Archpriest Grigory Levitskiy
Archpriest Grigory Andreyevich Levitsky 32 years: from 1840 until his death in 1872 served in the Starocherkassk Army Cathedral of Christ’s Resurrection. Loving the native antiquity and the Don history, he helped to clarify a number of historical facts concerning Starocherkassk as the ancient capital of the Cossacks and the Azov campaign. Grigory Andreyevich did his best to disseminate historical information among the people. Thanks to his exertions in 1863, an obelisk was built on the right side of the main entrance to the cathedral to commemorate the crown prince Nikolai Alexandrovich visit to Starocherkassk. Under the leadership of Fr. Gregory a memorial chapel “in honor and eternal glory of the Don Cossacks – the conquerors and strongholds of Azov” was erected at the Monastery place, six miles from Starocherkassk. Since 1642, the burial site of the dead defenders of Azov has been located at this place – according to their testament: “Let our bones not lie in the Basurman land”.
According to the memoirs of contemporaries, Fr. Grigory “wherever he could … he looked for various archaeological rarities with which he loved to decorate his office, and the best examples of antiques were transferred to the Novocherkassk gymnasium, and some were left at the Starocherkassk Parish School, in which he served as a God law teacher for over 20 years.” For classes with students of the school, he even specially arranged a sundial directly on the cathedral square, in front of the western church entrance. During these works on the one-meter depth deepening, he discovered large iron doors. This Azov trophy now we can see near the cathedral.
Archpriest Gregory Levitsky described the genealogies of the tree of famous Cossacks. He is one of the first, who made an accurate description of the temples. He described not only the appearance but also the interior, iconostasis, sacristy of the cathedral, the size of the temples. He owns chronological records relating to the temples of Cherkassk.
Thanks to the efforts of Archpriest Grigori Levitsky and his assistants, it became possible to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the cathedral, which was attended by many high-ranking guests from Novocherkassk and the neighborhood, and even had a firework.