St Herman of Alaska was the first saint glorified by the Orthodox Church in North America. A simple monk who never became a priest, he spent more than forty years in Alaska, most of them as a hermit on Spruce Island, caring for the native Alutiiq people and teaching their children.

From Valaam to Kodiak

Herman was born in Russia around 1756. He became a monk at the Valaam Monastery on Lake Ladoga, where he was tonsured in 1782. In 1793 he was chosen as one of ten monks for a mission to Russian America, and the missionaries reached Kodiak Island on 24 September 1794. It was the beginning of Orthodox Christianity in North America.

New Valaam

Within a few years most of the mission had died or returned to Russia. Herman stayed. Around 1811 to 1817 he moved to nearby Spruce Island, which he named New Valaam. There he lived in a small cell, kept a garden, ran a school and an orphanage, and defended the Alutiiq people against mistreatment by the fur traders. He cared for the sick through epidemics and became known for his humility and gentleness. He died on Spruce Island in 1837.

Glorification

On 9 August 1970 Herman was glorified at Holy Resurrection Cathedral in Kodiak by the Orthodox Church in America, the same year the OCA received its autocephaly. The Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia glorified him on the same day in San Francisco. Most of his relics rest at Holy Resurrection in Kodiak, and every August pilgrims travel by boat to his original grave and chapel on Spruce Island.

His feasts are kept on 9 August, the day of his glorification, and on 13 December, the traditional date of his repose.

In icons

St Herman is shown as an elderly monk with a long white beard, in a simple monastic habit. Some icons show the heavy iron cross and chains he wore under his clothes. He is often painted holding a scroll or an icon, and many icons set him against the sea, rocks and spruce forest of his island, sometimes with the church of Kodiak in the distance. Icons of the Alaskan saints often place him at the centre of the group, with St Innocent and the martyrs and missionaries of Alaska.

A saying

St Herman is remembered for words he spoke to visitors: "From this day, from this hour, from this minute, let us strive to love God above all and fulfil His holy will." They are often written on the scroll he holds in his icons.