On her 101st year, Schema-nun Irina (Lubitskaya), a nun of the Iver-Seraphim convent, has reposed in the Lord

30 March 2026. Alma-Ata. In her 101st year, the eldest nun of the Iver-Seraphim convent, a veteran of the Great Patriotic War – Schema-nun Irina (Lubitskaya) – has reposed in the Lord.

The funeral service for the departed schema-nun will be celebrated by Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan. The funeral rite will take place on April 1 at the Sophia Cathedral of the Iver-Seraphim monastery after the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts. The Liturgy begins at 8:30.

Schema-nun Irina was born in the Orenburg region, in the village of Besedeno, on April 18, 1925.

From the first days of the Great Patriotic War, she labored in the rear for the sake of the coming Victory. From 1942 to 1945 she worked in evacuation hospitals established in Tajikistan for wounded soldiers, and in the evenings studied at a medical college in the feldsher department. For her selfless service for the good of the Motherland during the war years, she was awarded the title «Worker of the Home Front». From 1947 to 1981 she worked as a feldsher in emergency medical services in the city of Alma-Ata.

In 1948, soon after the appointment to the Kazakhstan archpastoral кафедра of the confessor of the faith Saint Nicholas (Mogilevsky), she began to serve as a chanter on the left kliros of St Nicholas Cathedral of the city of Alma-Ata. On August 23, 1952, with the blessing of Metropolitan Nicholas, Archimandrite Isaac (Vinogradov), a prominent church figure of the mid-20th century, tonsured her into monasticism. Until 1981, Nun Irina carried out various obediences in the Alma-Ata diocesan administration, combining this with work in the hospital; for many years (more than 60 years) she served as a chanter on the kliros.

With the revival of the Iver-Seraphim monastery in the Southern capital of Kazakhstan, from 2009 she became one of its nuns. On April 12, 2011, she received the Great Schema.

By decree of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus’, on April 22, 2025, Schema-nun Irina (Lubitskaya) was awarded the highest women’s award of the Russian Orthodox Church – the Order of the Equal-to-the-Apostles Princess Olga, 1st class.

At the presentation of Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan, by decree of the President of Russia V.V. Putin of 15.10.2025 No. 728 «On awarding state awards of the Russian Federation», the schema-nun, who had marked the 100th anniversary of her birth, was awarded the Order of Friendship. The Head of the Russian state, in the year of the celebration of the 80th anniversary of the Great Victory, noted the merits of the church worker and veteran, her contribution to the preservation and popularization of historical and cultural heritage.

Schema-nun Irina (Lubitskaya), in accordance with the decree (No. 825 of March 26, 2025) of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan K.-J.K. Tokayev, was awarded the state jubilee medal «1941–1945 жж. Ұлы Отан соғысындағы Жеңіске 80 жыл», established on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War.