In general, saints are associated with a single place and belong to a single “rank”: they are either righteous priests, or holy confessors, or venerable monastics, or one of several other types of saints. Though we call him Saint Innocent of Alaska and venerate him as a holy hierarch, Saint Innocent’s long life saw him show forth holiness in many places and in many ways. He was a husband, father, priest, monk, and bishop. He was a missionary, a translator, a writer, a preacher, an administrator. For all his tribulations in preaching the Gospel, and for his steadfastness in his calling despite the untimely death of his wife, he could justly be called a confessor. He served in Siberia, Alaska, eastern Siberia again, and finally Moscow. In him were truly fulfilled the words of St. Paul, insofar as Saint Innocent became “all things to all men that by all means some might be saved” (1 Cor. 9:22).
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