Indication of the Way into the Kingdom of Heaven
A short instruction in the Christian life written in Aleut by the priest John Veniaminov, later Bishop Innocent, for the people of his parish. It presents the Christian way as following Christ by self-denial and the cross.
Read the text at azbyka.ru ↗English adaptation by Bishop Alexander (Mileant) ↗
The work has an introduction, four parts and a conclusion: what Christ has given, how he lived and suffered, what the way into the kingdom is, and how Christ helps those who walk it. It is plain catechesis, built on the Gospel saying about denying oneself, taking up the cross and following Christ. The act of the Russian church that declared its author a saint says that he wrote it in the Aleut language while he was priest on Unalaska and that the Holy Synod allowed it to be printed in Aleut in 1840; the year 1833 usually given for it is not stated in the text read here.
It is cited in Orthodox Monks Reach Alaska as an example of what the mission taught, in the missionary’s own words.
Cited in
- 24 September 1794, firm date