Archimandrite Leonid (Kavelin Lev Aleksandrovich)

Archimandrite Leonid (Kavelin Lev Aleksandrovich) (1822–1891) – philologist, bibliographer, archeologist, ethnographer. Correspondent Member of the Imperial Ac. of Sc. at the Department of Russian language and literature (1882), Correspondent Member of the Imperial Archeographic Commission (1863), Member of the Imperial Society of History and Russian Antiquities (1867). Specialist in the history of Russian Church, history of monasteries, medieval religion.

He studied at the Cadet Corps (till 1840); in 1852, he resigned and went to the Optina Hermitage as Novice. In 1857-1859, he served at the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem; in 1859-1863 – in the Optina Hermitage; in 1863-1865, he was Head of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem. In 1865-1869, he was Rector of the Embassy church in Constantinople; in 1869-1877, he was Archimandrite of the Novo-Jerusalimsky Resurrection Monastery. Since 1877, he was Archimandrite of the Holy Trinity St Sergius Lavra.

Starting with the studies of some ecclesiastic antiquities (in 1847, he published ‘Historical Description of the Kozelsk Presentation Optina Hermitage’), he kept those studies till the end of his life. He prepared descriptions of many Russian monasteries, studied manuscripts and made a great input into the knowledge of Old Russian bookish tradition and medieval religion.

Compositions

Abkhazia and Its Novo-Afonsky Simon the Zealot Monastery. Moscow, V. F. Richter Typography, 1885. (in Rus.)
Ecclesiastic and Historical Description of the Liquidated Monasteries in the Borders of the Kaluga Eparchy. Moscow University, 1863. (in Rus.)
Critical Survey of the Data on the Holy Trinity St Sergius Lavra. Moscow, 1876. (in Rus.)
Historical Description of the Kozelsk Presentation Optina Hermitage. Parts 1‒2, 4th publ. Moscow, 1885. (in Rus.)
Epistle to Unknown Person against Luthors. Composition by Parthenius Urodivy, Writer of the Sixteenth Century (on a Manuscript of Late Count А. S. Uvarov) // Monuments of Old Literature and Art. Iss. LX, St. Petersburg, 1886. (in Rus.)
Verses on the Kryuki ("hooks"). Composition by Tsar Ivan Despot of Russia (on a Manuscript of the Library of the Holy Trinity St Sergius Lavra, XVII cent.) // Monuments of Old Literature and Art. Iss. LXII, St. Petersburg, 1886. (in Rus.)
Holy Rus’, or Data on All Saints and Devotees of Piety in Rus’ (till XVIII cent.). St. Petersburg, 1891. (in Rus.)

Bibliography

Father Anatoly Prosvirnin. Bibliography of Works by Archimandrite Leonid (Kavelin) // Bogoslovskie trudy. No 9 (1972), pp.226-240. (in Rus.)

About him

Sheremetev S. D. Archimandrite Leonid (Kavelin). Moscow, 1901. (in Rus.)
Dmitrievsky А. А. An Essay on the Life and Work of Archimandrite Leonid (Kavelin), the Third Head of the Russian Ecclesiastic Mission in Jerusalem, His Research Works on Studying the Orthodox East / Introd. N. N. Lissovoy // Bogoslovskie trudy. No 36 (2001), pp.57-175. (in Rus.)

T. Ch.