Leonty (Turkevich)

Metropolitan Leonty (Turkevich) was the primate of the Russian Orthodox Church in North America (Metropolitan of All America and Canada) from 1950 to 1965. He is venerated by the faithful without synodal canonization.

He was born on 8 August 1876 at Kremenets in Volhynia, the son of a priest. He attended the Volhynia Seminary and the Kiev Theological Academy and taught in church schools, including the seminaries of Kursk and Ekaterinoslav. In 1905 he married Anna Chervinsky and was ordained deacon and priest, at Pochaiv Monastery; he succeeded his father as priest at Kremenets. In 1906 Bishop Tikhon of North America called him to be rector of the new seminary at Minneapolis, where he arrived in October. He edited the Russian-⁠American Orthodox Messenger from 1914 to 1930 and was dean of Saint Nicholas Cathedral in New York.

He represented the American diocese at the Council of 1917 and 1918 in Moscow. His wife died in 1925; he was tonsured a monk with the name Leonty and in 1933 was consecrated bishop of Chicago. At the Council of December 1950, after the death of Metropolitan Theophilus, he was elected metropolitan by acclamation. Under his leadership the statutes of the Church were adopted and refined and the central administration was placed on a stable footing, and from 1955 to 1962 he was dean of Saint Vladimir's Seminary. He had five children. He reposed on 14 May 1965; his diaries and papers, from 1906 to 1964, are kept in the Library of Congress.