Leonid Kolchev

Archpriest Leonid Ivanovich Kolchev (also sometimes spelled Koltscheff) (1871 - 1944)

Leonid Ivanovich Kolchev was born on the 22nd of September 1871. He completed Tambov seminary in 1897 and became a priest. During his time as a priest in Morshansk he concerned himself intensely with education, the building of a school and a teachers seminary. In 1905 he was transferred to the Imperial estate Oreanda in the Crimea and became a member of the Court clergy. In 1909 he completed a correspondence course at the Moscow Spiritual Academy. In 1894 Leonid Ivanovich was transferred to Livadia where he was priest at the Church of the Protecting Veil of the Mother of God at the estate of his Majesty "Oreanda". In the course of the revolution Leonid, his wife Olga (1872-1936) and their children, daughter Larissa and son Arkady emigrated from Russia. Between 1920 and 1924 he worked as a priest in Constantinople. In 1921 he was mentioned as a member of the Episcopal Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in Constantinople. For a while he worked in Paris. Maria Feodorovna learnt about the family's terrible situation and arranged for an immigration visa to Denmark, where - for the remainder of his life - Leonid Ivanovich was the head of the orthodox church of St. Alexander Nevsky in Copenhagen and confessor to the Dowager Empress. On the 19th of Octrober 1928 he made a speech at the coffin of Maria Feodorovna.

He died on June the 7th, 1944. Buried in grave number 17 in the Russian section of "Assistens" cemetery in Copenhagen.