|
Submitted
July 13, 2004
SAINTS OF NORTH AMERICA
FIRST FRUITS OF GOD'S
GRACE IN THE NEW WORLD
Gregory Orloff
In every time and
place, God has raised up saints -- holy men and
women who heeded His call to "be holy, because I
am holy" (1 Peter 1:16) by following the Lord
Jesus Christ, keeping the Orthodox Christian faith
and living the Gospel within the one, holy,
catholic and apostolic Church.
Dead to the world
now but ever alive in Christ, the saints are our
fellow church members, for the Church is "the city
of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem" that
includes "tens of thousands of angels" (the
bodiless heavenly hosts) and "the spirits of
righteous people made perfect" (the sainted dead
in Christ) as well as us alive on earth (Hebrews
12:22-24). They are role models who inspire us (1
Corinthians 11:1 and Hebrews 12:1-2) and heavenly
intercessors who pray with us and for us
(Revelation 6:9-10 and 8:3-4).
In the lands of
North America, God has revealed the following
saints thus far to the Church:
Saint Alexander
Khotovitskiy (1872-1937), presbyter and martyr:
Born in the Russian Empire, he was a missionary in
New York and the northeastern United States and a
parish presbyter in Finland, Russia and the Soviet
Union, where he died in a concentration camp as a
victim of communist religious persecution. Feast
day: December 4.
Saint Alexis Toth
(1854-1909), presbyter: Born in the
Austro-Hungarian Empire, he converted from
Uniatism (Byzantine Rite Roman Catholicism) in the
United States and became a missionary, converting
thousands of Carpatho-Rusyn and Ukrainian Uniate
immigrants in North America to Orthodox
Christianity. Feast day: May 7.
Saint Herman of
Alaska (1755-1837), monk and wonderworker: Born in
the Russian Empire, he was a missionary in Alaska,
where he lived the rest of his life in asceticism,
cared for the local Aleut people and performed
many miracles in life and death by the grace of
God. He was the first saint of North America.
Feast days: August 9 and December 13.
Saint Innocent of
Alaska (1797-1879), bishop: Born in the Russian
Empire, he was a missionary in Alaska (where he
was its first bishop) and Siberia, introducing
Orthodox Christianity and native language literacy
among their indigenous peoples. He ended his life
as one of the chief bishops of the Church in
Russia. Feast days: March 31 and October 6.
Saint Jacob
Netsvetov (1802-1864), presbyter: Born in Alaska,
he was a missionary, introducing Orthodox
Christianity and native language literacy among
the Eskimos and Indians of the Yukon River region
of North America. He was the first native-born
North American presbyter of the Church. Feast day:
July 26.
Saint John
Kochurov (1871-1917), presbyter and martyr: Born
in the Russian Empire, he was a missionary in
Chicago and the midwestern United States and a
parish presbyter in Estonia and Russia, where he
was the first clergyman killed by communist
revolutionaries during the fall of the Russian
monarchy. Feast day: October 31.
Saint John of San
Francisco (1896-1966), bishop and wonderworker:
Born in the Russian Empire and educated in Serbia,
he was a bishop in Asia, Europe and North America
and a missionary to Russian refugees and heterodox
Christian converts, performing many miracles in
life and death by the grace of God. Feast day:
July 2.
Saint Juvenal of
Alaska (1761-1796), presbyter-monk and martyr:
Born in the Russian Empire, he was a missionary in
Alaska, where he was killed as North America's
first martyr by indigenous pagans trying to put a
stop to the spread of Orthodox Christianity among
their people. Feast day: September 24.
Saint Nicholas of
South Canaan (1880-1956), bishop and confessor:
Born in Serbia, he was a gifted preacher and
writer, a bishop in Serbia, a victim of religious
persecution in a Nazi concentration camp during
Germany's invasion of Yugoslavia, and the head of
a Pennsylvania seminary in the United States.
Feast day: March 18.
Saint Peter the
Aleut (?-1815), layman and martyr: Born in Alaska,
he was tortured and killed in his youth by Spanish
colonists for refusing to convert to Roman
Catholicism while his trading party was held
hostage in San Francisco, California. He was the
first native-born North American saint of the
Church. Feast day: September 24.
Saint Raphael of
Brooklyn (1860-1915), bishop: Born in the Ottoman
Empire, he was the first bishop of the Church ever
consecrated in North America, where he was a
missionary to Arab immigrants from Lebanon and
Syria, defending them from Protestant proselytism
and organizing their church life. Feast day:
February 27.
Saint Tikhon the
New Confessor (1865-1925), bishop and confessor:
Born in the Russian Empire, he was North America's
first archbishop, where he fostered multiethnic
Orthodox Christian unity and English language
missionary outreach, and a bishop in Russia and
the Soviet Union, where he died as patriarch of
the Church there and a victim of communist
religious persecution. Feast days: April 7 and
October 9.
The Church in
North America also honors the holy memory of all
her saints, known and unknown, collectively on the
second Sunday after Pentecost: All Saints of North
America Sunday. These saints are the precious
heritage of all Orthodox Christians on this
continent, worthy of our veneration and imitation
because they are God's handiwork in our land. Let
us draw inspiration from their example and ask
them for their intercessions before God in prayer,
for the well being of the Church in North America,
the spread of Orthodox Christianity among our
neighbors and our own spiritual growth in Christ.
God is wondrous
in His saints!
All you saints of North America, pray to God for
us!
|
