Night Liturgy and Procession in Memory of the Royal Passion-Bearers Held in the Kostanay Diocese

July 17, 2025 – the commemoration day of the Holy Royal Passion-Bearers – Emperor Nicholas, Empress Alexandra, Tsarevich Alexei, and the Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia.

In 1891, during the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway, Nicholas Alexandrovich, then heir to the throne, visited the lands that now constitute the Kostanay Region. The village of Presnogorkovka was one of many settlements along the route of the heir to the Russian throne. In this place, the future Passion-Bearer Emperor Nicholas II stayed at the home of the merchant Vasily Kladenov.

With the blessing of the Head of the Orthodox Church of Kazakhstan, in memory of the visit of the Passion-Bearer Tsar Nicholas to the lands of present-day Kazakhstan, a procession was established in 2022 from the Church of St. Nicholas to the house of merchant V. Kladenov.

In the night of July 16 to 17, with the blessing of the temporarily acting administrator of the Kostanay and Rudny Diocese, Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan, the cleric of the Constantine–Helen Cathedral of the city of Kostanay, Igumen Innokenty (Pomogalov), celebrated the night Divine Liturgy at the Church in honor of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker, Archbishop of Myra in Lycia, in the village of Presnogorkovka, concelebrated by the diocesan clergy.

Before the beginning of the service, a guided tour was organized for pilgrims, conducted by the well-known historian and local lore expert S. N. Vinichenko.

The hymns of the Liturgy were performed by the choir of the Church of St. Nicholas under the direction of T. Koroleva.

At the end of the service, a procession took place from the Church of St. Nicholas to the house of merchant V. Kladenov. At the site where the Passion-Bearer Emperor Nicholas II once stopped, Igumen Innokenty offered a prayer service to the Royal Martyrs, after which he congratulated all those present on the feast day and addressed the faithful with a homily.

Several hundred people took part in the procession.