LEBEDEV, A. ALEKSANDR ALEKSEEVICH. - Archpriest, Russian theologian, polemicist. Born in Moscow in 1833 to a priest, he studied from 1854 to 1858 at the Moscow Ecclesiastical Academy. He was particularly influenced by the Metropolitan of Moscow Filaret (Drozdov), Fr. Feodor (Bukharev), and the Slavophile A. S. Khomyakov. He worked in pastoral care in St. Petersburg (1874–82), then served as rector of the Russian Church in Prague, where he died on March 23 (Old Style) 1898.
With his three anti-Catholic works (*On the Immaculate Conception*, *Differences Between the Eastern and Western Churches in the Doctrine on the Most Holy Virgin Mary, Mother of God* [Warsaw 1881]; *On the Latin Cult of the Sacred Heart: Differences Between the Eastern and Western Churches in Their View and Doctrine on Love* [ibid. 1887]; *On the Primacy of the Pope, or the Differences Between Orthodox and Papists in the Doctrine on the Church* [St. Petersburg 1887; 2nd ed. of all three volumes, ibid. 1903]), he exerted significant influence on Russian polemical theology. It should be noted that L. was one of the first Russians to systematically and methodically oppose the primacy of the pope, the first Russian to write a monograph on the Immaculate Conception, and to address the question of the cult of the Sacred Heart. Other works by L. include *Compendium of the History of the Christian Church* (St. Petersburg 1873, 2nd ed. ibid. 1896) and *Tikhon of Zadonsk, Saint and Wonderworker of All Russia* (ibid. 1865; 3rd ed. ibid. 1896).