Kolchev had graduated from the Tambov Seminary and was ordained as priest in 1897. He later became abbot in a town called Morshansk, teaching at the local school and a seminary. He was later transferred to the imperial estate of Oreanda in the Crimea where he was enlisted in the staff of the court clergy in 1905.

In 1909 he graduated from Moscow Theological Academy and was transferred to Livadia, Crimea in 1818. He emigrated from Russia in 1919, functioned as priest in Constantinople, then Paris and then moved to Copenhagen, where until his death June 7^th 1944 he was the Principal of the Orthodox Church in Copenhagen, taking over after the former head of church, Schtelkunov. Leonid Kolchev became confessor to the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna and her daughter Grandduchess Olga Alexandrovna. He was present at the deathbed of the Empress and even signed her death-certificate. Leonid Kolchev is buried at the Assistens cemetery in Copenhagen, together with several family members.