Herman of Alaska

Herman was one of the monks of Valaam who reached Kodiak in 1794 (Valaam Monastery, History of the Kodiak Mission (1894), p. 66). His superior wrote in 1795 that he had him working in the bakery (Valaam Monastery, History of the Kodiak Mission (1894), p. 68 (letter of Ioasaph, May 1795)), and Herman’s own letter of that year to Abbot Nazarius describes the baptisms on Kodiak and his joy at the zeal of the priest-monks (Valaam Monastery, History of the Kodiak Mission (1894), pp. 70–71 (letter of Herman, May 1795)). By 1818 he lived on Spruce Island, where, according to the Russian official Yanovsky, he grew his own food and Aleuts came to him for advice and with their grievances (Valaam Monastery, History of the Kodiak Mission (1894), pp. 107–110).

The Valaam history says that he died on 13 December 1837, by the Julian calendar, in the eighty-first year of his life (Valaam Monastery, History of the Kodiak Mission (1894), p. 115); the year of his birth is reckoned from that. Archbishop Innocent of Alaska wrote in 1867 that he had once asked Herman’s help in a contrary wind off Spruce Island and had later prayed at his grave (Valaam Monastery, History of the Kodiak Mission (1894), pp. 169–170 (letter of Archbishop Innocent, 1 March 1867)). See Orthodox Monks Reach Alaska.