HERMAN OF ALASKA

HERMAN OF ALASKA, monk, St. (?–1837). The first Orthodox saint (q.v.) canonized in the United States (1970), he lived on Spruce Island, Alaska (q.v.), off Kodiak until 1837. He originally came from Valaam (Lake Ladoga) Monastery to Alaska in 1794. His secular name and parents are unknown. Father Herman came with a group of about a dozen monk-missionaries, half of whom perished within five years. By 1823 Herman was the sole survivor of the original mission who was still in Alaska.

In the history of North American horticulture, Herman is listed as the discoverer of a method of fertilization based on the harvest of “sea cabbages”-a type of marine plant-which is dried or composted and used to enrich Alaskan soil. He probably brought this practice, unknown in the New World, from Lake Ladoga Monastery where it had been in use. Since the history of Russians in Alaska is largely also a history of food production, it was important that Herman was known for growing turnips, potatoes, and garden vegetables-when others had failed. In 1825 he grew 150 to 180 beds of potatoes, but all the gardening enterprise ceased after his death.

In any case Herman is better known for other achievements:

1) The early success of the missionary party-thousands of baptisms, etc. were performed-may be attributed to their “missionary education” in traveling across Europe and Asia to Alaska for almost a year. Stopping in monasteries established by the Russian Church all along the way, Herman and the others were recipients of an education in missionizing indigenous “shamanistic” populations by successful historical example. (See Komi.) These way stations were first established as missions to the native peoples of their lands.

2) In Kodiak the monks laid the foundation of the Holy Resurrection Church and established a school in which they taught catechism, history, mathematics, language, agriculture, and domestic science to the indigenous population. In spite of this new learning, the native cultures were not suppressed, and there existed an official directive to prevent interference in their societies.

3) Herman and the others in the missionary party were in serious conflict with the Golikov-Shelikov Company (i.e., the Russian-American Company, founded in 1799) over the treatment of natives, especially under Governor Alexander Baranov. Eventually the missionaries were put under house arrest for trying to extend rights of Russian citizenship to the natives. At this point, 1808–1818, Herman probably went into seclusion at Spruce Island.

4) From these events and his later seclusion he was known for the sanctity of his life, many aspects of which can be compared to the Desert Fathers (q.v.). It is said that Herman had had the same spiritual father at Valaam as Seraphim of Sarov (q.v.), the Elder Nazary, and was affectionately called “Apa” (grandfather or elder) by the natives.