"Come with us to die of hunger, of fatigue, of humiliations and of sufferings for the Immaculate - St. Maximilian Kolbe
The four vows
the Marian Vow, Obedience, Poverty, Chastity
For more information, contact:
Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate
Welcome to our Mission in Kazakhstan!
Our Community in Kazakhstan
FI Kazakhstan - Atbasar
Marian Friary "Spouse of the Holy Spirit"
Brief History:
In Feb. 2003, two friars, Friar Joseph M. Moreno and Friar Andrea M. Claudio arrived in Atbasar. On March 19, 2003, the Archbishop assigned them officially to the diocese through a polish priest Fr. Angi, who purchased a complex (sport gymnasium) facing the central plaza of the city. Some modifications and adjustments were made for the celebration of the liturgy and for catechism, and for the residence of the friars. Until August the two friars stayed with the polish priest, practicing the Russian language and helping him as much as they could. Then Fr. Angi left for another pastoral assignment while the two friars continued to assist the small local catholic community. On September 15, 2003, Fr. Carlo M. Iellici and Friar Agostino M. Polverino arrived from Togliatti, Russia; after some days, Fr. Stefano M. and the Mother General and Fr. Paschal M. Sariava also arrived. And so the community started its pastoral service in Atbasar with Fr. Carlo M. Iellici as the Father Guardian. Fr. Stefano left a layout for the expansion of the friary together with the task to begin the work of transforming the gym into a church, which they begun in May 2004.
azakhstan is an immense place, above all because of the extension of the steppe that never quite seems to end. It is calculated to cover an area at least 7 times than that of Italy. Here a place 500 kilometers away is considered as more a less ‘near’. The population of Kazakhstan is only about 15 million, 60% of which are Muslim, 40% of whom are orthodox in origin (many of whom are atheist) and about 300,000 Catholics. The capital was transferred to Astana, a city in the central north. This has replaced for some time now the older capital of Almaty, a place considered unfavorably located in the south of the country which counts around 1 million inhabitants.
Kazakhstan gives one the impression of being an immense desert plain of arid land almost completely uncultivated. Only a very small part of it has been made into farmland. And yet, a group of experts have said that notwithstanding the temperatures of -40 C during winter and 40+ C in summer, if wheat was cultivated there it could provide the daily bread of about half a billion people. The name of the capital, in fact, signifies “City of Wheat.” The great steppe however, has never been used for the cultivation of wheat, but was rather adopted for use in nuclear experimentation during the Soviet period and also used to house concentration camps for political prisoners: the infamous “gulags”. It is estimated that hundreds of millions died of hunger and torture in the gulags of Kazakhstan and Siberia during the 70 year period of Russian atheistic communism.
The nuclear experiments carried out on the land have had grave consequences.
The effects of the large amounts of radiation, are not yet completely gone, meaning that many zones in the steppe are still considered zones of ‘danger.’ Many are handicapped and disabled; many are born deformed, paralyzed, demented, and cancerous. These are the results of man’s achievement without God. How can we not pray for the salvation of their souls?
Another resource of Kazakhstan is the presence near the Caspian Sea of oil wells that number among the first in the world in the production of ‘black gold’. It is not known however, where the great wealth produced finishes up. Kazakhstan is a place of great poverty and many youth are constrained to immigrate abroad in search of employment.
he region that is now Kazakhstan was settled by Turkic tribes beginning in about the 8th century AD. In the 13th century the area was incorporated into the Mongol empire of Genghis Khan. Upon Genghis Khan’s death in 1227, his empire was divided among his descendants. Most of present-day Kazakhstan became part of the territory ruled by his son Chagadai, but the western and most of the northern parts were included in the far-reaching empire of the Golden Horde established by Batu Khan, Genghis’ grandson.
By the end of the 15th century, the Kazakhs emerged as a distinctive group, created by the intermingling of Mongol and Turkic peoples. In the early 16th century the Kazakh tribes united to form a great nomadic empire under the warlord Kasim Khan. The Kazakhs soon became divided, however, with the tribes fighting among themselves. As a result of these internecine struggles, three major groupings emerged among the Kazakhs—the Great Horde (Ulu Zhuz) in the southeast portion of present-day Kazakhstan, the Middle Horde (Orta Zhuz) in the central steppe region, and the Little Horde (Kishi Zhuz) between the Aral Sea and the Ural River in the west. Each horde was composed of a number of tribes that were collectively ruled by a khan. The khan Haq Nazar succeeded in uniting the Kazakh hordes between 1538 and 1580, but by the 17th century the Kazakhs were again fragmented. In the 1680s the Kazakhs began to fight a series of wars against invaders from the east called Oirots, a group of four Mongol tribes, including Dzungars, that sought to conquer Kazakh lands. Although the Kazakh hordes united again for purposes of war, Dzungar invasions completely devastated the Kazakhs by 1720. This period is remembered in Kazakh history as the “Great Disaster.”
azakhstan, republic in Central Asia, bounded on the north by Russia; on the east by China; on the south by Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan; and on the west by the Caspian Sea and Russia. Almost all of Kazakhstan is located in the west central portion of the Asian continent; however, a small part of the republic lies west of the Ural River on the European continent. The northern city of Astana (formerly Aqmola) is the capital of the country.
In Kazakh, the official state language, Kazakhstan is called Qazaqstan Respublikasy. The Kazakhs, a Turkic people, constitute a majority of the population. Kazakhstan was part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1922 until December 1991, when it became independent. The republic has maintained a presidential system of government since independence. In 1995 Kazakhstan adopted a new constitution that granted extensive powers to the president.
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"Come with us to die of hunger, of fatigue, of humiliations and of sufferings for the Immaculate
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The Word Was Made Flesh is a monthly missionary review of MISSiOMARIAE.NET. It publishes articles on the missions and related topics such as the Directives of the Magisterium on the missions, Apostolic spirituality, Mariology, homilies and sermons and more...