Watch here how Christians celebrate St. Herman of Alaska on Spruce Island (Kodiak, AK). The island was home to the hermitage of Herman of Alaska during the early 1800’s, where he lived a life marked by great ascetic labor that gave birth to a deep love for all with whom he came in contact.
Orthodox Christianity is you could say it is part of the blood here in Alaska. It’s been here for a couple hundred years, but many people, Native people have embraced it and so it runs deep here on Kodiak Island.
The Orthodox community is very welcoming and very open, especially here in Alaska…
We come here as pilgrims to receive the grace of one who was himself a pilgrim… A pilgrimage is also an inward journey. St. Herman was pilgrim who traveled from Russia to the New World.
When he traveled there before there were any holy sites to visit in that New World that is, he was traveling as part of his inner pilgrimage…