On 6 February 2023, the feast of the holy Blessed Xenia of St. Petersburg, the head of the Central Asian Metropolitan District, Metropolitan Vikenty of Tashkent and Uzbekistan, began his archpastoral visit to the parishes of the Samarkand Deanery.

On this day the archpastor celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the Cathedral of St. Alexius, Metropolitan of Moscow and All Russia, the Wonderworker.

Concelebrating with His Eminence were: the dean of the Samarkand District, Archpriest Roman Zagrebelny; the rector of the church, Priest Igor Babakov; Priest Timofey Fishelev; Priest Oleg Lin; Deacon Rustik Kovalev; and Deacon Mikhail Mezhovikov.

At the Little Entrance Metropolitan Vikenty presented the rector of Saint Alexius Cathedral with a diocesan jubilee award: the medal in honor of the 150th anniversary of the Diocese of Tashkent and Turkestan.

After the Liturgy His Eminence addressed the worshippers with an instructive archpastoral word in which he congratulated all the parishioners on the recent feasts of the Nativity of Christ and Theophany, and spoke of the labors and spiritual feats of the holy Blessed Xenia of St. Petersburg, saying:

"The death of her husband changed her so profoundly that she became a completely different person. Usually in our earthly life the death of one spouse makes it possible to marry someone else, forgetting one's first love. People live together or divorce... But she showed devotion to her first love, to her husband, and offered herself as a sacrifice for her husband's sake, to redeem him from sin and eternal torment, because her husband, unfortunately, had a weakness for alcohol. He in fact died while intoxicated. She grieved over this deeply throughout her whole life. All her labors, all her actions, which seem unreasonable and even insane to us, she did in order to redeem her husband by her sacrifice and to save herself.

She took upon herself the very heavy cross of foolishness for Christ, when she herself wished to be insulted, humiliated, driven away and mocked, to be a disgrace to all of Petersburg. She walked all the streets of Petersburg and was a laughingstock. But she endured this and humbled herself, and at night she would go out into the fields beyond Petersburg and pray there from evening until morning, praying for all who insulted and humiliated her, that the Lord would not count it against them as sin, but would bring them to their senses and set them on the true path, the path of salvation and goodness. That is what she did.

It is a very difficult feat, but she bore it with the help of Christ the Savior, because our human strength is weak, but with God's help all things are possible. She carried it out throughout her whole life.

God grant that we may have even a little of the patience and humility we see in Blessed Xenia of St. Petersburg."

After the Liturgy Metropolitan Vikenty celebrated the All-Night Vigil at the prayer house of the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Grand Prince Vladimir in Kattakurgan, where he presented the rector of the church, Fr. Timofey, with the jubilee medal in honor of the 150th anniversary of the Diocese of Tashkent and Turkestan.