On the Feast Day of the Holy Hieromartyr Nicodemus of Kostroma, Metropolitan Alexander Led the Liturgy at the Epiphany-Anastasia Cathedral in Kostroma

August 21, 2024 – the Afterfeast of the Transfiguration of the Lord, the Feast of the Tolga Icon of the Mother of God, and the Commemoration Day of the Holy Hieromartyr Nicodemus, Archbishop of Kostroma.

Metropolitan Alexander celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the Epiphany-Anastasia Cathedral in Kostroma, the main church of the Kostroma Metropolis.

His Eminence was concelebrated by Metropolitan Ferapont of Kostroma and Nerekhta, head of the Kostroma Metropolis; Bishop Alexy of Galich and Makaryev; Archpriest Valery Buntyev, Secretary of the Kostroma Diocese; Father Georgy Sidorov, head of the administrative secretariat of the Metropolitan District; and clergy of the Kostroma Metropolis.

The service was adorned by the singing of the Kostroma Metropolis Archdiocesan Choir under the direction of Honored Cultural Worker of Russia, N.V. Baluyeva.

The sermon after the Communion Hymn was delivered by Archpriest Valery Buntyev.

The Liturgy concluded with the glorification of the Transfiguration of the Lord, the Feodorovskaya Icon of the Mother of God, and the Holy Hieromartyr Nikodim, Archbishop of Kostroma.

The head of the Metropolitan District of Kazakhstan warmly thanked the revered archpastors, clergy, monastics, and laity for the joy of shared prayer at the holy altar in the ancient Epiphany-Anastasia Cathedral, congratulated everyone on the feast, and delivered a sermon.

At the conclusion of the service, in recognition of his efforts in developing relations between the Orthodox Church of Kazakhstan and the Kostroma Metropolis, Metropolitan Alexander presented Metropolitan Ferapont with the "Enbek Ushin" (For Labor) order.

In response, the head of the Kostroma Metropolis expressed his gratitude to the Primate of the Orthodox Church of Kazakhstan, highlighting Metropolitan Alexander's significant contribution to the revival of Orthodoxy in the Kostroma region.

On August 21, the day of the celebration of the appearance of the miraculous Tolga Icon of the Mother of God, Archbishop Nikodim (Krotkov) of Kostroma and Galich departed to the Lord in 1938 after enduring severe torture and abuse at the hands of godless persecutors in the Yaroslavl prison in Korovniki. The confessional feat of the hierarch has a direct connection to the land of Kazakhstan. On August 27, 1926, on the eve of the Dormition of the Mother of God, by a decree of the Special Conference of the OGPU College, Saint Nikodim was sentenced to another punishment—three years of exile in Southern Kazakhstan.

Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan, before his appointment to the Kazakh see, led the Kostroma and Galich Diocese for more than twenty years. It was Metropolitan Alexander who initiated the canonization of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the 20th century, who made their stand for the faith during the godless persecutions of the Church on the Kostroma land.
Among the Kostroma ascetics of faith and piety, the Holy Hieromartyr Archbishop Nikodim (Krotkov) glorified the Lord with his feats and sufferings. Metropolitan Alexander dedicated a significant scholarly work to the ascetic life, sufferings, and martyrdom of Archbishop Nikodim, titled "Holy Hieromartyr Nikodim: A Life Given to God and People."

"Vladyka Nikodim is a saint of the modern era; not long ago, there were still people living who knew him, and the churches where he served and the homes where he lived are preserved. Thus, his image is especially close to us and at the same time filled with spiritual greatness. In his episcopal service and martyrdom, we see a reflection of the entire history of the Russian Orthodox Church in the 20th century. Like all the New Martyrs of our Church—hierarchs, clergy, and laity who accepted a martyr's death for confessing the faith of Christ after the events of 1917—Saint Nikodim, through his life, turns our thoughts to the feats of the martyrs and confessors of the early centuries of Christianity, whose blood built the Church of God.
The fate of Saint Nikodim is inseparable from the history of Russia in the 20th century. His biography reflects significant events in Russian history: the 1905 Revolution, the assassination of P.A. Stolypin, World War I, the 1917 Revolution, the Church schism in Ukraine, the Civil War, and the Renovationist schism of the 1920s. Saint Nikodim, who came from an old priestly family (all his ancestors, starting from his great-grandfather, served in the Nerekhta district), spent his childhood in several villages in the Nerekhta and Kostroma districts. He graduated from the Kostroma Theological School and the Kostroma Theological Seminary and was a teacher at the parish school in the village of Olesh in the Galich district. It was in Kostroma that the future New Martyr was ordained into the priesthood.

After several decades of ministry in the Caucasus, Pskov, Moldova, Ukraine, Crimea, and Central Asia, Saint Nikodim returned to his homeland in 1932. His episcopal ministry in Kostroma from 1932 to 1936, amidst increasingly severe persecution of the Church, became the central period of his life, crowned with a martyr's death. Saint Nikodim was a true martyr.
During the 21 years of his life after the revolution, Saint Nikodim, already an elderly and ailing man, spent about 13 years in prisons and exile. In the last two years before his death, he was imprisoned in the Yaroslavl prison in Korovniki, where his earthly journey ended in 1938. On March 27, 1995, the day of the celebration of the wonderworking Feodorovskaya Icon of the Mother of God, Saint Nikodim was glorified among the locally venerated saints of the Kostroma Diocese. His canonization paid tribute to all the New Martyrs of the Kostroma region, both known and unknown to us. This book is the first attempt to describe the life of Saint Nikodim, which was extraordinarily eventful and significantly expands our knowledge of the recent history of the Russian Orthodox Church based on available documentary evidence." From the preface to the book "Holy Martyr Nikodim: A Life Devoted to God and People."

The life of Saint Nikodim can be further explored in the article by Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan, "The Adornment of the Kostroma Land."