Head of the Kazakhstan Metropolitan District Visits the Nativity of the Mother of God Monastery in Karaganda

22 November 2025. Karaganda. As part of his archpastoral visit to the Karaganda Diocese, Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan visited the place of ascetic labors of Venerable Sebastian of Karaganda – the Nativity of the Mother of God Monastery in Mikhailovka.

Accompanying the Primate of the Orthodox Church of Kazakhstan were: Archbishop Amfilokhy of Ust-Kamenogorsk and Semipalatinsk; Archbishop Varsonofy of Kokshetau and Akmola; Bishop Klavdian of Taldykorgan, Vicar of the Astana Diocese; Bishop Khrisanf of Chimkent and Turkestan; Bishop Vianor of Uralsk and Atyrau.

The Metropolitan and the guests were greeted by Abbess Olympiada (Salopeko) of the Nativity of the Mother of God Convent in Karaganda together with the sisters of the monastery; and by Archimandrite Peter (Goroshko) – spiritual child and disciple of the venerable elder Sebastian, and spiritual father of the monastery.

In the monastery church, the Head of the Metropolitan District served a litia for the victims of Karlag – one of the largest corrective labor camps of the GULAG system – and for all “who in the years of godless persecutions were innocently tortured and killed, who perished from hunger, cold, wounds, illnesses, and heavy labor”, after which he delivered a word of spiritual instruction.

According to established tradition, Metropolitan Alexander, the hierarchs, and the clergy visited the memorial cell of the venerable elder, where they chanted the troparion and magnification to the heavenly intercessor of Kazakhstan. The Metropolitan anointed those present with oil from the unceasing lamp burning before the saint’s icon.

Archbishop Sevastyan and Abbess Olympiada acquainted the Head of the Metropolitan District with the progress of construction of the new monastery building, with ongoing repair works in the residential and utility structures, and with improvements to the monastery grounds.

On the same day, the Head of the Metropolitan District visited the burial place of the spiritual children and disciples of Venerable Sebastian – Archimandrite Anatoly (Kiselev) and Schema-Abbess Sevastiana (Zhukova) – laid to rest in the monastic necropolis at the city cemetery.