Synaxis of All Saints of North America
The saints glorified in North America — from the Alaskan missionaries and native faithful to the confessors, hierarchs, and new martyrs of the New World.
The Synaxis of All Saints of North America gathers those who planted, watered, and confessed the Orthodox faith across the North American continent. It begins with the missionary monks who came from Russia to Alaska in 1794, and grows through two centuries of mission, immigration, and witness — Alaskan wonderworkers and native faithful, apostles to the peoples, hierarchs of the New World, and martyrs of the twentieth century.
The first laborers were the monks of Valaam, among them Saint Herman, who settled on Spruce Island and became the wonderworker of Alaska. Saint Innocent (Veniaminov) evangelized the Aleuts and Tlingit, gave them Scripture in their own tongues, and ended his life as Metropolitan of Moscow; Saint Jacob Netsvetov, of Aleut and Russian blood, carried the Gospel to the Yup'ik. To them are joined the Protomartyr Juvenaly and the boy-martyr Peter the Aleut, and, in later generations, hierarchs and pastors of the growing Church — Saint Tikhon, who reorganized the diocese before returning to Russia and the patriarchal throne, Saint Raphael of Brooklyn, the "good shepherd of the lost sheep in America," and the confessor Alexis Toth, who led tens of thousands back to Orthodoxy.
Kept on the second Sunday after Pentecost, the feast honors the whole company together — Russian and Greek, Serb and Arab, Aleut and Yup'ik and convert — the saints of a Church gathered from every nation on new soil. It is an open synaxis, and as North America's saints are glorified, they are numbered among this assembly, and the roster below grows with them.
Timeline5 momentsReadHide
- 1794The mission to AlaskaMonks of Valaam, among them Saint Herman, arrive at Kodiak to preach to the native peoples.
- 1824Saint Innocent among the AleutsThe future apostle of America begins his labors, translating Scripture and services into native tongues.
- 1870A diocese of the New WorldThe Russian Church establishes a North American diocese; its see later moves from Alaska to San Francisco and then New York.
- 1905Saint Tikhon reorganizes the ChurchArchbishop Tikhon broadens the multi-ethnic diocese before returning to Russia, where he becomes Patriarch and confessor.
- 1970Glorification of Saint HermanHerman of Alaska is glorified — the first saint canonized in North America — as the American Church receives autocephaly.