On the Feast of the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God, Metropolitan Alexander Celebrated the Liturgy at the Church of the Representation of the Metropolitan District in Moscow

July 9, 2025 – Feast of the Tikhvin Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos; commemoration of Venerable Tikhon of Lukhov, Venerable Nilus of Stolobny, and Hieromartyr George (Stepanyuk), Priest of the village of Andreyevskoye, Lepsinsky County, Semirechye Province.

Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the church dedicated to the holy martyrs Faith, Hope, Love, and their mother Sophia at the Patriarchal Representation in the city of Moscow – the Representation of the Metropolitan District of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Concelebrating with His Eminence were: the Vice-Rector of the Almaty Theological Seminary, Candidate of Theology, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor, Hegumen Agafangel (Gagua); the sacristan of the church of the holy martyrs Faith, Hope, Love, and their mother Sophia, Hieromonk Anthony (Drobyazko); and clergy of the Representation.

The choir of the church, conducted by Anna Rozhnova, sang during the service.

Praying at the service were: the Secretary of the Orthodox Church of Kazakhstan, Honored Artist of the Russian Federation, conductor of the choir of the Kazakhstan Metropolitan District, and member of the Patriarchal Council for the Development of Russian Church Singing, O.N. Ovchinnikov; staff of the Representation, benefactors of the Patriarchal Representation, and parishioners of the church.

The service concluded with the glorification of the Most Holy Theotokos – the choir sang the troparion to the Tikhvin Icon, the Head of the Metropolitan District read a prayer, after which the clergy chanted the magnification before the icon of the Queen of Heaven.

Following the glorification, Metropolitan Alexander congratulated the clergy and the faithful on the feast and delivered an archpastoral sermon.

“Feasts dedicated to the Most Holy Theotokos are intended to help us more clearly and distinctly understand the great maternal love of the Queen of Heaven, to feel Her care, and with spiritual vision behold Her saving veil spread over us. For every Orthodox Christian, the name of the ‘More honorable than the Cherubim and beyond compare more glorious than the Seraphim’ is dear and revered – through Whom Christ the Savior came into the world. In relation to the Mother of God, we are all Her children, adopted at Golgotha during the Lord’s Passion. The words of Christ spoken to the Apostle John the Theologian, ‘Behold, your mother!’ (cf. John 19:27), are addressed to each of us, and therefore all prayers to the Most Blessed Lady must be offered with the awareness of this majestic truth.

But we must not only praise the Most Holy Theotokos with words of hymns and prayers. It is important to see in Her life, in Her image depicted in Holy Scripture and Tradition, an example for our own lives. Saint Philaret of Moscow teaches us: ‘If we wish to worthily glorify the Most Holy Mother of God, then let us love with all our hearts Her virtues and qualities; and having loved, let us strive, as far as possible, to follow in life that which we glorify with thought and word.’ The example of the Most Pure Ever-Virgin Mary is an unfading ideal for every Christian. There is no virtue of which the Mother of our Savior is not the supreme model. Everything we know about Her is worthy of imitation.” — From the sermon of Metropolitan Alexander.

The Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God, according to tradition, was painted by the Apostle and Evangelist Luke. Until 1383, it was in Constantinople, after which it mysteriously disappeared from Byzantium and appeared in radiant light over the waters of Lake Ladoga, later manifesting itself to local residents near the town of Tikhvin. This icon of the Theotokos is called the “Northern Queen.” As a result of the Great Patriotic War, the wonderworking image was taken beyond the borders of Russia – to the Baltics and Germany, and then brought by clergy to Chicago, USA. In 2004, the wonderworking icon was solemnly returned to its historic home – the Tikhvin Dormition Monastery. Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan participated in the transfer of the holy image to the Tikhvin Monastery and in the solemn services related to this event during his time as Archbishop of Kostroma and Galich.

Ancient chronicles and modern monastic records testify to many miracles associated with the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God – protection of the homeland from enemies, healings, and help in worldly sorrows and trials.

With the blessing of Metropolitan Alexander, who led the Kostroma Diocese from 1989 to 2010, the unique riza (embellished cover) that adorned the wonderworking Tikhvin-Ipatiev Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos was recreated. This ancient shrine of the Holy Trinity Ipatiev Monastery, according to tradition, was painted by Saint Peter, Metropolitan of Moscow. The image of the Queen of Heaven was brought to Kostroma in 1613 by the delegation of the Zemsky Sobor, which announced to the young nobleman Mikhail Romanov his election to the Russian throne.

By the blessing of the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus’, a unique project was implemented for the Southern Capital: professional iconographers created a replica – in “measure and likeness” – of the ancient shrine, reproducing in the smallest details the Tikhvin image of the Queen of Heaven that appeared in the northern lands of Rus’ in the fourteenth century.

The work on the replica lasted more than three months, carried out by talented iconographers from Saint Petersburg – Alexey Kuznetsov and Elena Evsina – who had spent many years studying the traditional techniques and methods of ancient Russian icon painters. To create a “measure and likeness” of the ancient icon, Alexey and Elena regularly compared their work with the original Tikhvin image. By the blessing of the keeper of the wonderworking icon – Bishop Mstislav of Tikhvin and Ladeinoye Pole – they were given the opportunity to study the shrine in detail, which was specially removed from its case and freed from its covering for this purpose. The replica created for Kazakhstan became the most accurate in the entire history of the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God.

The icon was adorned with an exact copy of the covering of the wonderworking shrine. The elegant icon cover, decorated with strands of pearls, was made by renowned Saint Petersburg jeweler Ivan Kharkov.

At the request of Metropolitan Alexander, Bishop Mstislav of Tikhvin and Ladeinoye Pole performed the rite of blessing the newly created replica at the Tikhvin Dormition Monastery of the Mother of God.

A special gift from the keeper of the icon to the Orthodox Church of Kazakhstan was a piece of the velvet cloth that had covered the inner side of the riza of the wonderworking icon. This relic was placed in a special reliquary and attached to the newly created replica.

The replica of the wonderworking Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos was created with the support of benefactors of the Kazakhstan Metropolitan District.

After its arrival, the holy icon visited cities of the Republic, after which, by the blessing of Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan, the Kazan Cathedral of the Southern Capital was designated as the permanent place of veneration for the icon.