Lev (Archbishop of Novgorod)

Metropolitan Leo (or Lev, Russian: Лев, secular name Nikolay Lvovich Tserpitsky, Николай Львович Церпицкий; born April 13, 1946) is the current Metropolitan of Novgorod and Staraya Russa. He was named Bishop of Novgorod the Great and Staraya Russa on July 20, 1990 and elevated to the archiepiscopal dignity on February 25, 1995, and to the metropolitan dignity in January 2012.

He was born in the village of Zaluzhye in Stowbtsy District of Minsk Region in Belarus on April 13, 1946. He is the grandson of a priest.

After his service in the Soviet Army in 1966-1969, Lev entered the Leningrad Spiritual Academy, graduating in 1975 and successfully defending a candidate's dissertation entitled "Decrees of the Second Vatican Council's 'Constitution on the Divine Liturgy'" («Постановление II Ватиканского Собора „Конституция о богослужении“»). He studied at the Papal Gregorian University from 1975-1978.

On 28 March 1971, he was shorn a monk by Metropolitan Nikodim (Rotov) of Leningrad and Novgorod; he was consecrated a hierodeacon in April of that same year and was consecrated a hieromonk in April 1975. From 1972 to 1975, he was personal secretary to Metropolitan Nikodim. In 1978, he was elevated to the rank of archimandrite and was part of the Russian Orthodox Church's delegation at the funeral of Pope Paul VI and the inauguration of John Paul I; he was with the Metropolitan when Nikodim collapsed and died during an audience with the Pope.

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