Herman of Alaska

Description

Saint Herman of Alaska (Russian: Преподобный Герман Аляскинский, c. 1750s – November 15, 1836) was a Russian Orthodox monk and missionary to Alaska, which was then part of Russian America. His gentle approach and ascetic life earned him the love and respect of both the native Alaskans and the Russian colonists. He is considered by many Orthodox Christians as the patron saint of North America.
Biographers disagree about Herman’s early life. His official biography, which Valaam Monastery published in 1867, stated that his pre-monastic name was unknown, but Herman was born into a merchant’s family in Serpukhov, a city in Moscow Governorate, and later became a novice at the Trinity-St. Sergius Hermitage near St. Petersburg before going to Valaam to become a full monk. However, modern biographer Sergei Korsun found this based on erroneous information provided by Simeon Yanovsky, a former administrator of the Russian-American Company (RAC) in Alaska, who confused Herman’s biographical information with another monk, Joseph (Telepnev).
Another former RAC administrator, Ferdinand von Wrangel, stated Herman was originally from a prosperous peasant family in the Voronezh Governorate and served in the military, but then became a monk at Sarov Monastery. This concurred with testimony of Archimandrite Theophan (Sokolov), and a letter written by Herman himself, which all agree that Herman actually began his monastic life at Sarov as a novice, and later received the full tonsure at Valaam.A young military clerk named Egor Ivanovich Popov from the Voronezh Governorate, was in fact tonsured with the name Herman at Valaam in 1782.