St Herman of Alaska monks,confessions and temptations in Orthodox Church,Platina,CA

Glen Gardner's St. Gregory Palamas Orthodox Church has new Prist

GLEN GARDNER — St. Gregory Palamas Orthodox Church in Glen Gardner has a new priest. He is Hieromonk Kilian Sprecher.
In May, Father Kilian graduated with a master’s degree in divinity from St. Vladimir’s Seminary and is completing a master’s thesis in Orthodox Christian canon law. Metropolitan Jonah, the head of the Orthodox Church in America, ordained Father Kilian to the priesthood in June. He has been a monk for six years and in November will be commissioned as a reserve chaplain for the Navy.

Since his arrival, Father Kilian has worked tirelessly and actively participated in church functions and events. As the spiritual leader of St. Gregory’s, he strives to help the parish to better understand Christ’s teachings and to implement them through prayer, alms-giving and becoming better stewards of our planet.

All visitors are welcome at the church, which is at 5 Church St. Great Vespers are served every Saturday at 5 p.m., with a general confession on the first Saturday of each month. Liturgy is served at 10 a.m. every Sunday. For more information, or to contact Hieromonk Kilian, please go to stgregoca.org.

The Orthodox Church in America

Saint Herman of Alaska

Our venerable father Herman of Alaska (1756 - December 13, 1837) was an 18th century missionary to Alaska. In 1970, became the first saint to be glorified by the Orthodox Church in America, concurrent with parallel services in another location by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia. St. Herman is remembered by the Church on August 9 and December 13

Life

Herman of Alaska was a Russian Orthodox monk from Valaam Monastery in Russia who traveled with eight other monks in 1793 to bring the Gospel to the native Aleuts and Eskimos in the Aleutian Islands. As part of the Russian colonization of the Americas, Russians had been exploring and trading there since at least 1740. Thus, he marks the first arrival of Orthodox Christian missionaries in North America. He built a school for the Aleutians, and he often defended them from the injustices and exploitation of the Russian traders. He was known to them as Apa which means "Grandfather." He lived most of his life as the sole resident of Spruce Island, a tiny wooded island near Kodiak Island.
St. Herman's Orthodox Theological Seminary (Kodiak, Alaska) is named in his honor. A portion of his relics are enshrined at the St. Ignatius Chapel at the Antiochian Village, where he is regarded as one of their patron saints.

Hymns

Troparion (Tone 7)

Joyful North Star of the Church of Christ,

Guiding all people to the Heavenly Kingdom;

Teacher and apostle of the True Faith;

Intercessor and defender of the oppressed;

Adornment of the Orthodox Church in America:

Blessed Father Herman of Alaska,

Pray to our Lord Jesus Christ

For the salvation of our souls!

Troparion (Tone 4)

O blessed Father Herman of Alaska,

North star of Christ's holy Church,

The light of your holy life and great deeds

Guides those who follow the Orthodox way.

Together we lift high the Holy Cross

You planted firmly in America.

Let all behold and glorify Jesus Christ,

Singing his holy Resurrection.

Kontakion (Tone 3)

The eternal light of Christ our Savior

guided you, blessed Father Herman,

on your evangelical journey to America

to proclaim the Gospel of peace.

Now you stand before the throne of glory;

intercede for your land and its people:

Peace for the world and salvation for our souls!

SS. Sergius/Herman of Valaam Church

Spruce Island, Alaska

Founded 1805
Status:
Grave of Saint Herman of Alaska

Diocese: Diocese of Alaska
Deanery: Kodiak Deanery
Mailing address:
c/o PO Box 210569
Anchorage, AK 99521

Innocent of Alaska

 

Saint Innocent of Alaska
Contemporary portrait of Bishop Innocent
Enlightener of Alaska and Siberia
Born	August 26, 1797 Anginskoye, Irkutsk Oblast
Died	March 31, 1879 Moscow
Honored in	Eastern Orthodoxy Episcopal Church (USA)
Canonized	October 6, 1977, Moscow by Patriarch Pimen I, Russian Orthodox Church
Major shrine	Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra
Feast	March 31/April 13 (repose) October 6/19 (Glorification) March 30 (Episcopal USA)
Attributes	Vested as a bishop, with a moderately-long black beard, holding a Gospel Book or scroll

