Peter the Aleut

Description

The holy martyr Peter the Aleut (or Cungagnaq in his native tongue) was probably a native of Kodiak Island (Alaska). He is said to have received the Christian name of Peter when he was baptized into the Orthodox faith by the monks of St. Herman’s—missionaries operating in the north. His feast day is commemorated in the Orthodox Church on September 24 or December 12. In 1815 a group of Aleut seal and otter hunters, including Peter, were captured by Spanish sailors, who took them to San Francisco for interrogation. With threats of torture, the Roman Catholic priests in California attempted to force the Aleuts to deny their Orthodox faith and to convert to Roman Catholicism.

Cungagnaq (Russian: Чукагнак, romanized: Chukagnak; date of birth unknown – d. 1815) is venerated as a martyr and saint (as Peter the Aleut; Russian: Пётр Алеу́т, romanized: Pyotr Aleút) by the Eastern Orthodox Church. He was a native of Kodiak Island (Alutiiq or Sugpiaq), and received the Christian name of Peter when he was baptized into the Orthodox faith by the monks of St Herman’s missionaries operating in the north. He was captured by Spanish soldiers near San Pedro and tortured and killed at the instigation of Roman Catholic priests either there or at a nearby location. At the time identified for his death, California was Spanish territory, and Spain was worried about Russian advances southwards from Alaska. Hubert Howe Bancroft, in his multi-volume History of California, only notes that, in connection with an incident wherein a Russian fur-hunting expedition was taken into custody after declining to leave San Pedro; one Russian source accused “the Spaniards of cruelty to the captives, stating that according to Kuskof’s report one Aleut who refused to become a Catholic died from ill-treatment received from the padre at San Francisco.