Herman of Alaska, Monk and Missionary

Today the Church commemorates Herman of Alaska, a monk and missionary who served the people of Alaska through prayer, teaching, and works of mercy.

Herman entered monastic life at the Trinity-Sergius Hermitage near Saint Petersburg. After several years he moved to Valaam, a monastery among the islands of Lake Ladoga, where he came under the guidance of Abbot Nazarius. The brothers loved him and looked eagerly for his return when work took him away. Nazarius eventually permitted him to live alone in the neighboring forest. On feast days Herman returned to the monastery and sang at the early evening service known as Little Vespers. As he chanted, “O Sweetest Jesus, save us sinners,” tears streamed down his face. A metropolitan suggested ordination more than once, but Herman remained a monk, never becoming a priest.

In 1793 the Holy Synod, the council governing the Russian Church, blessed a mission to preach the Gospel to the Indigenous peoples of Alaska. Metropolitan Gabriel entrusted Nazarius with selecting monks from Valaam, and Herman was among those chosen. They crossed Siberia and the northern Pacific to Kodiak Island. From America Herman wrote affectionately to Nazarius, remembering the elder’s kindness and the monastery he had left behind.

The mission built a church and a school, and many people received baptism. But its losses were severe. The missionary Juvenal was killed; Joasaph, consecrated a bishop for Alaska, drowned with his companions when their ship went down; other members of the mission died. Eventually only Herman remained. Some Russian colonists and merchants mistreated the Indigenous people. Men, women, and children sought Herman’s help, and he appealed to colonial officials on their behalf. In a petition to the administrator Simeon Yanovsky, he compared the land and its people to a helpless infant entrusted to Russian protection. Calling himself their servant and nurse, he pleaded for those who could not obtain relief for themselves.

Herman made his home on Spruce Island, a short distance across the water from Kodiak, and named it New Valaam. He dug a cave for his first shelter. Later he lived in a small cell near a chapel and schoolhouse. He planted potatoes and cabbage, dried mushrooms for winter, and carried seaweed from the shore to enrich the soil. He used what his labor yielded to feed and clothe orphans and to provide books for his pupils. Herman himself wore a worn deerskin garment beneath a patched monastic robe. He slept on a narrow bench, resting his head on bricks.

People sometimes heard him singing the prayers of the Church from within his cell. When someone asked whether he ever grew lonely in the forest, Herman answered, “No, I am not there alone!” God was with him, he explained, as were the holy angels. Yet the island was seldom without visitors. He baked biscuits and cookies for children, taught the Christian faith and church singing, and gathered his neighbors for prayer on Sundays and holy days. His disciples read the appointed prayers, while Herman read the lessons from Scripture and preached.

One young woman who had heard his teaching about the Incarnation and eternal life asked to remain near him. Herman wrote that he initially resisted because of his love for solitude, but she persisted, and he received her. Her name was Sophia Vlasova. She lived beside the school and watched over the children, remaining there throughout Herman’s life. Others came seeking counsel or help against oppression. Conversations about Christ sometimes lasted until dawn. The people Herman served called him their North Star, a guide by whom they could find their way.

During an epidemic on Kodiak, so many people died that for three days no one was available to dig graves. There was neither a physician nor medicine for the afflicted. Herman visited the sick without tiring. He prayed with them, urged repentance, comforted those in fear, and prepared the dying for death.

On Spruce Island, floodwaters once threatened the inhabitants. They came to Herman in fear. He carried an icon of Mary, the Mother of God, to a sandy bank and prayed. He then assured them that the water would come no higher than the place where the icon stood. The flood stopped there. He entrusted the icon to Sophia for the people to bring out again if the waters rose.

On another occasion Herman was invited aboard a visiting Russian warship. Surrounded by its captain and officers, he asked what each man loved above all things. They named wealth, honor, marriage, and command of a ship. Herman asked whether Jesus Christ, who had given them life and loved them, was not more worthy of their love. The officers agreed that they loved God. Herman replied that after more than forty years of striving, he could not say he loved God completely. He asked whether they remembered God, prayed to him, and kept his commandments. They admitted that they did not. Then Herman asked them to make a promise together: from that very moment, they would try to love God more than anything and fulfill God’s holy will.

As Herman’s death approached, he asked his disciple Gerasim to light a candle before the icons and read the Acts of the Apostles. When Herman’s face began to shine, he gave glory to God and told Gerasim that he would live another week. A week later, Gerasim again lit the candles and read from Acts. Herman bowed his head on Gerasim’s chest and died. His face shone, and a sweet fragrance filled the cell.

In 1970, the Orthodox Church in America formally recognized Herman as a saint.

May Christ, who first loved us, bring our love for God toward its fullness.