On the day of remembrance of the great martyr Panteleimon, Metropolitan Alexander celebrated the Liturgy in the St. Nicholas Cathedral of the Southern capital (+VIDEO)

August 9, 2024 is the day of remembrance of the great martyr and healer Panteleimon.

Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the St. Nicholas Cathedral of the city of Almaty, the southern aisle of which is dedicated to the holy unmercenary doctor.

The head of the Kazakhstan Metropolitan District was assisted by: Archbishop Amfilohiy of Ust-Kamenogorsk and Semipalatinsk; Administrator of the Kazakhstan Metropolitan District Bishop Gennady of Kaskelen; Rector of the St. Nicholas Cathedral, Dean of the parishes of the Southern capital Archpriest Valery Zakharov; Rector of the Iveron Church of the village of Boraldai Hegumen Filaret (Petrochenko); Rector of the Epiphany Church, Archpriest Valery Shavrin; Member of the Patriarchal Commission on Physical Culture and Sports, Hegumen Philip (Moiseyev); Dean of the Ili Church District, Archpriest Alexander Zyryanov; Key Bearer of the Peter and Paul Church, Archpriest Kirill Shklyar; Priest Oleg Nasymov; Vice-Rector for Educational Work at the Alma-Ata Seminary, Priest Ioann Livinsky; Rector of the Alexander Nevsky Church in the village of Saimasai (formerly Aleksandrovka), Priest Roman Klyuev; Vice-Rector for Academic Work at the Alma-Ata Seminary, Priest Pyotr Bakhtiyarov; Head of the Metropolitan's Personal Secretariat, Hieromonk Prokhor (Endovitsky); Key Bearer of the Kazan Cathedral in Alma-Ata, Priest Georgy Rublinsky; Head of the Metropolitan's Protocol Service, Protodeacon Roman Golovin; Deacon Alexy Kanushin; Deacon Alexander Voronin; Secretary of the Ust-Kamenogorsk Diocese Deacon Ilya Kvan; Deacon Alexander Piven.

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

The following prayed at the service: employees of the Alma-Ata Diocesan Administration headed by the Secretary of the Metropolitan District, Honored Artist of Russia O.N. Ovchinnikov; benefactors and parishioners of the St. Nicholas Cathedral, pilgrims from the churches of Alma-Ata and the Alma-Ata Region, representatives of the Semirechye Cossacks.

The builders of the St. Nicholas Cathedral and the restorers of liturgical life, deceased clergy and parishioners of the church were remembered at the funeral litany.

The sermon on the communion verse was delivered by Priest John Livinsky.

At the end of the Liturgy, a glorification of the Great Martyr Panteleimon took place before his icon and the reliquary with a part of the head of the holy healer, kept in the Nikolsky Cathedral.

Metropolitan Alexander addressed the worshipers with a sermon on the life and suffering feat of the unmercenary physician, the Great Martyr Panteleimon.

The hierarch sprinkled the believers with holy water.

For more than a hundred years, the Nikolsky Cathedral in Alma-Ata has been keeping a great relic - an enameled reliquary with the multi-healing relics of the Great Martyr Panteleimon - a part of his honest head.

The story of the discovery of this relic is as follows. At the request of the Orthodox residents of the city of Verny, as Alma-Ata was then called, Bishop Dimitry of Turkestan and Tashkent (Reverend Confessor Schema-Archbishop Anthony (Abashidze)), in 1910 sent a request to the abbot of the Russian Panteleimon Monastery on Mount Athos, Archimandrite Iakinf (Kuznetsov) - to bless the residents of Verny with a particle of the relics of the Great Martyr Panteleimon. Soon, part of the head of the healer Panteleimon, and particles of the relics of St. Gregory the Theologian and St. Nifont, Patriarch of Constantinople, were transferred to the Turkestan diocese through the Athos metochion in Odessa. On the feast of the healer Panteleimon, July 27 according to the old style, the relics were solemnly greeted by Bishop Dimitry, the clergy, the governor and numerous believers. "Now the entire universe shares our triumph and gives praise to the greatness of God" - such words sounded then from the lips of the Orthodox people. The ark with the honest relics brought from Athos is kept to this day on the throne of St. Nicholas Cathedral in Alma-Ata and is brought to the consolation of believers in the diocese of the Kazakhstan Metropolitan District.