Thursday, August 09, 2007

August 9: Venerable Herman of Alaska


Venerable Herman of Alaska, Wonderworker of All America, was among the members of a spiritual mission organized in 1793 to preach the Word of God to the native inhabitants of northwestern America, who only ten years before had come under the sovereignty of Russia.

St Herman came from a family of merchants of Serpukhov, a city of the Moscow Diocese. His name before he was tonsured, and his family name are not known. The monastic name is given when a monk takes his vows. He had a great zeal for piety from youth and at sixteen he entered monastic life. This was in 1772, if we assume that Herman was born in 1756, although sometimes 1760 is given as the date of his birth. First he entered the Trinity-Sergius Hermitage, which was located near the Gulf of Finland on the Peterhof Road, about 10 miles from St Petersburg.

From the menologion of the Orthodox Church in America. Read it all here.