Bishop Athanasius is the auxiliary bishop of Astana, Kazakhstan. He was born in the former Soviet Union and received his first Holy Communion from Ukrainian Catholic priest and martyr, Blessed Oleksa Zaryckyj, who was the apostolic administrator of Kazakhstan and Siberia. Blessed Oleksa died in a Soviet labor camp near Karaganda in 1963.
In 2006 he was consecrated Bishop and in 2011 was transferred to the position of auxiliary Bishop in the Archdiocese of Astana and is the General Secretary of the Bishops’ Conference of Kazakhstan.
His excellency is well known for his devotion to the Eucharist and Our Lady, Queen of Heaven. Because of his upbringing in the former Soviet Union, and his confrontation with religious persecution and error, he fully supports Catholics facing this same persecution in the modern world.
Accompanying Bishop Athanasius were: Dr. Peter Kwasniewski, a liturgical scholar, theologian and choral composer, who teaches at Wyoming Catholic College, Alex Begin, the executive producer and host of EWTN’s ‘Extraordinary Faith’ program, and Rev. Canon Adrian Sequeira, Vicar of the Oratory of Saint Francis de Sales from St. Louis, Montana.