Bishop Peter Sakmár

Father Peter Sakmar was born on October 12, 1978, in the town of Levoča, Slovakia, within the Diocese of Spiš. After completing secondary school (1993–1997) and fulfilling his mandatory military service (1999–2000), he entered the seminary (2000–2006) and completed his studies at the Faculty of Theology at the Theological Institute in Spišské Podhradie. He was ordained a priest on June 17, 2006, in Spišské Podhradie and served as a parochial vicar in Oravská Polhora from 2006 to 2008. In July 2008, he began his ministry in the Apostolic Administration of Atyrau, serving in the city of Uralsk first as a parochial vicar (2008–2011) and subsequently as the parish priest (2011–2017) of the Parish of Our Lady of Perpetual Help; from 2015, he also served as an exorcist in the same ecclesiastical district. From 2017 to 2020, he served as a spiritual director at the "Mary, Mother of the Church" Inter-diocesan Major Seminary in Karaganda and participated in a training program for confessors in Kraków, Poland. Additionally, since 2019, he has served as the coordinator of exorcists in Kazakhstan. On December 8, 2020, the Holy Father, Pope Francis, appointed Peter Sakmar as the Apostolic Administrator of Atyrau. He assumed office on January 6, 2021, at the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord in Atyrau.