Saint Innocent of Alaska (August 26, 1797 - March 31, 1879), also known as Saint Innocent of Moscow (Russian Митрополит Инноке́нтий) was a Russian Orthodox priest, bishop, archbishop and Metropolitan of Moscow and all Russia. He is known for his missionary work, scholarship and leadership in Alaska and the Russian Far East during the 19th century. He is known for his great zeal for his work as well as his abilities as a scholar, linguist, and administrator. He was a missionary and later a bishop and archbishop in Alaska and the Russian Far East. He learned several native languages and was the author of many of the earliest scholarly works about the native peoples and their languages, as well as dictionaries and religious works in their languages. He also translated parts of the Bible into several native languages.

 Biography

Saint Innocent was born Ivan Evseyevich Popov (Иван Евсѣевич Попов) on August 26, 1797 into the family of a church server in the village of Anginskoye, Verkholensk District, Irkutsk Province, in Russia. His father, Evsey Popov, died when Ivan was six.
In 1807 Ivan entered the Irkutsk Theological Seminary, where the rector renamed him Veniaminov in honor of the recently deceased Bishop Veniamin of Irkutsk. In 1817 he married a local priest's daughter named Catherine, and on May 18, 1817 he was ordained a deacon of the Church of the Annunciation in Irkutsk. After he completed his studies in 1818, he was appointed a teacher in a parish school; and on May 18, 1821 he was ordained a priest to serve in the Church of the Annunciation. In Russian he was known as Father Ioann, the religious version of Ivan.
At the beginning of 1823, Bishop Michael of Irkutsk received instructions to send a priest to the island of Unalaska in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska. Father Ioann Veniaminov volunteered to go and on May 7, 1823 he departed from Irkutsk, accompanied by his aging mother, his wife, his infant son Innocent, and his brother Stefan. After a difficult one-year journey, they arrived at Unalaska on July 29, 1824.
After Fr. Ioann and his family built and moved into an earthen hut, he undertook the construction of a church on the island and set about studying the local languages and dialects. He trained some of his parishioners in construction techniques and with them undertook the construction of a church, which was finished the following July.
Father Ioann's parish included the island of Unalaska and the neighboring Fox Islands and Pribilof Islands, whose inhabitants had been converted to Christianity before his arrival, but retained many of their own religious beliefs and customs. Father Ioann often traveled between the islands in a canoe, battling the stormy ocean of the Gulf of Alaska.

St. Innocent as Metropolitan of Moscow.

His travels over the islands greatly enhanced Father Ioann Veniaminov's familiarity with the local dialects. In a short time he mastered six of the dialects. He devised an alphabet of Cyrillic letters for the most widespread dialect, the Unagan dialect of Aleut and, in 1828, translated portions of the Bible and other church material into that dialect. In 1829 he journeyed to the Bering Sea coast of the Alaskan mainland and preached to the people there.
In 1834, Father Ioann was transferred to Sitka Island, to the town of Novoarkhangelsk, later called Sitka. He devoted himself to the Tlingit people and studied their language and customs. His studies there produced the scholarly works Notes on the Kolushchan and Kodiak Tongues and Other Dialects of the Russo-American Territories, with a Russian-Kolushchan Glossary.
In 1838, Father Ioann journeyed to St. Petersburg, Moscow and Kiev to report on his activities and request an expansion of the Church's activities in Russian America. While he was there, he received notice that his wife had died. He requested permission to return to Sitka. Instead, it was suggested that he take vows as a monk. Father Ioann at first ignored these suggestions, but, on November 29, 1840 he was tonsured a monk. He chose the name Innocent in honor of Saint Innocent, the first bishop of Irkutsk (†1731, commemorated on November 26), and was elevated to the rank of Archimandrite.
On December 15, 1840, Archimandrite Innocent was consecrated Bishop of Kamchatka and Kuril Islands in Russia and the Aleutian Islands in Russian America. His see was located in Novoarkhangelsk, to which he returned in September 1841. He spent the next nine years in the administration of his diocese as well as on several long missionary journeys to its remote areas. On April 21, 1850, Bishop Innocent was elevated to Archbishop. In 1852 the Yakut area was admitted to the Kamchatka Diocese, and in September 1853 Archbishop Innocent took up permanent residence in the town of Yakutsk. Innocent took frequent trips throughout his enlarged diocese. He devoted much energy to the translation of the scriptures and service books into the Yakut (Sakha) language.
In April 1865 Archbishop Innocent was appointed a member of the Holy Governing Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church.
On November 19, 1867, he was appointed the Metropolitan of Moscow, replacing his friend and mentor, Saint Filaret, who had died. As metropolitan, he undertook revisions of many church texts that contained errors, raised funds to improve the living conditions of impoverished priests and established a retirement home for clergy.
Innocent died on March 31, 1879. He was buried on April 5, 1879 at Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra, outside of Moscow.

