225th Anniversary of the Birth of Archbishop Sofony (Sokolsky) – Apostle of the Great Steppe

August 6, 2025 marked the 225th anniversary of the birth of Archbishop Sofony (Sokolsky) – a prominent ecclesiastical figure and spiritual enlightener of the 19th century, the Apostle of the Great Steppe, the first hierarch of the Turkestan Diocese, whose successors today are the Metropolis of Kazakhstan and the Central Asian Metropolitan District.

Archbishop Sofony headed the newly established and, at that time, the largest diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church from 1871 to 1877. In advanced age, he undertook truly apostolic labors, organizing church life in the territories that had only recently been incorporated into the Russian Empire. The significance of his personality in the history of the countries of the Central Asian region is impossible to overestimate. Among the Orthodox faithful, there remains a deep veneration for Archbishop Sofony, whose life serves as an example of selfless service to Orthodoxy.

Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan served a memorial lity for the ever-memorable hierarch at the Resurrection Chapel of the Iveron–Seraphim Convent in the city of Almaty – the resting place of the Saint of Turkestan.

Praying at the service were: the Secretary of the Metropolis, Honored Artist of Russia O.N. Ovchinnikov; the Rector of the Almaty Theological Seminary and Head of the Information and Publishing Department of the Metropolis, Protopriest Yevgeny Ivanov; the Head of the Personal Secretariat of the Metropolitan, Hieromonk Prokhor (Yendovitsky); the Head of the Administrative Secretariat of the Head of the Metropolis, Priest Georgy Sidorov; the Head of the Protocol Service of the Metropolitan, Protodeacon Roman Golovin; the Abbess of the Iveron–Seraphim Convent, Igumeniya Lyubov (Yakushkina), with the sisters of the convent; staff of the Almaty Diocesan Administration.