On the day of the commemoration of the Great Martyr Panteleimon, Metropolitan Alexander celebrated the Liturgy at St. Nicholas Cathedral in the Southern capital.

August 9, 2024, the day of the commemoration of the Great Martyr and Healer Panteleimon.

Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan celebrated the Divine Liturgy at St. Nicholas Cathedral in Almaty, where the southern chapel is dedicated to the holy unmercenary healer.

Concelebrating with the Head of the Metropolitan District of Kazakhstan were: Protopriest Valery Zakharov, Rector of St. Nicholas Cathedral and Dean of the Almaty parishes; Protopriest Alexander Gaichenya, Sacristan of the Nativity Cathedral in Almaty; Igumen Philaret (Petrochenko), Rector of the Iveron Church in Borolday; Protopriest Valery Shavrin, Rector of the Theophany Church; Igumen Philip (Moiseev), member of the Patriarchal Commission on Physical Culture and Sports; Protopriest Alexander Zyryanov, Dean of the Ili Church District; Protopriest Kirill Shklyar, Sacristan of the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Almaty; Priest Ioann Livinsky, Vice-Rector for Educational Work at the Almaty Seminary; Priest Roman Klyuev, Rector of the Alexander Nevsky Church in the village of Saymasay (Alexandrovka); Hieromonk Prokhor (Endovitsky), Head of the Metropolitan's Personal Secretariat; Priest Georgy Sidorov, Head of the Administrative Secretariat of the Head of the Metropolitan District; Priest Georgy Rublinsky, Sacristan of Kazan Cathedral in Almaty; Protodeacon Nikolai Grinkevich; Protodeacon Roman Golovin, Head of the Metropolitan's Protocol Service; Hierodeacon Athanasius (Kozel); and Deacon Alexander Piven.

The liturgical hymns were performed by the regular choir of St. Nicholas Cathedral under the direction of O. Solomonova.

Praying during the service were: staff members of the Almaty Diocesan Administration, led by the Secretary of the Metropolitan District and Honored Artist of Russia, O.N. Ovchinnikov; benefactors and parishioners of St. Nicholas Cathedral; pilgrims from the churches of Almaty and the Almaty region; and representatives of the Semirechye Cossacks.

During the memorial litany, the builders of St. Nicholas Cathedral, those who revived the liturgical life, and the departed clergy and parishioners of the church were commemorated.

The sermon after the Communion hymn was delivered by Priest Ioann Livinsky.

At the conclusion of the Liturgy, a glorification of the Great Martyr Panteleimon took place before his icon and the reliquary containing a part of the saint's head, which is kept in St. Nicholas Cathedral.

Metropolitan Alexander addressed the faithful with a sermon on the life and martyrdom of the holy unmercenary healer, the Great Martyr Panteleimon.

The hierarch then sprinkled the faithful with holy water.

For over a hundred years, St. Nicholas Cathedral in Almaty has housed a great holy relic—an enamel-adorned reliquary containing the wonderworking relics of the Great Martyr Panteleimon, specifically a portion of his venerable head.

The story of how this holy relic came to be in the cathedral is as follows: At the request of the Orthodox residents of the city of Verny, as Almaty was then known, Bishop Dimitry of Turkestan and Tashkent (the venerable confessor Schema-Archbishop Anthony (Abashidze)) in 1910 sent a request to Archimandrite Iakinf (Kuznetsov), the abbot of the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery on Mount Athos, asking for a blessing for the people of Verny in the form of a relic of the Great Martyr Panteleimon. Soon, a portion of the head of the Healer Panteleimon, along with relics of Saint Gregory the Theologian and Saint Niphon, Patriarch of Constantinople, were sent to the Turkestan Diocese through the Athonite metochion in Odessa.

On the feast day of the Healer Panteleimon, July 27th according to the old style, the holy relics were solemnly received by Bishop Dimitry, the clergy, the governor, and a large gathering of the faithful. "Today the whole universe shares in our celebration and gives praise to the majesty of God," were the words spoken by the Orthodox people at that time. The reliquary containing the venerable relics brought from Mount Athos has since been kept on the altar of St. Nicholas Cathedral in Almaty and continues to be a source of comfort for the faithful in the diocese of the Metropolitan District of Kazakhstan.