Head of the Orthodox Church of Kazakhstan Offers Prayer at the Relics of St. Confessor Victor, Bishop of Glazov

June 5, 2026. Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan, Head of the Orthodox Church of Kazakhstan, visited the Transfiguration (Spaso-Preobrazhensky) Convent of Vyatka – one of the oldest Orthodox monasteries in the Northeast of Rus’, founded in 1624 with the blessing of the ever-memorable His Holiness Patriarch Philaret. This year marks the 35th anniversary of the return of the monastery buildings to the Russian Orthodox Church and the 25th anniversary of the revival of monastic life.

Accompanying Vladyka Metropolitan on the pilgrimage are: O.N. Ovchinnikov, Secretary of the Metropolitan District and Honored Worker of Kazakhstan and Russia; and assistants to the Metropolitan, P.V. Sokolov and I.Ye. Yatsenko.

Metropolitan Alexander was welcomed by Abbess Thaddea (Sivtsova) together with the sisters of the monastery. Mother Abbess informed the hierarch about the life of the convent, its educational and charitable activities, and the ongoing restoration and conservation works.

At the Transfiguration Cathedral, the Head of the Metropolitan District venerated the relics of St. Confessor Victor (Ostrovidov), Bishop of Glazov (1875–1934) – an outstanding hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church of the twentieth century, a distinguished confessor of the faith and zealous defender of canonical Orthodoxy. For his fervent ministry, St. Victor suffered greatly at the hands of the militant atheist authorities, enduring several arrests, exiles, and labor camps.

Vladyka Metropolitan served a memorial lity for the departed Abbess Sophia (Rozanova; †2021), former superior of the convent, who had received monastic tonsure from him.

The abbess showed the distinguished guest the exhibitions of the monastery museum, dedicated to the centuries-old history of the Vyatka Transfiguration Maidens’ Convent. The museum features archival photographs, documents, objects of monastic daily life, antique church books and liturgical vessels, as well as unique materials concerning the ascetics of Vyatka – St. Confessor Victor (Ostrovidov) and his assistant, Abbess Fevronia (Yufereva).

On the same day, Metropolitan Alexander visited the restored Savior Cathedral (Spassky Sobor), built in the eighteenth century, virtually destroyed during the years of persecution against Orthodoxy, and revived in modern times through the care of devoted benefactors. This church is associated with one of the revered icons of the Vyatka land – the Icon of the Savior Not-Made-by-Hands, glorified by miracles in the seventeenth century.