The Martyr Leonid Vasilyevich Salkov was born in 1886 in the village of Taganash, Tavricheskaya Province, into a devout merchant family with many children. He graduated from the Simferopol Gymnasium and the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow University. After serving one year in the army, he was discharged with the rank of ensign. In 1914, he was called to active service on the Romanian front. Soon he was promoted to second lieutenant, and in early 1917 — to lieutenant. In July 1917, Leonid resigned and transferred to the reserve in Odessa. He became a parishioner of the Church of St. Nicholas and All Saints Who Shone Forth in the Land of Russia, under the spiritual guidance of St. Jonah of Odessa, the miracle-worker. The elder blessed Leonid to depart for the Annunciation Monastery.
In April 1918, the monastery was seized by German troops, but Leonid managed to escape. Following St. Jonah’s blessing, he gave away all his possessions and began his pilgrimage: Sukhumi, New Athos, the monasteries of Georgia…
In the autumn of 1919, Leonid went to Jerusalem and Constantinople. Upon returning, he entered the Chersonesus Monastery. In May 1923, the wanderer Leonid left for the Caucasus, where he lived either in monasteries or with pious families who received pilgrims, helping them with their household work, constantly abiding in the Jesus Prayer.
In 1927, Leonid Vasilyevich was arrested on charges of espionage on behalf of counter-revolutionary clergy and sentenced to three years in the Solovki labor camp.
In 1935, he was again arrested in Vologda for alleged counter-revolutionary activities and sentenced to five years in Karlag. In 1937, while still in the camp, he was arrested once more. The case materials said: “...conducted religious services, distributed self-written prayers among the prisoners, and spoke about the imminent fall of Soviet power.” Leonid did not consider himself guilty, declaring: “I am neither a scoundrel nor a traitor, and I will not buy my freedom with the blood of others.” The NKVD troika sentenced him to be shot.
He was executed on March 7, 1938. The place of his burial remains unknown.
Saint Leonid was canonized among the Holy New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia at the Bishops’ Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in August 2000.
Commemoration days: December 2 (November 19, Old Style); in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Solovki, and in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church.
