On the day of remembrance of the saints who shone in the land of Kostroma, Metropolitan Alexander celebrated the Liturgy in the home church of the residence of the Head of the Metropolitan District in Alma-Ata

February 5, 2024 is the day of remembrance of St. Gennady of Kostroma and Lyubimograd and the celebration in honor of the Cathedral of Kostroma Saints.

Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the Iveron-Seraphim home church of the metropolitan residence in Almaty.

The head of the Orthodox Church of Kazakhstan was concelebrated by: the head of the personal secretariat of the metropolitan, Hieromonk Prokhor (Endovitsky), the head of the administrative secretariat of the Head of the Metropolitan District, Priest Georgy Sidorov, the clergyman of the St. Nicholas Cathedral of the southern capital, Hierodeacon Afanasy (Kozel) and Deacon Sergius Slesarchuk.

The men's choir of the Alma-Ata diocese under the direction of Deacon Alexander Pivny sang.

At the funeral litany, the Metropolitan offered special prayers for the repose of the newly departed servant of God, Abbess Raphaila (Vasilenko), who had died the day before.

At the end of the Liturgy, glorification was performed to St. Gennady of Kostroma and Lyubimograd, the miracle worker and to the Council of saints who shone in the land of Kostroma.

At the end of the service, the Head of the Metropolitan District addressed the participants of the service with words of archpastoral teaching.

The Cathedral of Saints of the Kostroma Land includes the names of more than 30 saints of God. Many of them were students and spiritual followers of the Abbot of the Russian land - St. Sergius of Radonezh. One of the first associates of Saint Sergius, the Monk Abraham of Chukhloma and Galich, founded four monasteries within the Kostroma region. On the Kostroma land, other Sergius disciples also labored in prayer and deeds of piety—Reverends Pavel Obnorsky, Jacob of Zheleznoborovsky, Pachomius of Nerekhta, Macarius of Pisemsky, and Saint Nikita, builder of the Kostroma Epiphany Monastery. In the 14th-15th centuries, the monks Paisiy of Galich, Tikhon of Lukhovsky, Alexander of Vochsky, Barnabas of Vetluzhsky and Macarius of Unzhensky, the founder of the famous Makariyev-Unzhensky monastery, the rector of which from 1675 to 1682 was Saint Mitrofan, the first bishop of Voronezh, labored on the Kostroma land.

In the 16th century, the Kostroma land was glorified by the exploits of Saints Gennady of Kostroma and Lyubimogradsky, the miracle worker, and Ferapont of Monza. From 1821 to 1825, the rector of the Kostroma Theological Seminary and the rector of the Epiphany Monastery in the city of Kostroma was the Monk Macarius (Glukharev), an apostle and educator of Altai.

In the twentieth century, during the time of persecution of holy Orthodoxy, many new martyrs and confessors of the Russian Church testified to their faith on Kostroma land. Among them are the holy martyrs Nikodim (Krotkov), Archbishop of Kostroma and Galich, Priest Vasily Sypanovsky and other sufferers for the faith of Christ, canonized during the administration of the Kostroma diocese by Archbishop Alexander of Kostroma and Galich (now Metropolitan of Astana and Kazakhstan).

The celebration of the Council of Kostroma Saints was established in 1981 with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Pimen and dedicated to the day of memory of St. Gennady of Kostroma and Lyubimograd.

During the years of ruling the Kostroma diocese, Metropolitan Alexander restored from ruins churches and monasteries associated with the life and exploits of the holy saints of God who shone on this land.