On the Feast of Venerable Peter of Mount Athos, the Head of the Kazakhstan Metropolitan District Celebrated the Midnight Divine Liturgy at the Kazan Cathedral in Alma-Ata

June 25, 2026 – the feast day of Venerable Peter of Mount Athos.

Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan presided over the midnight Divine Liturgy at the oldest church in the city of Alma-Ata—the Cathedral of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God.

Concelebrating with His Eminence were: Archimandrite Joseph (Yeremenko), Head of the Diocesan Department for the Canonization of Saints; Hegumen Onisim (Tulnikov); Hieromonk Dimitry (Baidek), Personal Secretary to the Head of the Kazakhstan Metropolitan District; Hieromonk Arseny (Voloshin); Hieromonk Alexy (Cherevtsov), Rector of the Nativity of the Mother of God Church in the Akzhar district; Hieromonk Gennady (Solovyov), cleric of St. John the Theologian Church; Hieromonk Prokhor (Yendovitsky), Head of the Metropolitan’s Secretariat; Hieromonk Cheruvim (Levin); Hieromonk Isaac (Istelyuyev), cleric of the Kazan Cathedral; Hieromonk Sergiy (Vnukovsky), Dean of St. Vladimir Church; Hierodeacon Afanasy (Kozel); Deacon Ioann Churkin; Deacon Konstantin Volnyagin; and Deacon Evgeny Yesaulenko.

Among those praying during the service were: Priest Georgiy Sidorov, Head of the Administrative Secretariat of the Head of the Kazakhstan Metropolitan District; Priest Georgiy Rublinsky, Rector of the Kazan Cathedral in Alma-Ata; V.M. Kapsamun, President of the Eleos-Meirim Public Foundation; staff members of the Alma-Ata Diocesan Administration; and parishioners of the cathedral.

The liturgical hymns were performed by the Men’s Choir of the Alma-Ata Diocese under the direction of Deacon Alexander Piven.

The sermon before Holy Communion was delivered by Hieromonk Sergiy (Vnukovsky).

The Divine Liturgy concluded with the glorification of the Most Holy Theotokos and Venerable Peter of Mount Athos, after which the Head of the Kazakhstan Metropolitan District addressed the faithful with an archpastoral homily.

The service was broadcast live on the Proobraz YouTube channel at the initiative and with the support of the ELEOS-MEIRIM Public Foundation (President – V.M. Kapsamun).

In his homily, Metropolitan Alexander said in part:

“Today we celebrate the memory of Venerable Peter of Mount Athos. According to the saint’s Life and the traditions of Mount Athos, Peter was once a soldier in the Byzantine army who fell into captivity to the Muslim Arabs. Freedom could only be obtained through the payment of a ransom, and there was no one to pay it on his behalf. In his despair he asked himself why such misfortune had befallen him, and suddenly remembered that, in a moment of pious zeal, he had once vowed to dedicate himself to the monastic life but had failed to fulfill that promise. After receiving miraculous deliverance through the prayers of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker and St. Symeon the God-Receiver, who appeared to him in a vision, Peter renewed his promise to God and began the ascetic life on the Holy Mountain of Athos. The Life of Venerable Peter reminds us that God always accepts the repentance of a Christian, and that whenever we fall again into sin, we should hasten to the church for confession and return to God again and again, as the Psalmist says, ‘like the deer that longs for streams of water.’”