Metropolitan Leonid (secular name Leonid Eduardovich Gorbachov, ; born 26 October 1968, Stavropol) is a bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church. He holds the title "Metropolitan of Klin". Former Patriarchal Exarch of Africa (2021-2023).
Biography
Early life
He was born on 26 October 1968, in Stavropol. Since 1970, his family lived in Krasnodar. He graduated from high school in 1985. In 1985–1986, he was a laboratory assistant. During those same years, he was the sexton of St. George's Church in Krasnodar. In 1986-1988 he served in the Armed Forces of the USSR.
In 1988–1989, he was a reader-singer of St. George's Church in Krasnodar and subdeacon of Bishop Isidore (Kirichenko) of Krasnodar and Kuban. In 1989-1992 he studied at the Leningrad Theological Seminary.
Deacon and priest
On 8 April 1990, he was ordained a deacon. On June 18, 1990, he was tonsured a monk, and on 8 October 1990, he was ordained a hieromonk. In 1990-1997 he was a full-time cleric of St. Catherine Cathedral in Krasnodar. In 1995-1997 he was the sacristan of same cathedral.
Since 1997, he has been an employee within the Moscow Patriarchate of the Synodal Department for Relations with the Armed Forces and Law Enforcement Agencies (in Moscow).
From March to September 1998, he was on a business trip as part of the Russian separate airborne brigade of the contingent of the United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where, as he later recalled, he had to face "unprecedented blatant injustice against an Eastern Orthodox people".
From October 1998 to September 2002, he studied at the Theological Department of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, was a minor cleric of the Russian lower Church of the Great Martyr Panteleimon in Agios Pandeleimonas in Athens, Greece.
Since October 2002, he has been an employee of the Secretariat of Inter-E. Orthodox Relations of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate.
On 30 July 2003, by the decision of the Holy Synod of the ROC, he was appointed a member of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem.
On December 24, 2004, by the decision of the Holy Synod of the ROC, he was dismissed from the post of a member of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem and he was appointed rector of the Metochion of the Russian Orthodox Church in Alexandria and the Church of Demetrius of Thessaloniki in Cairo, Representative of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia to the Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and all Africa.
On 25–29 September 2007, as part of the delegation of the Russian Orthodox Church, he attended the celebrations dedicated to the 2000th anniversary of the Birth of Christ according to the Ethiopian calendar.
In June 2009, he attended the meeting of Patriarch Theodore II of Alexandria and President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev in Cairo.
On 11 April 2010, at the metochion of the Russian Orthodox Church in Cairo, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, during his visit to the Patriarchate of Alexandria, elevated him to the rank of Archimandrite.
Bishop
On 29 May 2013, the Holy Synod of the ROC elected him Bishop of Argentina and South America.
On 11 June 2013, at the patriarchal and synodal residence of the Danilov Monastery, he was nominated as bishop.
On 17 June 2013, in the Church of St. Igor of Chernigov in Peredelkino, he was consecrated Bishop of Argentina and South America. The consecration was performed by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, Metropolitan Barsanuphius (Sudakov) of Saransk and Mordovia, Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Volokolamsk, Archbishop Arsenius (Yepifanov) of Istra, Archbishop Mark (Golovkov) of Yegoryevsk, Bishop Sergius (Chashin) of Solnechnogorsk, Bishop Tikhon (Zaitsev) of Podolsk.
On 16 July 2013, he was dismissed from the post of representative of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia to the Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa. In August of the same year, he handed over the affairs at the farmstead in Cairo to priest Viktor Kulaga, and left for South America.
He visited all twenty countries of the diocese entrusted to him. The diocese itself was experiencing growth at that time, but faced serious difficulties: a shortage of clergy, lack of legal registration of parishes, chronic lack of funds, the presence of ROCOR parishes that did not adopt the 2007 Act of Canonical Communion. At the same time, there were very few Russian enterprises and wealthy compatriots able to provide charitable assistance in Latin America.
On 3 June 2016, by the decision of the Holy Synod of the ROC, he was appointed Bishop of Vladikavkaz and Alania.