Holy Hieromartyr Leon

Holy Martyr Leon came from the family Corombtsouk from the region of Helm. However, he was born far from his country of his ancestors in 1919 in county Jiaroslav of Russia because his parents migrated to this region during the 1^st World War.

Soon though he returned to the region of Helm, where his father, the most reverend priest Gabriel became the officiating priest of the village Coulno. The young Leon studied at the highest School of the city Psemisl and Lvov and then during the years 1936-1939 completed the hieropsaltic School that was at the monastery of Saint Onouphrios in Giabletsna.

In 1941, during the difficult years of the 2^nd World War, the Orthodox Church appointed him psalmist and conductor of the parish of the village of Verbkovitse. There in 1942 he married and in the Cathedral Church of Helm he was ordained deacon and priest by the local metropolitan Ilarion. At the beginning the young priest was staying at Helm, where he served and helped in the offices of the metropolis.

He was then sent to a very difficult and responsible pastoral position, due to the contact with the Catholics and the Uniates, in the parish of Laskof, in county Chroubiesouf. With great zeal and self sacrifice he worked in the vineyard of Christ, serving and always standing in solidarity with the parish members on every difficulty they may have had in relation to the heterodox. Sometimes in fact they would plot against himself and his household.

On the 10^th March 1944, the 25 year old priest with his family and two hundred parish members at Laskof, received the crown of martyrdom from the papists, who with particular fanaticism tortured especially the priest.

The bodies of the martyred, the papist rebels cast into an earlier prepared pit for this purpose; from there the Orthodox removed the body of priest Leon and buried it at the parish cemetery of the village Laskof. Later the cemetery was destroyed by the papists and since then the location of the tomb of the priest remains unknown.