Metropolitan Leontius (Leonty, secular name Leonid Ieronimovich Turkevich, ; ; August 8, 1876 – May 14, 1965) was the Metropolitan of the North American Diocese of the

Russian Orthodox Church The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...

from 1950 until his death in 1965. He was succeeded by Metropolitan

Irenaeus (Bekish) Metropolitan Irenaeus (Ireney, , secular name John Bekish, born Ivan Dmitriyevich Bekish, , ; 2 October 1892, Międzyrzec Podlaski, Mezhirech, Lublin Province (now Poland) – 18 March 1981, Staten Island, New York (state), New York) was the prima ...

. Leonid Ieronimovich Turkevich was ordained to the priesthood in 1905, and succeeded his father as parish priest of Kremenetz. He was transferred, along with his family, to the United States in October 1906 and became the rector of the newly established Orthodox

seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological college, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called seminarians) in scripture and theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as cle ...

(St. Platon's) in

Minneapolis, Minnesota Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

. Fr. Leonid represented the American diocese of the Russian Church at the All-Russian Church Council of 1917–1918 in Moscow, Russia. Fr. Leonid, whose wife had died in 1925, was consecrated Bishop of Chicago in 1933. He was given the name Leonty during his

tonsure Tonsure () is the practice of cutting or shaving some or all of the hair on the scalp as a sign of religious devotion or humility. The term originates from the Latin word ' (meaning "clipping" or "shearing") and referred to a specific practice in ...

as a monastic. Archbishop Leonty was elected Metropolitan of the diocese nearly unanimously during the 8th All-American Sobor, held in December 1950. He succeeded Metropolitan Theophilus Pashkovsky, who died in June of that year. In July 1988, Metropolitan Leonty's granddaughter, Tamara Turkevich Skvir, donated 50 bound volumes of diaries and papers covering the period from 1906—1964 to the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

. The collection also included approximately 2,000 poems as well as other miscellaneous memoranda and historical documents. He had five children. John Turkevich (1907 – 1998) was Eugene Higgins Professor of Chemistry at Princeton. Anthony L. Turkevich (1916 – 2002) was an American radiochemist. Nicholas L. Turkevich (1918 – 2007) was an international advertising executive.

Notes and references

1876 births 1965 deaths Primates of the Orthodox Church in America Married Eastern Orthodoxy clergy {{Eastern-Orthodoxy-bio-stub