontius. He asked whether he had spoken about wrongful actions of Soviet power in collecting state deliveries. He answered that he had said nothing to anyone about the deliveries and that he considered the taxes and deliveries demanded of him legal. He admitted a close bond with Nicholas Khoryuzov, who had served before him in Gzhel, and with the deacon Voskresensky, both now arrested and sentenced by the NKVD, whom he visited often in the summer of 1937, when he still lived at Ilyinsky Pogost, as a son-⁠in-⁠law and as a servant of the cult. He admitted that once, when he came to his son-⁠in-⁠law, two men from Moscow had arrived at the same time, of whom he knew only the name of Boris, but did not know the purpose of the visit. Of the counter-⁠revolutionary activity of Khoryuzov and Voskresensky he knew nothing. He concluded: "I do not admit guilt of the charge brought against me and can say nothing more".

On 21 February 1938 the NKVD troika sentenced the priest to death. The archpriest Leontius Grimalsky was shot on 26 February 1938 and buried in an unknown mass grave at the Butovo firing range near Moscow. He is commemorated on 26 February, the day of his death, on 29 May, with the Synaxis of the New Martyrs who suffered at Butovo (the date moves), and on 5 September, with the Synaxis of the Saints of Moscow, in the new style.