Almaty, Kazakhstan, August 7, 2019
Photo: mitropolia.kz
The Orthodox faithful of Kazakhstan will have the blessing of venerating one of the Church’s most revered icons of the Mother of God for an entire week in October.
His Eminence Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan held a working meeting yesterday in the administrative center of the Metropolitan District of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Republic of Kazakhstan to prepare for the arrival of the ancient wonderworking icon, reports the site of the Metropolitan District.
The Kursk Root Icon will be brought for the celebrations in honor of the 15th anniversary of the Cathedral of New Martyrs and Confessors of Kazakhstan and the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Astana and Almaty Diocese. With the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia and His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion of Eastern America and New York, the First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR), the icon will arrive on October 4 and remain with the faithful of Kazakhstan until October 11.
The icon will be accompanied by a ROCOR delegation headed by Met. Hilarion. Its permanent home is at the ROCOR Cathedral Church of the Mother of God of the Sign in New York City, having been taken from Russia in 1920 for safekeeping from the godless Soviet regime.
During the session yesterday, a plan was approved for spiritual, educational, youth, and cultural events in honor of the anniversaries and the arrival of the revered icon.
The Kursk Root regularly travels throughout America and beyond. It was previously brought to Kazakhstan in 2011, when more than 200,000 Orthodox faithful came to venerate the holy image.
The icon has been annually brought back to Kursk for several years now for a procession in its honor on the Friday of the 9th week after Pascha. Last year marked the 400th anniversary of the Kursk Root procession, with thousands from throughout Russia and abroad participating.
