Leontius Klimenko

Holy Hieromartyr Leontius Klimenko, a priest, was born in 1887 and served in the village of Evgenievka, Vernyi district, Semirechye region. He was shot in the night of 11 to 12 February 1920, together with the archpriest John Granitov. He is commemorated with the holy hieromartyrs John Granitov and Constantine Zverev.

John (Ivan Mikhailovich Granitov) was born in 1875, was ordained priest, in time raised to the rank of archpriest and appointed rector of the church of Saint Nicholas in the Cossack settlement of Talgar. The deacon Constantine (Constantine Ivanovich Zverev) was born in 1881 and served at the same church in the village of Talgar. On 11 February 1920, in the time of the persecution begun against the Church, the archpriest John was arrested by the Bolsheviks on a charge of "counter-⁠revolutionary acts against Soviet power and hiding grain reserves". At the arrest his tormentors tore out his beard, and before the shooting they gouged out his eyes and sawed at his neck with the chain of his pectoral cross. In his torment he cried out to the faithful: "Do not renounce God". The deacon Constantine intervened for the shepherd and was at once cut down with sabres; his remains were put in a sack and thrown into a ravine near the cemetery, where the executions were carried out. The archpriest John was shot in the night of 11 to 12 February 1920.

Leontius Klimenko was born in 1887. In the time of the persecution he was accused by unbelievers of counter-⁠revolutionary acts, of mocking the Communist party, of keeping ammunition and of refusing to grind grain for the Communists. He was shot the same night, together with the archpriest John Granitov. The bodies of the holy hieromartyrs were buried in an unknown grave near the Cossack settlement of Talgar.

Saint Leontius is commemorated on 11 February and on 7 February, with the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia, in the new style.