Archbishop Amphilochius of Ust-Kamenogorsk and Semipalatinsk Participates in Celebrations Marking the 100th Anniversary of the Repose of St. Macarius (Nevsky), Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna

June 5–6, 2026. Tomsk, Russia. At the invitation of Metropolitan Rostislav of Tomsk and Asino, head of the Tomsk Metropolia, Archbishop Amphilochius of Ust-Kamenogorsk and Semipalatinsk participated in celebrations marking the 100th anniversary of the repose of St. Macarius (Nevsky), Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna.

On June 5, a solemn All-Night Vigil was celebrated at the Epiphany Cathedral, and the following day the Divine Liturgy took place, celebrated by: Metropolitan Rostislav of Tomsk and Asino; Archbishop Amphilochius of Ust-Kamenogorsk and Semipalatinsk; Bishop Siluan of Pavlovsky Posad, vicar of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus’; Bishop Innokenty of Mariinsk and Yurginsk; Bishop Zosima of Magnitogorsk and Verkhneuralsk; Bishop Filaret of Kolpashevo and Strezhevoy; and Bishop Kirill of Otradny and Pokhvistnevo.

Concelebrating with the hierarchs was a host of clergy of the Tomsk Metropolia. Numerous parishioners of the cathedral and other churches of the city, as well as pilgrims, gathered for the festal service.

The services at the Epiphany Cathedral became the culmination of the celebrations dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the repose of St. Macarius. Throughout the jubilee year, various educational, enlightening, cultural, and sporting events in memory of St. Macarius (Nevsky) were held in Tomsk and the surrounding region. One of the significant events was a крестный ход with the relics of St. Macarius, which traveled throughout the land of Tomsk.

At the conclusion of the Divine Liturgy, a moleben was served before the reliquary containing the right hand of St. Macarius, after which all participants in the service were able to venerate the Tomsk wonderworker. Through prayers before his honorable relics, believers receive grace-filled help: healing from bodily and spiritual illnesses, deliverance from sorrows, and assistance in resolving difficult life situations.

The solemn prayerful commemoration of St. Macarius (Nevsky) took place in the church that, during the ministry of this great saint of God, was called the Cathedral of the Baptism of Christ, and where the Tomsk hierarch repeatedly celebrated divine services. Metropolitan Rostislav reminded the hierarchs, clergy, parishioners, and pilgrims of this fact in his address.

His Eminence noted that the faithful of Tomsk are participants not only in the New Covenant but also in a special covenant that their fellow countrymen concluded with St. Macarius in December 1912, when he celebrated his final service on Tomsk soil in the now-destroyed Trinity Cathedral. Metropolitan Rostislav reminded those gathered that, during his farewell, Vladyka Macarius himself proposed this covenant to the people of Tomsk, addressing them with the following words:

– When loved ones part, they bind one another through covenantal relations. I too wish to conclude a covenant with you. If you, for your part, promise not to forget me in your prayers, then I also promise before the face of God not to forget any of you and not to cease remembering you in my prayers.

According to the hierarch, this covenant remains in force for those people of Tomsk who honor the memory of St. Macarius, lovingly turn to him in prayer, reverently venerate his holy relics, and joyfully reflect upon his teachings. Metropolitan Rostislav called all participants in the festal service participants in this covenant.

Continuing the theme, the head of the Tomsk Metropolia spoke of appearances of St. Macarius at the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius on the day of the reburial of his relics, and also following the bringing of the saint’s right hand to Tomsk in October 2011. His Eminence emphasized that these miracles testify to the fact that St. Macarius is here, nearby, participating in the ecclesiastical affairs of the diocese and in the lives of all Orthodox Christians who seek his fatherly care and support.

In conclusion of his archpastoral address, Metropolitan Rostislav thanked the honored guests of the celebration – the hierarchs who had arrived in Tomsk from various regions to honor this great saint of God. Since each of the bishops is closely connected with Tomsk and with St. Macarius, His Eminence remarked that it was St. Macarius himself who had gathered them all for the solemn service on that day.

As a remembrance of the festal concelebration and as a blessing for their archpastoral labors, Metropolitan Rostislav presented each bishop with an icon of St. Macarius containing a particle of his relics. It is a copy of the icon kept at the Epiphany Cathedral in Tomsk beneath the canopy housing the saint’s right hand.

The head of the Tomsk Metropolia wished all participants in the divine service that the prayerful protection of St. Macarius would never be taken from them.

At the request of Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan, head of the Orthodox Church of Kazakhstan, Metropolitan Rostislav transferred a particle of the relics of St. Macarius to the Metropolitan District for reverent keeping and prayerful veneration. The hierarch presented the shrine to Archbishop Amphilochius.

On behalf of the hierarchs participating in the service, Bishop Siluan of Pavlovsky Posad, vicar of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus’, addressed those gathered. He noted that, when St. Macarius bade farewell to the people of Tomsk, he wished peace for each of them. His Grace emphasized that there will never be peace around us if there is no peace within our hearts.

“St. Macarius, throughout his entire life of pastoral ministry (in its various forms), cared precisely for the building of this inner spiritual peace, always setting priorities with great precision. And in his addresses he called upon his flock, wherever it might be – in Altai, in Tomsk, in Moscow – to preserve peace with God, drawing strength from Him so as to have peace also with one another. Then this inner spiritual peace will become a source of peace around us in our lives. Peace is not merely the absence of barriers in human relations; peace is the foundation of creation. If we desire a good and blessed future for our country, then we must follow this call of St. Macarius – to preserve peace in our hearts and strive to establish it in our relationships with our neighbors,” Bishop Siluan noted.

As a sign of brotherly and filial love, Bishop Siluan presented Metropolitan Rostislav with a copy of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God, before which St. Macarius addressed his Moscow flock.

On the same day, the seventh meeting of the Club of Zealots for the Memory of St. Macarius (Nevsky) took place at the Church and Cultural Center of the Mother of God–St. Alexis Monastery. The gathering became truly historic for the Tomsk Metropolia, bringing together seven hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church who, together with clergy and parishioners of Tomsk churches, honored the memory of this great saint of God in the year marking the 100th anniversary of his blessed repose.

Metropolitan Rostislav and Bishop Siluan addressed the gathering with words of welcome.

Participants listened with great interest to reports on the ministry of St. Macarius in the extremely difficult conditions of life in the Narym region at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries, on the monastic tonsures performed by the hierarch for sisters of the now-lost St. John the Baptist Convent in Tomsk, and on the history and distinctive features of the full-length icon of the saint in the Epiphany Cathedral.

Reflections on the making of the documentary St. Macarius (Nevsky). The Tomsk Path of Ministry were shared with guests of the Church and Cultural Center by its author, Anastasia Simkina, a graduate of the Governor’s College of Culture and Arts. She also presented a short video excerpt from the film.

The June meeting of those devoted to the memory of the saint of the Tomsk land became a vivid continuation of the series of events taking place in the metropolia in honor of St. Macarius.