The Monk Herman of Alaska was venerated as a saintly elder for many years before his official glorification among the Church’s saints in 1970. On occasion, pilgrims came to visit the elder’s grave on Spruce Island near Kodiak, where he had lived and was buried. Even Metropolitan Leonty visited in the 1950s. For several decades in the mid-20th century, Archimandrite Gerasim (Schmaltz) lived on Spruce Island until his repose in 1969 to watch over the grave of the Elder Herman, to guard his relics and to receive pilgrims.
The festive services to celebrate the glorification of Saint Herman in August 1970 brought numerous hierarchs, clergy and faithful from throughout Alaska, the continental US and abroad to Kodiak and Spruce Island. This celebration would become the prototype for regularly organized pilgrimages here. The first such pilgrimage was held during the Diocesan Assembly convened in Kodiak over Labor Day weekend in September 1972. The Assembly made two key decisions – to petition the Holy Synod for a new diocesan bishop, as Bishop Theodosius (Lazor) had been transferred to Pittsburgh and to establish a local training school for clergy to serve the diocese. The school would later become Saint Herman’s Seminary. Father Joseph Kreta, who presided at the Assembly, led Assembly participants on a pilgrimage to Spruce Island where a Divine Liturgy served at the chapel where Saint Herman had been buried.
Beginning the following year, when Bishop Gregory (Afonsky) was elected and consecrated as Bishop of Alaska, he instituted an annual pilgrimage to Kodiak and Spruce Island to coincide with Saint Herman’s feast day in August. This pilgrimage, which has been held every year since 1973, has grown in scope and increasingly attracts pilgrims from around the world. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Saint Herman’s canonization, multiple pilgrimages were planned in 2020. However due to restrictions imposed by the pandemic, a scaled back pilgrimage took place with most participants being local residents. This would be the last major event in the diocese presided by Archbishop David (Mahaffey), who would have to leave Alaska for medical treatment less than two months later and reposed in the Lord on November 27, 2020.
Photos of some of the annual pilgrimages over the last two decades may be viewed here:
See photos of the glorification of Saint Herman in 1970
A short video piece on the annual pilgrimage to Spruce Island was aired on PBS a few years ago.