Address of the Primate of the Orthodox Church of Kazakhstan, Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan, on the Occasion of the Bringing of the Honorable Relics of St. Spyridon, Bishop of Trimythous

Your Graces, Most Reverend Hierarchs!

Reverend Fathers! Dear Brothers and Sisters!

The Lord is now manifesting His mercy to the people of Kazakhstan – with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus’, a great sacred treasure of Universal Orthodoxy is being brought to our country from Greece, from the island of Corfu – the right hand of St. Spyridon the Wonderworker, Bishop of Trimythous.

This saint of God was born at the end of the third century on the island of Cyprus. He gave all his means to help his neighbors, assisted the poor and those in need, and thereby was granted by God the gift of working miracles. Because of his righteous life, the people of Cyprus elected him Bishop of the city of Trimythous. Ancient tradition testifies that in 325 St. Spyridon took part in the First Ecumenical Council. There the hierarch offered the Arian heretics a visible demonstration of the Unity of the Holy Trinity. He took a brick in his hands and squeezed it: instantly fire shot upward, water flowed downward, while clay remained in the wonderworker’s hands. “Behold, there are three elements, yet the brick is one,” St. Spyridon said. “So it is with the Most Holy Trinity – Three Persons, yet One Godhead.”

The life of St. Spyridon reveals his great love for people – his care for those in need, concern for the sick, defense of the wronged and rescue of those in peril. The Church calls him a great wonderworker: at the word of the Hierarch of Trimythous, the dead were raised, the elements were subdued, idols were shattered, the sick were healed and demons were cast out. Through the saint’s prayerful intercession, people received from the Lord housing, sustenance and material well-being.

Holy Scripture testifies: “The righteous live forever” (Wis. 5:15). St. Spyridon, as we know not only from his Life but also from our own experience, is quick to hear and quick to help. He comes to us in difficult circumstances, hears our prayers and responds to them. As His Holiness Patriarch Kirill noted in one of his addresses: “Simplicity of heart and compassion, boldness in prayer and zeal for the truth of the Gospel draw the hearts of millions of people to the Bishop of Trimythous – and no one departs from him without consolation.”

“Unshakable pillar of the Church, glory of the Orthodox, fountain of miracles, inexhaustible stream of love, lamp of many lights” – with these words St. Spyridon is glorified in the Church’s liturgical hymns. The saints are our intercessors before the throne of God, swift helpers in the affairs of life and deliverers in times of adversity. “They are physicians who ceaselessly care for our health,” Venerable Ephrem the Syrian (4th century) says of the saints of God, “healing both soul and body. They require only faith from you, and they give you whatever you ask. If there is no doubt in your soul, then even if you were dead, you would receive life!” Prayer before the relics of the saints possesses a special grace-filled power. Venerable John of Damascus (8th century), in his book An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, writes: “Through the relics of the saints demons are driven away, diseases are repelled, the infirm are healed, the blind receive their sight, lepers are cleansed, temptations and sorrows cease, and every good gift from the Father of lights descends upon those who ask with unwavering faith.”

Fervent prayers offered to St. Spyridon, trust in his heavenly intercession and reverent veneration of the incorrupt right hand of the Hierarch of Trimythous will undoubtedly grant every believer a sense of special spiritual closeness to the venerated saint and, most importantly, lift our minds and hearts toward God, Who is “wondrous in His saints” (Ps. 67:36).

The bringing of the honorable relics of St. Spyridon to Kazakhstan calls upon us to measure our own lives against his. The Hierarch of Trimythous shows us the Christian path toward perfection and reminds us to help our neighbors in their suffering and illness. Day by day, the life of each one of us must be enriched with works of mercy, which adorn human life and open to us the gates of the Heavenly Kingdom.

Through the prayers of St. Spyridon the Wonderworker, may the Lord bless the land of Kazakhstan with peaceful times and an abundance of the fruits of the earth, and establish us all “in every good word and work” (2 Thess. 2:17).

O Holy Hierarch of Christ, our Father Spyridon, pray to God for us!