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St
Herman of Alaska and the Kyivan Missionary Vision
Alaska was the final frontier of the vast expanse of the Tsarist Russian
Empire. Like Siberia, it
was a place to which Kyivan missionaries were sent to introduce
Orthodoxy and Christianize the native peoples.
The Ukrainian Choir of Siberian Missionary-Saints was, by the eighteenth
century, quite impressive. Among
them were: St John
Maximovitch, Metropolitan of Siberia, who translated the Divine Liturgy
into Chinese; St Paul
Koniuskevich, Metropolitan of Tobilsk and a poet and Kyivan academic;
St Innocent Kulchitsky, Bishop of Irkutsk;
St Sophronius Krystalsky, also of Irkutsk; and St Theophilus
Leschynsky, Apostle of Siberia who built more than 2500 Churches
there;
Thanks to these, Orthodox Christianity had become sufficiently rooted
among the Siberian peoples, so much so that the cult of some Siberian
saints started to take hold back home in Ukraine and Russia.
Such was the case with St Basil of Mangazea whose Icon is still in the
Kyivan Church of St Volodymyr.
When the monk, Herman, went to Alaska, he was going as a representative
of a well-established missionary tradition that preached the Gospel
while, at the same time, inculturated the message of Christ within the
familiar context of the people being evangelized.
St Herman is said to have been of Ukrainian ancestry because of his
Ukrainian "G" when he signed his name. The Ukrainian alphabet had 33 letters, one more than the
Russian. While the Russian
"G" always had a hard sound, the Ukrainian alphabet had a
separate letter for it that looked like an upside down 'L' with an
upward line on its tip.
This letter was forbidden in the Russian Empire.
It was one of those symbols that helped keep Ukrainian identity
in tact and separate from that of their Great Russian brothers (they are
"brothers" because the Ukrainians could CHOOSE their friends .
. .).
St Herman stubbornly kept this tradition and so left us a testimony to
his true cultural roots.
However, what is an even greater witness to his belonging to the Kyivan
Church is Herman's missionary methods that he used for spreading the
Gospel among the Aleutian and other peoples of Alaska.
When Roman Catholic missionaries move into the field of endeavour, they
tend to start a "building campaign."
They build churches, rectories, halls, hospitals and other things
that can be and are useful to the people they are preaching to.
Orthodox missionaries, especially those of the Kyivan school, have a
different approach, however.
Like the Apostles, they seek out someone who is sympathetic to them in a
village or else take up residence somewhere near the people they have
been sent to. They begin
serving the Divine Liturgy and the Horologion.
They thus establish a core nucleus of the Church from which they
preach the Word of God. It
is thus God and His Presence among the people who ultimately draws them
to Himself, from this perspective.
St Herman started out by building a hut for himself that was under
ground, to protect him from the cold.
He established an outpost of the Thebaid on Kodiak and Spruce
Islands. He worked with the
people to teach them useful crafts and gardening techniques. He taught them literacy skills.
By his example, he proclaimed to them the redeeming message of
Jesus Christ. By his
Orthodox devotion, he inculcated in them a love for the Church of
Christ.
St Herman didn't believe that the legends of the Alaskan peoples needed
to be "thrown out" so that they might become Christians.
As St Innocent of Alaska would also write later, those legends,
such as the legend of how the Earth came into being, could be left
alone, as could all those local traditions that did not contradict the
Gospel.
Indeed, there is a fascinating story in the life of St Innocent about an
Alaskan, John by name, who said he already knew all about the Holy
Trinity and Christ. When
asked how he knew, he said that Three Men had been teaching him about
these truths.
He was asked to introduce these Three Men to the missionaries, but that
meeting, at the last minute, could not take place. It is celebrated in Alaska iconographically with the Three
Men portrayed as the Trinity Herself (again, "Trinity" in
Slavonic is feminine)!
As a result of this Kyivan approach to missions, the Native Peoples of
Alaska quickly adopted Orthodoxy as their "own" faith.
In 1815, when the Spanish took San Francisco from the Russians, a number
of Orthodox Aleutians were taken into custody.
They were baptized at the hands of Roman Catholic priests.
Among their number was an Orthodox Aleutian named Peter and who
had benefited from the missionary outreach begun by St Herman.
Peter refused baptism, saying that he had already been baptized an
Orthodox Christian. He
showed the Spaniards his Orthodox Cross that hung around his neck.
Told that he was a "schismatic," Peter was then given over to
the civil authorities and was martyred for his faith as the Protomartyr
of the Aleutians and the first-fruits of the Alaska mission.
St Juvenal the Hieromartyr was clubbed to death by pagan Aleutians.
As they walked away, he got up and ran after them, preaching as
he went. They then set upon
him again, and clubbed him, they thought, again to death.
As they walked way, they heard Juvenal following and preaching
loudly again. After a few
more incidents like this, they began to realize that there was something
going on here . . . A
white pillar marked the spot where St Juvenal's body lay that night and
for several nights to come.
St Jacob Netsvetov, son of a Russian civil servant and a Native woman,
became the first Native Orthodox Priest in Alaska and the translator of
the Scriptures and Service Books into several Native languages.
St Innocent Beniaminov, later Metropolitan of Moscow, took the name of
St Innocent Kulchitsky as that of his missionary Patron.
He rode over the Alaskan tundra in a sled pulled by Samoyed
huskies. (The popular
Siberian breed is named for the Siberian tribe "Samoyed" which
means "to eat oneself" as they will eat weaker members of
their own packs when they are very hungry).
St Innocent, the Enlightener of the Aleuts, drove with a Jewish doctor
friend of his. His friend
could not believe the sacrifices Innocent was making for his faith.
Why did he do it, he asked him?
"For rewards in Heaven," Innocent replied.
Soon after, his friend became an Orthodox Christian himself.
The Alaska mission also extended itself to Japan via St Herman and St
Innocent. When Nicholas
Kassatkin was going to Japan, St Innocent asked him what books he was
taking with him. Nicholas
showed him his Russian, Slavonic, German and French texts.
Innocent took them and threw them out the window, telling him to
apply himself only to learning the Japanese language, which would prove
difficult enough to him. In
fact, it took Nicholas seven years to master Japanese.
Innocent then asked his young friend what he would wear to Japan.
When told he would be wearing the cassock he had on him, Innocent
frowned and told Nicholas he would not be respected.
He then made a silk cassock for him, replete with a beautiful
silver Orthodox pectoral Cross. After long years as a missionary, Nicholas Kassatkin was
glorified as the Patron Saint of Japan and her Orthodox Church.
St Herman was of the Paisian school of Hesychasm and the Prayer of the
Heart. He was an Elder who
blessed those that came to see him with his Cross and Scapular, since he
wasn't a Priest. There is
the story of the miraculous blessing of the waters on Epiphany by an
Angel sent from Heaven, since there was no priest where Herman was.
St Herman's motto was: From
this day, from this moment, let us love God above all else!"
St Herman's efforts were crowned not only by the establishment of a
strong native Orthodox Church in Alaska, but throughout North America
where so many people are now becoming Orthodox.
Others are investigating Orthodoxy closely as a spiritual
alternative to the aridity of cosmopolitan new ageism amid floundering
western church attempts to be "relevant" to contemporary men
and women.
That is the heritage of Kyivan
Christianity and her misionary vision whose principles St Herman applied
in his work throughout his life.St Herman and All Saints of Alaska, pray
unto God for us and for Orthodoxy in North America! |
