Faithful to make pilgrimage honoring Saint Herman of Alaska in August

KODIAK ISLAND, AK - Although no commercial airline takes passengers to Monk’s Lagoon on Spruce Island, and no roads carry vehicles there, hundreds of pilgrims will flock to this remote Alaska wilderness on Saturday, August 8 to honor Saint Herman, one of the first Orthodox Christian missionaries to serve the people of Alaska. Some of the faithful will arrive in personal skiffs, others will climb aboard Kodiak-based fishing vessels piloted by volunteer skippers, still others will paddle roughly four hours to reach the island by kayak - all with the same mission: to commemorate North America’s first Orthodox Saint on the 39th anniversary of his canonization.

Staff and volunteers at Kodiak’s Holy Resurrection Cathedral coordinate the annual event, which draws Orthodox and non-Orthodox visitors from across the world into the dense Spruce forest in which Saint Herman lived and prayed, struggled and performed miracles from 1808 until his death in 1837.

Pilgrims have an opportunity to walk the paths Saint Herman walked, drink from a healing spring, venerate icons hung on the trunks of aged spruce trees and attend a hierarchical Divine Liturgy at the Saints Sergius and Herman of Valaam Chapel, built in 1895 on the site where the saint was buried. The Liturgy this year will be celebrated by His Beatitude, Metropolitan Jonah, primate of the Orthodox Church in America.

His Grace, Bishop Benjamin, Bishop of the Diocese of the West and Locum Tenens of the Diocese of Alaska, will also be attending pilgrimage events, and will celebrate the Divine Liturgy Saturday morning in Kodiak.

Following the Liturgy on Spruce Island, pilgrims will enjoy a picnic on the beach at Monk’s Lagoon, where they may silently meditate, take hikes or sit, and watch the salmon jump in the cold Pacific waters of the Gulf of Alaska. Upon their return to Kodiak, pilgrims will enjoy a warm soup supper served at Holy Resurrection Cathedral, compliments of the cathedral’s Saint Herman Sisterhood.

Other events offered during the weekend are educational talks and tours and an opportunity for pilgrims to pray quietly at the relics of Saint Herman at the cathedral in Kodiak. Pilgrims may also attend the Saint Yakov Tea and an Akathist service to Saint Herman on Friday evening, a vigil service Saturday evening and the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy Sunday morning, followed by the Grand Banquet. A festival in the park Sunday evening will close the pilgrimage.

A monk of Valaam Monastery in the Russian North, Saint Herman came to Alaska in 1794 to serve the native Alutiiq people and Russian fur traders. A tireless laborer as a simple unordained monk, Saint Herman established the Orthodox Church in Kodiak, Alaska, defended the native people against arguably outrageous treatment by Russian colonial officials and cared for orphaned children on Spruce Island. He lived out the last 30 years of his life on Spruce Island as a hermit. During this time he pioneered gardening, cared for those in need and worked many miracles of healing and protection. At his death a column of light was seen throughout the region rising from the forest to the heavens.

Saint Herman of Alaska the Wonderworker was glorified by the Church in 1970. He is universally recognized as a saint of the Orthodox Church and as the protector of the Church in North America.