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Little is known of the early life of
the Monk Herman. He was born in Serpukhov in the Moscow Diocese about 1756 and at the age of 16, he began his
monastic life at the Trinity-St. Sergius Hermitage near St. Petersburg.
While at the Hermitage, Herman developed a severe infection on the right side
of his throat which brought him to the point of death. After fervent prayer
before an Icon of the Most-Holy Theotokos he fell into a deep sleep, and during
this sleep, Herman dreamed that he was healed by the Virgin. Upon waking, he
found that he had completely recovered. Remaining at the Trinity-Sergius
Hermitage for five more years, he then moved to the Valaam Monastery on Lake Ladoga.
During his stay at the Valaam
Monastery, Father Herman developed a strong spiritual attachment to the Elder
Nazarius, Abbot and Renewer of the spiritual life of Valaam. He found in
Nazarius a gentle, yet effective spiritual guide, whom he would remember for
the rest of his life. During his stay in Valaam, the monastery was visited by
Gregory Shelikov, head of the Golikov-Shelikov Trading Company, who requested
Monks to work in the new mission field in Alaska. Thus, in
1793, Father Herman, with several other Monks was sent by the Holy Synod of
Russia to the Alaskan missionary field.
After a journey of nearly a year,
the little band of eight Monks arrived on Kodiak
Island on September 24, 1794. From Kodiak, the Monks began their effort to convert and educate
the natives. Several thousand Alaskans were converted to Orthodoxy, but the Mission did not
have the success that had been expected. Archimandrite Joasaph, the head of the
Mission, was consecrated a Bishop, but died with two others when the ship on
which he was returning to Alaska sank, and Fr. Herman, who, from the beginning
had distinguished himself with his humility, compassion for the natives and his
administrative skills, became the acting head of the Mission. Eventually only
he remained from the original Mission.
After difficult relations with and
persecution by the Russian-American Trading Company, which controlled the
Alaska Colony, between 1808 and 1818 Fr. Herman left Kodiak and went to Spruce Island, which
he called New Valaam. He spent the rest of his life on this island, where he
cared for orphans, ran a school and continued his missionary work. He built a
small chapel, school and guest house, while food for himself and the orphans
was produced from his own experimental garden.
Caring little for himself, Fr.
Herman wore the oldest and simplest clothes under his cassock and ate very
little. His free time was devoted to prayer and singing the services he could
do as a simple Monk, since, in humility, he had refused to be ordained. Thus,
his life on the island was that of an ascetic and was in many ways similar to
the lives of the early Monks of the Egyptian desert. When asked if he was ever
lonesome, Fr. Herman answered, “No, I am not alone there! God is there, as God
is everywhere. The Most-Holy Angels are there. With whom is it better to talk,
with people or with Angels? Most certainly with Angels.”
Father Herman continued to grow in
his love for the natives while he lived on Spruce Island, for he
saw them as newly-born children in the faith, who had to be guided and taught. He
had a special love for the children and they were very fond of him. One of his
greatest pleasures was being with children, teaching them and giving them the
delicacies he made. During this time a ship from the United States brought an epidemic to the Alaskans and hundreds of them died. But
they were not alone, for Herman remained with them constantly, going from
person to person, Comforting the dying, and praying with and for them. After
the epidemic ended, Fr. Herman brought the orphans back to New Valaam with him
and cared for them. On Sundays and Holy Days, Fr. Herman would gather the
people for prayer and singing, and he would give sermons that captivated the
hearts of all those present. As a clairvoyant Elder, he could see into the
hearts of his spiritual children and help them.
The natives recognized the holiness
of the Venerable One and turned to him for help, seeing in him an intercessor
before God. Once there was a great tidal wave threatening the island and the
people came to Fr. Herman for help. He took an Icon of the Theotokos, placed it
on the beach and said, “Have no fear. The water will not go any higher than the
place where this holy icon stands”; and it did not. On another occasion there
was a fire on the island and the people again turned to the righteous Elder,
who interceded successfully on their behalf.
Prior to his death, Fr. Herman
revealed what would happen to him. He told the people that when he died there
would be no Priest in the area and the people would have to bury him by themselves.
He also said that he would be forgotten for thirty years and then would be remembered.
Father Herman died on December 13, 1837, in the manner
in which he had described to his flock. They continued to revere his memory,
but the outside world seemed to forget him until the first investigation of his
life in 1867, by Bishop Peter of Alaska. Finally, on August 9, 1970, the Holy Monk
was glorified by the Orthodox Church in America,
in impressive ceremonies at Kodiak, Alaska, and the Blessed Father Herman of Alaska entered the
ranks of Saints who are interceding on behalf of American Orthodoxy.
The Church, however, worked hard to
further the work of the Mission, even in these difficult times, so that, despite the harsh climate,
the difficulty of supplying the Mission because of the great distances involved, Father John found a solid
foundation upon which to do his work. He had the help of Father Jacob Netsvetov
(a Creole, one of mixed race), who had been sent to Irkutsk, Siberia, for Seminary training,
and had been ordained in 1828. (The first American-born Priest, Prokopy Lavrov,
was ordained in 1810, but he returned to Russia after a brief period of less
than a year, since he found the life in Kodiak too harsh.)
Together, Fathers John and Jacob
were a remarkable missionary pair. They succeeded in revitalizing the Mission to such a
degree that at the end of the 1830's, there were five active Priests and five
religious centers, with more than 10,000 Orthodox Christians. There were four
schools for boys (about 100 students) and four orphanages for girls (about 60).
All these schools, as well as the churches, gave religious instruction to the
natives in their native tongues. This missionary work was financially supported
primarily by the Russian-American Company, with substantial assistance also
provided by the Holy Synod and the Church of Russia.
On December 15, 1840, the American Mission was blessed with the consecration of the
now-widowed Priest, Fr. John Veniaminov, as Innocent, Bishop of Kamchatka, the
Kuriles, and the Aleutian Islands. With the consecration of Bishop Innocent, the history of the
American Mission entered an even more glorious phase. Bishop Innocent's sixteen
years of experience in the Alaskan missionary field, coupled with his in depth
knowledge of the natives now entrusted to his pastoral care, as well as his
judicious choice of fellow missionaries, accounted for the unparalleled success
of the Mission.
As soon as he arrived in Sitka (the capital
of Russian America), he began the work of enlarging the missionary work of the
Diocese. The Cathedral of St. Michael the Archangel was beautified and enlarged, and plans were laid for the
construction of a Seminary, which opened in 1845. At the same time, he continued
his extensive missionary journeys throughout his far-flung Diocese which
covered parts of two continents.
When his responsibility was again
increased with the enlargement of his Diocese into an Archdiocese, with
increased territories, Bishop Innocent transferred his center of activity to Siberia, leaving an Auxiliary
Bishop to supervise the American part of his enlarged domain. In 1869,
Archbishop Innocent was elevated to the See of Moscow as its Metropolitan, but
he still kept a careful watch over his beloved American Church.
Important here was the organization, at his urging, of the Russian Missionary
Society, which was organized to further the missionary work of the Russian
Church, especially in Siberia, Alaska and Japan, which guaranteed that the work
begun in America would not be abandoned or forgotten with the sale of Alaska to
America which had occurred in 1867. With true prophetic insight, the aged
Metropolitan called for the missionary work to be directed to the whole of America
and foresaw the need for American-born clergy totally conversant with the
American cultural ethos, as well as the English language.
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