On October 2, 2026, the stay of the ark with the right hand of St. Spyridon of Trimifunt in the Kostanay diocese ended.
The shrine, brought to the borders of the Kazakhstan Metropolitan Area with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, was located in the Constantine and Elena Cathedral in Kostanay.
On the pilgrimage, the holy relics are accompanied by Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan, Bishop Claudian of Taldykorgan, priests of the Kerkyra Metropolis of the Greek Orthodox Church and clerics of temples in Alma Ata. The offering of St. Spyridon's right hand was organized by the Eleos-Meirim Public Foundation.
During his visit to Kostanay, the head of the Kazakh Metropolitan District performed solemn divine services in the main temple of the city on the occasion of the bringing of the relics of St. Spyridon to the region, the rite of consecration of the foundation stone of the church in honor of the icon of the Mother of God "The Disputant of Loaves" in the Northwestern residential district of Kostanay, the rite of minor consecration of the newly built church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Vladimirovka Kostanay region.
On October 2, the head of the Metropolitan Area and representatives of the Kerkyra Metropolitanate of the Greek Orthodox Church, accompanying the relics of St. Spyridon, met with the akim of Kostanay region K.I. Aksakalov.
In the afternoon, a final prayer service was held at the Constantine-Elena Cathedral, at the end of which Protopresbyter Evangelos Koutras presented wooden arks with vestments and fragments from the tomb of the Trimifunt hierarch from a native of Kostanay, A.V. Karmakov, for the Kostanay and Astana dioceses. Metropolitan Alexander gratefully accepted the shrine from the hands of a Greek clergyman and overshadowed the faithful with it, invoking the saving grace of God on the Kazakh land.
Further, the relics of St. Christ were placed in a wooden ark donated to the Astana diocese, after which the great shrine of Orthodoxy left Kostanay and headed for the Southern capital of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Alma Ata.
More than 19 thousand people worshiped the relics of the great Saint of God in the Kostanay diocese. Prayer services were continuously performed by the clergy, and information brochures and icons consecrated on holy relics were distributed to the pilgrims thanks to the support of the Eleos-Meirim public Foundation.