 Sainthood

On October 6, 1977, the Russian Orthodox Church, acting on the official request of the Orthodox Church in America, made Innocent a saint. His feast day is celebrated twice a year — on October 6 (for those churches which follow the Julian Calendar, this date falls on October 19 of the Gregorian Calendar) in commemoration of his glorification (canonization) as a saint, and March 31 (April 13), in commemoration of his repose. He is widely venerated as Equal-to-apostles^{[citation needed]}.
Innocent is honored with a feast day on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church (USA) on March 30.

Orthodox Church titles
Preceded by Joasaph (Bolotov)	Primate of the Orthodox Church in America 1840–68	Succeeded by Peter (Ekaterinovsky)

 Bibliography

• Paul Garrett, Saint Innocent, Apostle to America, Saint Vladimir's Seminary Press; Crestwood New York, 1979
• Oleg Kobtzeff, "Ruling Siberia: the imperial power, the Orthodox Church and the Native people", Siberica, British Siberian Studies Seminar, Cambridge, vol. II, 1984, pp. 6–15.

O Ιννοκέντιος της Αλάσκας, (κατά κόσμον Ιβάν Ευσέγιεβιτς Ποπώφ – Βενιαμίνωφ) ισαπόστολος (26 Αυγούστου 1797- 31 Μαρτίου 1879), ήταν Ρώσος ιερέας, επίσκοπος, αρχιεπίσκοπος και μητροπολίτης της Μόσχας και Πασών των Ρωσιών. Είναι γνωστός για το ιεραποστολικό του έργο στην Αλάσκα και τη ρωσική Άπω Ανατολή κατά το 1800, καθώς επίσης καθώς και για τον μεγάλο ζήλο που επέδειξε στο έργο του. Ως λόγιος επέδειξε σημαντικές ικανότητες κατανόησης των γηγενών γλωσσών και των τοπικών ιδιωμάτων στις περιοχές που επισκέφθηκε. Έγινε επίσκοπος και αρχιεπίσκοπος της Αλάσκας και της ρωσικής Άπω Ανατολής. Στη διάρκεια του βίου του έμαθε αρκετές από τις γηγενείς γλώσσες και ιδιώματα και υπήρξε συγγραφέας πολλών πρώιμων δοκιμίων για τους γηγενείς και τις γλώσσες τους, όπως επίσης και πολλών λεξικών και θρησκευτικών έργων σε αυτές τις γλώσσες. Μετέφρασε επίσης τμήματα της Βίβλου σε αρκετές γηγενείς γλώσσες. Εκοιμήθη στις 31 Μαρτίου 1879 και ετάφη στην Λαύρα της Τρόιτσε-Σεργκίγεβα.
Στις 6 Οκτωβρίου 1977 η Ρωσική Εκκλησία ενεργώντας εκ μέρους της Ορθόδοξης Εκκλησίας της Αμερικής ανακήρυξε τον Ιννοκέντιο άγιο. Η μνήμη του εορτάζεται δύο φορές τον χρόνο στις 6 Οκτωβρίου και στις 31 Μαρτίου. Το 1994, κατά τη διάρκεια ανασκαφών κοντά στον Ναό του Αγίου Πνεύματος στην Μονή Τρόιτσε-Σεργκίγιεβα ανακαλύφθηκαν τα λείψανα του αγίου Ιννοκέντιου, τα οποία τιμήθηκαν τόσο από πιστούς της Αμερικής όσο και από πιστούς της Ρωσίας.

