Paschal Commemoration of the Departed. Metropolitan Alexander Celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the Church of the Metropolis Representation in Moscow

April 29, 2025 — Tuesday of the second week after Pascha — Radonitsa. On this day, the Orthodox Church, following ancient tradition, offers special Paschal prayers for the departed on the ninth day after the Bright Resurrection of Christ.

Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the Church of the Holy Martyrs Faith, Hope, Love, and their Mother Sophia at the Patriarchal Metochion in Moscow — the Representation of the Metropolis of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Concelebrating with His Eminence were: acting rector of the Almaty Orthodox Theological Seminary and head of the Metropolis Information Department, Protopriest Evgeny Ivanov; Vice-Rector of the Seminary, Candidate of Theology, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor Igumen Agafangel (Gagua); sacristan of the Church of the Holy Martyrs Faith, Hope, Love, and Sophia, Hieromonk Anthony (Drobyazko); Protopriest Pavel Vishnevsky; Hieromonk Victorin (Aseyev); Hieromonk Daniil (Makagon); and the clergy of the metochion.

Among those praying at the Liturgy were Natalia Parshikova, Deputy Head of the Secretariat of the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation; benefactors of the metochion and parishioners of the church.

The choir of the church sang under the direction of Anna Rozhnova.

During the memorial litany, prayers were offered for “all Orthodox Christians who have fallen asleep from ages past to this present day”; special petitions were made for the repose of the ever-memorable Protopriest Boris Prisjazhnyuk, the former rector of the Church of Sophia, through whose labors the parish was revived; for the repose of builders and beautifiers of the church; for departed hierarchs and clergy of Kazakhstan; for those buried at the Miusskoye Cemetery in Moscow, including A. F. Vedernikov, People’s Artist of the USSR and the “Golden Bass of Russia”; for all who were innocently tortured and killed during the godless persecutions, who died from hunger, cold, wounds, disease, and hard labor; for military leaders and soldiers who gave their lives for the faith and the Fatherland; for clergy and laity who perished during the plague.

Following the Liturgy, the faithful sang praises to the Radiant Resurrection of Christ, after which the Paschal commemoration of the departed took place.

Paschal memorial Liturgies were celebrated in all churches of the Metropolis.

Clergy, upon request of the faithful, also offered memorial lityas at both urban and rural cemeteries.

“On the ninth day after the feast of the radiant Resurrection of Christ, we, following a pious tradition sanctified by the centuries, offer Paschal prayers for the departed. The Resurrection of Christ has opened to us the way to Heaven, and the Church sings in the Paschal canon: ‘For from death to life and from earth to heaven Christ our God has brought us.’ Pascha assures us of forgiveness that has shone upon humanity from the Life-Giving Tomb and affirms our hope in the future general resurrection. ‘Let no one fear death,’ we hear in the Paschal homily of Saint John Chrysostom, ‘for the Savior’s death has set us free. Christ is risen — and life reigns; Christ is risen — and not one dead remains in the grave.’ From the moment of the Resurrection of our Lord, death for man became but a sleep, a falling asleep, a temporary separation after which will come the day when, as the Apostle John the Theologian testifies in the Book of Revelation: ‘God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor pain.’” From the homily of Metropolitan Alexander.