On January 13, 2025, in Shymkent, Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan, during his archpastoral visit to the Shymkent Diocese, conducted a memorial prayer service (litiya) at Lisya Balka—a site where martyrs for the Christian faith, political prisoners, and victims of repression in the 20th century were executed.
Praying during the memorial service were Bishop Chrysanthus of Shymkent and Turkestan, along with the clergy of the Shymkent Diocese.
The gathered faithful offered prayers for “all the archpastors, pastors, monastics, and laity in the land of Kazakhstan who suffered for God’s truth during the time of severe persecutions against our Church, and for those unjustly tortured and killed at this place.” A hymn of magnification was sung to the New Martyrs and Confessors who shone forth in the land of Kazakhstan.
The archpastors and clergy laid flowers at the commemorative cross.
The infamous Lisya Balka, near Shymkent, became the site of execution and final resting place for thousands of Orthodox Christians. Among them was Metropolitan Kyrill (Smirnov) of Kazan, one of the prominent figures of Russian Orthodoxy in the early 20th century. His spiritual greatness is attested by the fact that in 1908, St. John of Kronstadt, before his death, requested that Bishop Kyrill, then a vicar of the St. Petersburg Diocese, officiate his funeral service. Also executed at this site were Metropolitan Joseph (Petrovykh), Archbishop Alexy (Orlov), Bishop Eugene (Kobranov), and countless priests, monks, nuns, and laypeople.
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