Herman of Alaska

Herman of Alaska
Venerable, Wonderworker
Born	c. 1750s Serpukhov or Voronezh Governorate, Russia
Died	November 15, 1836 Spruce Island, Alaska
Venerated in	Eastern Orthodoxy, Anglican Communion, Eastern Catholics
Canonized	August 9, 1970, Kodiak, Alaska by the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA), and simultaneously in San Francisco by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR)
Major shrine	Holy Resurrection Cathedral, Kodiak, Alaska (relics); Sts. Sergius and Herman of Valaam Chapel, Spruce Island, Alaska (burial site)
Feast	August 9 (glorification) December 13 (repose) November 15 (repose-alternate)
Attributes	Clothed as a monk, with a flowing white beard; sometimes wearing a wrought iron cross and chains about his chest.
Patronage	Americas

Saint Herman of Alaska (Russian: Преподобный Герман Аляскинский, c. 1750s – November 15, 1836) was a Russian Orthodox monk and missionary to Alaska, which was then part of Russian America. His gentle approach and ascetic life earned him the love and respect of both the native Alaskans and the Russian colonists. He is considered by many Orthodox Christians as the patron saint of North America.

Biographers disagree about Herman’s early life. His official biography, which Valaam Monastery published in 1867, stated that his pre-monastic name was unknown, but Herman was born into a merchant’s family in Serpukhov, a city in Moscow Governorate, and later became a novice at the Trinity-St. Sergius Hermitage near St. Petersburg before going to Valaam to become a full monk. However, modern biographer Sergei Korsun found this based on erroneous information provided by Simeon Yanovsky, a former administrator of the Russian-American Company (RAC) in Alaska, who confused Herman’s biographical information with another monk, Joseph (Telepnev).

Another former RAC administrator, Ferdinand von Wrangel, stated Herman was originally from a prosperous peasant family in the Voronezh Governorate and served in the military, but then became a monk at Sarov Monastery. This concurred with testimony of Archimandrite Theophan (Sokolov), and a letter written by Herman himself, which all agree that Herman actually began his monastic life at Sarov as a novice, and later received the full tonsure at Valaam. A young military clerk named Egor Ivanovich Popov from the Voronezh Governorate, was in fact tonsured with the name Herman at Valaam in 1782.

All biographers agree that at Valaam, Herman studied under Abbot Nazarius, previously of Sarov Monastery, who was influenced by the hesychastic tradition of Paisius Velichkovsky. Herman undertook various obediences and was well-liked by the brethren, but wanted a more solitary life and so became a hermit with Abbot Nazarius' blessing. His hermitage, which later became known as “Herman’s field” or Germanovo, was two kilometers from the monastery. Metropolitan Gabriel of St. Petersburg offered to ordain Herman to the priesthood and twice offered to send him to lead the Russian Orthodox Mission in China, but he refused, preferring the solitary life and remain a simple monk. Years after he left for America, Herman continued to keep in touch with his spiritual home, and in a letter to Abbot Nazarius wrote, “in my mind I imagine my beloved Valaam, and constantly behold it across the great ocean.”

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