Orthodox Christians in North America (1794 - 1994)

Written by Mark Stokoe and the Very Rev. Leonid Kishkovsky.

In a nation whose religious culture has accomodated Catholics, Protestants, and Jews, Orthodox Christian in North America have been largely overlooked and ignored. With few exceptions, their historical experiences remain unrecorded, their documents untranslated, their personalities, institutions, and activities unknown. Contemporary American Orthodoxy is the result of the Russian missionaries to Alaska, but also of the migration of peoples from Central and Eastern Europe and the Middle East. As a result, it often presents an "ethnic" face to American society. Building on an earlier pioneering historical work, Orthodox America (compiled for the 1976 American Bicentennial), the present work seeks to provide the reader, both Orthodox and non-Orthodox alike, with a popular narrative account of two hundred years of Orthodox Christianity on this continent. From its humble beginnings in 1794, when a small group of missionaries landed on Kodiak Island, Alaska, Orthodoxy in America has expanded to comprise a church of over two million faithful. Yet numerous Americans from all cultural and religious backgrounds have, particularly in recent decades, joined Orthodoxy as well. Orthodoxy does have something to say to American society. Thus, the story is told on these webpages. About the Authors... Mark Stokoe is formerly the Secretary-General of SYNDESMOS and the former Youth Director of the Orthodox Church in America. He is currently a freelance writer and member of St. Paul's Church (OCA) in Dayton, OH. The Very Rev. Leonid Kishkovsky is an Orthodox priest and is the Assistant to the Chancellor for External Affairs and Interchurch Relations of the Orthodox Church in America.

Introduction The Alaskan Mission (1794-1870) The Beginnings of the Alaskan Mission Gregory Shelikov The Alaskan Mission St. Herman of Alaska St. Innocent Fr. Jacob Netsvetov The Meaning of the Alaskan Mission Immigration and Conversion (1870-1920) From Mission to Missionary Diocese Early Orthodox Immigration to the United States The "New Immigration" The Uniates The "New Immigrant" Experience The Uniate Dilemma Alexis Toth and the Uniate Return to Orthodoxy From "Greek Catholic" to "Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic" The Greeks The Greek Immigrant Experience The Missionary Diocese and the Greeks Conclusion Institutions of the Immigrant Church From Missionary Diocese to Multi-Ethnic American Diocese The Vision of Archbishop Tikhon Institutional Growth Social Services Publications Finances From Immigrant Church to North American Diocese Other Orthodox Immigrations The Arabs The Serbs The Albanians The Romanians Other Slavic Immigrations Orthodox Immigration to Canada The Collapse of the Immigrant Church The Russian Revolution and the Orthodox Church Tensions within the Missionary Archdiocese The Collapse of Orthodox Unity in America The Establishment of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese The Collapse of the American Diocese Further Divisions in the Russian-American Community The Jurisdictional Solution The Effects of Jurisdictionalism The Ethnic Churches Cultural Hibernation Self-Sufficiency Ethnarchy Archbishop Athenagoras (Spiros) Archbishop Anthony (Bashir) Bishop Polycarp (Morusca) and Archbishop Valerian (Trifa) Metropolitan Leonty (Turkevich) The Enduring Ethnic Churches Challenges to the Ethnic Churches Sociological Transformations (1940-1970) "Hyphenated Americans" The Third Generation Debates over Language Theological Renewal Canonical Questions The Metropolia The Emerging American Mission The Autocephaly Debate The American Mission Unity Spiritual Renewal Monasticism Evangelization Social Witness The Emerging American Mission Reflections on American Orthodoxy - Leonid Kishkovsky