Wonderworker of All America
Today we commemorate the Glorification of Venerable Herman of Alaska, Wonderworker of All America.
A spiritual mission was organized in 1793, made up of monks of the Valaam Monastery. They were sent to preach the Word of God to the native inhabitants of northwestern America. A school for the education of newly-baptized children was organized, and a church was built at the place where the missionaries lived on Kodiak Island. But after several years of very productive labor, 9 of the 10 had died of various causes, with only Saint Herman remaining to carry on God’s work in the Aleutians.
In America, Father Herman chose as his place of habitation Spruce Island, which he called New Valaam. This island is separated by a strait about a mile and a quarter wide from Kodiak Island. For more than forty years Father Herman lived here. Father Herman himself spaded the garden, planted potatoes and cabbage and various vegetables in it. For winter, he preserved mushrooms, salting or drying them. The salt was obtained by him from ocean water. It is said that a wicker basket in which the Elder carried seaweed from the shore, was so large that it was difficult for one person to carry. The seaweed was used for fertilizing the soil. Thus worked the Elder, and everything that he acquired as a result of his immeasurable labors was used for the feeding and clothing of orphans and also for books for his students.