Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan Presides over the Celebrations in the Vyatka Metropolitanate on the Occasion of the Appearance of the Wonderworking Icon of St. Nicholas at the Velikaya River

June 6, 2026 – the feast of the appearance of the Velikoretsk Icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, Archbishop of Myra in Lycia.

Each year, from June 3 to 8, the All-Russian Velikoretsk Cross Procession takes place in the Vyatka Metropolitanate – a solemn procession carrying the ancient copy of the Velikoretsk Icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker to the banks of the Velikaya River, the site of the appearance of the wonderworking image. The celebration of the Divine Liturgy at the place where the wonderworking icon of St. Nicholas appeared became the culmination of the multi-day pilgrimage procession.

The celebrations at the Velikaya River, near the village of Velikoretskoye in the Yuryansky District of the Kirov Region, were presided over, with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus’, by Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan, Primate of the Orthodox Church of Kazakhstan and permanent member of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The Divine Liturgy was celebrated outdoors. On an analogion before the altar, situated beneath the shelter of a chapel, rested the revered copy of the wonderworking Velikoretsk Icon of St. Nicholas.

Concelebrating with the Head of the Kazakhstan Metropolitan District were: Metropolitan Mark of Vyatka and Slobodskoy, Metropolitan John of Yoshkar-Ola and Mari El, Bishop Paisiy of Yaransk and Luzsk, Bishop Vsevolod of Urzhum and Omutninsk; Archimandrite Melchisedek (Artyukhin), press secretary of the Synodal Department for Monasteries and Monasticism; Priest Vitaly Lapshin, Secretary of the Vyatka Diocese and rector of the Church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos in the city of Kirov; Archimandrite Feodor (Rulev), rector of the Velikoretsk metochion of the Holy Dormition Trifon Monastery; clergy of the Vyatka Metropolitanate and pilgrim clergy from various dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The hymns were performed by the combined choir of the Vyatka Diocese under the direction of Yulia Skopina.

The communal prayer united more than 37,000 people. Pilgrims from the regional center, towns and villages of the Vyatka land, residents of neighboring regions, and believers from near and far abroad came to honor the Hierarch of Myra. Among those praying were: O.N. Ovchinnikov, Secretary of the Metropolitan District, Honored Worker of Kazakhstan and Russia, member of the Patriarchal Council for the Development of Russian Church Singing; abbesses of monasteries of the Vyatka Metropolitanate with their monastic communities.

Vice Governor of the region A.N. Luchenin and representatives of the regional administration also took part in the celebrations.

The homily before Communion was delivered by Archpriest Sergiy Gomayunov, rector of St. Catherine’s Church in the city of Kirov.

Following the dismissal of the Divine Liturgy, Metropolitan Alexander addressed those gathered with words of congratulations on the great feast of the Vyatka land and the entire Russian Orthodox Church and delivered a sermon of instruction. “More than five thousand people took part in the first cross procession,” noted the hierarch, “and today tens of thousands of pilgrims from different parts of Russia and abroad come here to pray to the great servant of God, St. Nicholas, whom the whole world calls the ‘rule of faith and image of meekness.’ Each of us knows from personal experience that whenever the heart burns with love for God, whenever we ask the Queen of Heaven, whenever we fervently seek prayerful consolation from St. Nicholas, the Lord helps us. He strengthens, comforts, supports, heals, grants us strength and fortitude to walk the path of salvation – though difficult and demanding, yet the only true way shown to us by our loving mother – the Holy Orthodox Church of Christ.”

As a gift to the Velikoretsk metochion of the Holy Dormition Trifon Monastery, the Head of the Metropolitan District presented an icon of the Holy Prophet Elijah.

Metropolitan Mark of Vyatka and Slobodsk warmly thanked the hierarch of Kazakhstan. “Dear Metropolitan Alexander, as a sign of gratitude and in memory of this day, allow me to present to you a relic of St. Victor (Ostrovidov), who was glorified among the saints in the land where he labored, and a relic of Hieromartyr Michael (Tikhonitsky). Many of those praying here today on the Velikaya River remember your labors together with Metropolitan Chrysanthos, through which the Velikoretsk Cross Procession was revived after seventy years of Babylonian captivity,” said the head of the Vyatka Metropolitanate in particular.

A congratulatory address to the participants of the celebrations was sent by Governor of the Kirov Region A.V. Sokolov.

The festive service concluded with the blessing of the waters of the Velikaya River and the spring at the site where, in 1383, the Velikoretsk Icon of St. Nicholas was discovered.