American Orthodox Icons (OCA)

Orthodox Christianity came to North America from the west, not the east. In 1794 a mission of monks from the Valaam Monastery in Russia landed on Kodiak Island in Alaska, and from that small beginning grew the Russian Orthodox diocese that became the Orthodox Church in America (OCA), granted autocephaly by the Church of Russia in 1970. The icons of America are, above all, icons of its saints. They show St Herman of Alaska, the gentle elder of Spruce Island; St Innocent, missionary to the Aleut and Tlingit peoples; St Jacob Netsvetov, the first American-born saint; St Tikhon, who led the Church in America before becoming Patriarch of Moscow; St Alexis Toth of Wilkes-Barre; and St Raphael of Brooklyn, the first Orthodox bishop consecrated on American soil. Together they are honoured each year on the Sunday of All Saints of North America. This collection describes how these saints are depicted, the stories behind their icons, and where their memory is kept today, from Kodiak and Sitka to South Canaan, Pennsylvania.