To the question of the place of birth Archimandrite Leonid (Kavelin)

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify the birthplace of the prominent church figure and scientist Archimandrite Leonid (Kavelin) (1822–1891) and thereby eliminate discrepancies on this issue in the reference literature. The study is timed to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the birth of Archimandrite Leonid, celebrated in 2022. To solve this problem, for the first time, numerous information taken from various archival and published sources, obtained in oral conversations with relatives (the author of the article is distantly related to Archimandrite Leonid), about the archimandrite’s ancestors along the Kavelin and Nakhimov lines, their estates, occupation, about the archimandrite’s parental family, about his brothers and sisters. In the course of the work, a number of new family ties of the Kavelins and Nakhimov were established. For the convenience of perceiving information about numerous family ties, the text is provided with a specially developed pedigree scheme. The unconditional conclusion of the study is that Father Leonid was born in one of the Nakhimov estates in the Smolensk region. With a greater degree of probability, this is the estate of Gorodok of the Vyazemsky district. The article also draws public attention to the need to preserve memorial sites in the modern Smolensk region associated with the names of Archimandrite Leonid (Kavelin), Admiral P. S. Nakhimov, and other famous figures.