Sunday, August 9

Modern · c. 1756 – 1837

St Herman of Alaska

Wonderworker of Alaska, first canonized American saint

A monk of the Valaam monastery in northern Russia, Herman volunteered for the mission that sailed to Kodiak, Alaska, in 1794 — the first Orthodox mission to America. When his companions died or departed, he remained, settling on Spruce Island, which he called New Valaam. There the simple monk, never ordained, dug his garden, baked biscuits for children, taught the Aleut people, cared for orphans and the sick during epidemics, and fearlessly rebuked the Russian traders for their cruelty toward the natives, telling the governor, 'I am the lowliest servant of these people, and their nurse.' Asked whether he was ever lonely, he replied, 'No, I am not alone there! God is there, as God is everywhere.' He reposed in 1837. In 1970 he became the first saint canonized in America, and this feast commemorates that glorification; he is venerated as the wonderworker of all America.

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