Hieromonk
He was born in 1551 in the Poshikhonsk-Yaroslavl region to the pious peasant family of Philip and Catherine. Raised in the fear of God, he engaged in agriculture until the age of 50, which developed in him patience and simplicity of heart.
In 1603, he was honored with a vision of the Mother of God in a dream, who commanded him to transfer the icon of the Odigitria to the river Luza. At first, he did not perceive this as a divine revelation, but soon he left farming and went to the Kojezersky Monastery, where he took monastic vows.
After three years of life in the Kojezersky Monastery, he saw another vision of the Mother of God and, having received the blessing of the abbot Anthony, went to the Morzhevskaya Desert. There he spent a year in obedience before he decided to fulfill the command.
Upon arriving at the Morzhevskaya Desert, he did not immediately tell the abbot Cornelius the reason for his arrival, but continued to pray and work. Soon, after the fourth vision, he indicated the place for the transfer of the icon and, having received the blessing, went to the river Luza.
At the river Luza, two versts from the Tuirinskaya mountain, he built a small dwelling and began to work on the foundation of the monastery. The local inhabitants, seeing his piety, began to come to him, and soon a chapel was built.
In 1608, at the request of the people, he went to Metropolitan Philaret in Rostov for a blessing to build a church. The Metropolitan blessed him and ordained him as a hieromonk.
The church in honor of the Entry into the Temple of the Most Holy Theotokos was consecrated on February 17, 1608, and since then healings and miracles have occurred from the icon. Blessed Leonid, working on the monastery, took care of the brethren and instructed them in faith.
The elder labored much, draining swamps and laying a canal, which was named the river Neduma. He also predicted the future of the monastery, spending time in solitary prayer on the cape of the Black Lake.
He died on July 17, 1654, and his relics were placed in the Ust-Nedum Vvedensky church, where his hair shirt was kept for a long time, testifying to his ascetic labors.
