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On Thurdsay, September 22, 2011, the archpastors and clergymen of the delegation which brought the Kursk-Root Icon of the Mother of God “of the Sign” to the Republic of Kazakhstan visited St Nicholas Cathedral in the “southern capital” of Almaty. The lofty guests were greeted by the Secretary of the Kazakhstan Metropoliate, Mr ON Ovchinnikov, Protopriest Valery Zakharov, the Senior Priest of the Cathedral and Dean of the Almaty Churches, and other clergymen and parishioners of the Cathedral. The visitors venerated the holy relics of the cathedral: the honorable relics of St Nicholas the Miracle-worker of Myra, Holy Great Martyr and Healer Panteleimon and Holy Great Martyr Barbara. A prayer and laudation were sung before the relics of Holy Martyr Metropolitan Nicholas of Alma-Ata and Kazakhstan and all the New Martyrs and Confessors of Kazakhstan. The archpastors and clergymen viewed the water-blessing chapel of St John the Baptist and Forerunner, on the cathedral’s property. Eternal Memory was sung to all “who in the years of brutal persecutions by the godless were tortured and killed”—to all the New Martyrs and Confessors of Kazakhstan—at a cross and rock in the plaza of the grounds. That afternoon, the delegates accompanying the Kursk-Root Icon of the Mother of God to Kazakhstan visited Iveron-St Seraphim Convent in Almaty. They prayed at the monastery’s St Sophia Church and visited St Matrona of Moscow Church, where daily monastic services are held and the psalter is read daily, where they met with Abbess Liubov (Yakushkina). Metropolitan Alexander and the other archpastors then laid the foundation for a chapel dedicated to St Seraphim of Sarov.
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