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Leonid Viktorovich Svyatin was born on [[August 2]], 1893 at the Karagana Station in the Upper Urals region of the Orenburg Province of Russia Empire. His father was a [[deacon]]. Leonid began his theological education in the Orenburg Seminary, graduating in 1915. From Orenburg, he entered [[Kazan Theological Academy]]. In his second year of studies at Kazan he was mobilized and sent to the Tbilisi Military School, in Georgia. With the start of the Bolshevik revolution, he left the military school and returned home. Again mobilized he became an official on the staff of General Belova of the White army. As the army disintegrated from lack of material support and suffering a typhus epidemic, Leonid joined some survivors and entered China in 1919.
In Beijing he joined the Russian Mission where he entered the monastery on the center's grounds.On [[June 30]], 1921, Leonid was [[tonsure]]d a [[monk]] with the name Victor at the Holy Dormition Monastery of the Beijing mission. On [[July 3]], 1921, Victor was [[ordination|ordained]] a hierodeacon, followed by ordination as a [[hieromonk]] on [[July 7]]. In August 1921, he entered the Oriental Faulty of the Far East Institute in Vladivostok. On [[August 10]], 1922, Fr. Victor was assigned to the Holy Protection of the Theotokos Church in Tiajin (Tientsin), China.
On [[November 3]], 1929, Fr. Victor was elevated to the dignity of [[archimandrite]] by [[Innocent (Figurosky) of Beijing|Metr. Innocent]] of the Beijing mission. On [[November 6]], 1932, Fr. Victor was consecrated Bishop of Shanghai by Abp. Simon of the Beijing mission. Upon Abp. Simon’s repose in 1933, Bishop Victor was appointed in his place as Bishop of Beijing and China. In September 1938, Bp. Victor was raised to the dignity of Archbishop.
