On December 24, 2024, the grand opening of the museum of the Penza Diocese took place in the Bishop's house of Penza.
The opening is timed to coincide with the 225th anniversary of the establishment of the Penza-Saratov Diocese in 1799 by decree of Emperor Paul I.
The opening ceremony was attended by Metropolitan Seraphim of Penza and Nizhnelomovsk, Bishop Nazarius of Kuznetsk and Nikolsky, Bishop Mitrofan of Serdobsky and Spassky, representatives of the clergy of the Penza Archdiocese and the cultural community.
The head of the Penza Archdiocese addressed the audience with a welcoming speech. First of all, His Eminence Seraphim expressed gratitude to Deacon Evgeny Belokhvostikov, Deputy Chairman of the Penza Diocese's Church History Committee for Museum and Exhibition Activities, as well as local historian Alexander Igorevich Dvorzhansky, who had been collecting exhibits for the future museum for a long time, searching for them in ancient churches and at various antique auctions.
Metropolitan Seraphim noted that the permanent exhibition has been formed so far only in one hall of the new museum of the Penza Diocese, the rest is a temporary exhibition dedicated to the anniversary of the diocese.: "This year we have renovated this room, we have tried to equip it the way a museum should be equipped. The museum staff is currently restoring some of the exhibits and forming the entire exhibition fund. It is planned to complete all these works by the summer of 2025, but in the future the museum will be replenished with new exhibits. I hope that the expositions presented here will attract many residents and guests of Penza."
Then Deacon Evgeny Belokhvostikov conducted the first sightseeing tour of the museum and told the guests about the exhibits presented in the halls. Among them are the antimins, signed by the Holy Martyr Fadey Tversky, who lived in exile in Kuznetsk for two years; the Moscow Bible, published in 1663; lifetime editions of St. Innocent of Penza, Bishop Ambrose (Ornatsky), graduates of the Penza Theological Seminary – Alexander Arkhangelsky, Nikolai Ilminsky, Nikolai Burdenko; approved letters signed by the Holy Martyr John of Riga; as well as a fragment of a cast-iron grating that surrounded the Spassky Cathedral, which was destroyed in 1934.
As part of the museum's opening, a brochure entitled "His Grace Gaius (Takaov), the first Bishop of Penza and Saratov" was presented.
"I would like to wish all readers of this book, firstly, to remember Archbishop Gaius; secondly, to treat with gratitude the legacy that he left on the Penza land; and thirdly, of course, to pray for our first archbishop," Metropolitan Seraphim emphasized. 
The museum's guests were also presented with a wall calendar for 2025 with commemorative dates of the Spassky Cathedral. 
The museum of the Penza Diocese was first opened in November 2000 on the third floor of the Bishop's House and was primarily dedicated to the personality of Archbishop Serafim (Tikhonov). Due to the reconstruction of the bishop's house, the exposition was curtailed after a short time.
The new museum of the Penza Diocese will occupy three halls: the first of them is dedicated to Christianity in the Penza region in the 10th-18th centuries, the second to the history of the diocese in the 19th –early 20th centuries, and the third to the history of the diocese in the post–revolutionary period.
As part of the museum's opening, a presentation of the permanent exhibition of the first hall, as well as a temporary exhibition, giving an idea of the other two halls, which will be opened in 2025, took place.
Photo: Ilya Shkolin