On September 2, in the parish of the Holy Family in the city of Tayinsha, North Kazakhstan region, an important event took place for both parishioners and priests serving there – a newly-built place was consecrated, the second floor of which will serve as a monastery of Marian monks, and the first floor as a parish house. The construction of this house took around four years with significant prayer and material support from the Congregation of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Until now, the priests of this male congregation in Tayinsha lived in an old house on the territory of the church, which now serves as a guest house.
The parish of the Holy Family dates back to 1956, when Father Kuczyński arrived here, later arrested for his service to God. As in many parishes of that time, various priests came here to secretly celebrate Holy Masses and give sacraments. Among them, Fr. Aloysius Kashuba, due to his efforts in 1976 a prayer house was registered, on the site of which the church now stands, as well as the priest-monk Karol Kisielewski, a symbolic monument to which was erected on the territory of the parish. The priests of the Congregation of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary have been serving here since 1981, when retired bishop Jan Paweł Lenga arrived here, at that time just a recently ordained priest. As the parishioners recall, already in this church in 1991 his episcopal consecration took place.
The Provincial of the Monastic Congregation Tomasz Nowaczek and his deputy Sławomir Homoncik, who had specially came from Poland, also took part in the solemn Holy Mass, which preceded the consecration of the monastery devoted to the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. At the end of the Holy Mass, the provincial noted that the Eucharist best reflects the essence of the mystery of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, on which the charisma and mission of the congregation are built, and wished his monastic brothers that their life be without sin.
The head of Archdiocese of Holy Mary in Astana Metropolitan Archbishop Tomash Peta led the Holy Mass and consecrated the new monastery. In his homily, the Metropolitan emphasized: “During this Mass we pray for this whole parish, for the living and dead parishioners, for the builders of this parish house and the monastic monastery, for those who donated for this construction, for Fathers Alexei and Stephen, who led construction”. The archbishop invited all to remember those who were in this parish earlier – who served as priests and those laities who preserved the faith for future generations. And speaking of the parish house itself, he remarked: “The house is, first of all, people who love each other, and for this to be possible, the presence of Jesus is necessary”.
In the parish of the Holy Family, in addition to the two Marian monks, Fr. Stefan Wysocki and Fr. Alexey Mitsinskiy also serves the female monastic Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Family from Nazareth. In addition to Tayinsha, the parish includes the villages of Donetskoye, Podolskoye, Leonidovka, which priests and sisters regularly visit, conducting catechesis and Holy Masses. In Kazakhstan, this is not the only monastery of the congregation of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the second being located in the city of Karaganda at the parish of Mary Mother of the Church in the area called Mikhailovka.
