Metropolitan Alexander celebrated a litiya for the newly departed His Holiness and Beatitude Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia Ilia II

17 March 2026. In the 94th year of his life, His Holiness and Beatitude Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia Ilia II departed to the Lord. The Government of Georgia declared mourning in the country in connection with the repose of the Primate of the Georgian Orthodox Church.

Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan celebrated a litiya for the newly departed Primate of the Georgian Orthodox Church at the Sophia Cathedral of the Iversky-Seraphim Monastery.

Praying at the memorial service were: the secretary of the Kazakhstan Metropolitan District, member of the Patriarchal Council for the Development of Church Singing, Honored Artist of Russia O.N. Ovchinnikov and staff of the Alma-Ata diocesan administration; the abbess of the Iversky-Seraphim convent, Abbess Lyubov (Yakushkina), with the sisters of the monastery.