PLATO LEVESHIN. — Born Pietro Georgievich Leveshin, Metropolitan of Moscow, renowned as a preacher, writer, and ecclesiastical administrator, was born in Tschachinikowa, near Moscow, on 29 June 1737, and died in Moscow on 11 November 1812.
He studied from 1747 to 1756 at the Greek-Slavonic-Latin Academy in Moscow. In 1758 he became a monk, in 1759 a priest, and from 1761 onward he served as a lecturer in theology and rector of the Trinity Seminary. In 1763, Catherine II selected him as the religious tutor of the heir apparent, Paul Petrovich (the future Emperor Paul I), and as court preacher. He was promoted to archimandrite of the Holy Trinity Monastery (1766), became a member of the Holy Synod (1768), and was appointed Archbishop of Tver’ (1770), Archbishop (1775), and Metropolitan of Moscow (1778). As senior among the metropolitans, he participated in the coronation of Alexander I. In 1805 he suffered an apoplectic stroke and spent the remainder of his life in the Holy Trinity Monastery near Moscow.
Leveshin was more a preacher (about 500 of his sermons are known) and catechist than a systematic theologian. He delivered his Catecheses, sermons “or primitive instructions on Christian doctrine,” in Moscow while still young (1757–1758). His course in Christian Theology, given in the years 1761–63, remained unpublished. Important is the fact that his lectures to Prince Paul were published in St. Petersburg in 1765 under the title Orthodox Doctrine or Abridged Christian Theology; later translated into Latin, French, German, English, Greek, Armenian, Dutch, and Georgian, they constituted the first attempt at a theological system in the Russian language. Especially during his time at court, Church and State merged for him in accordance with the principles of caesaropapism.
In Theophan Prokopovich he saw his master and model. In his ecclesiology, therefore, Protestant influence is evident, particularly regarding the doctrines of tradition and the Church’s doctrinal authority; he did not sufficiently emphasize the Church’s visibility. Leveshin’s soteriology, apart from a few traces of Protestant influence, is positively Orthodox and non-polemical.
Other works: A Short Catechism for Children (1775); Instructions for Parish Priests (1775); Parenetic Sermons Delivered at the Imperial Court (1782); A Short Ecclesiastical History of Russia (1805; 2nd ed. 1822); Life of St. Sergius of Radonezh (5th ed.). His collected works (Poučitel'nye Slova, i.e., “Parenetic Sermons”) were published in 20 volumes, Moscow 1779–1807.