A brief history of Russian America & the Russian Orthodox Church

3. 15 January 2015 ©HISTORICPHILIPPINES.COM 2015 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 3 The Flags The flag of the United States of America with only 37 stars representing the states of the union before Alaska joined the union. The flag of the Russian American Company from 1799 to 1867 as approved by the Czar of all the Russias, in 1806, Alexander I. The State Flag of Alaska starting in 1867.

4. 15 January 2015 ©HISTORICPHILIPPINES.COM 2015 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 4 Peter 1 The Great 2 Nov 1721 to 8 Feb 1725 Catherine I 8 Feb 1725 to 17 May 1727 Peter II 18 May 1727 to 30 Jan 1730 Anna 13 Feb 1730 to 28 Oct 1740 Ivan VI 28 Oct 1740 to 6 Dec 1741 Disputed Murdered 16 Jul 1764 Elizabeth 6 Dec 1741 to 5 Jan 1762

5. 15 January 2015 ©HISTORICPHILIPPINES.COM 2015 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 5 Peter III 9 Jan 1762 to 9 Jul1762 Murdered Catherine III The Great 9 Jul 1762 to 17 Nov 1796 Paul I 17 Nov 1796 to 23 Mar 1801 Assassinated Constantine I 1 Dec 1825 to 26 Dec 1825 Disputed Alexander I 23 Mar 1801 to 1 Dec 1825 Nicholas I 1 Dec 1825 to 2 Mar 1855 Alexander II The Liberator 2 Mar 1855 to 13 Mar 1881 Assassinated Alexander III The Peacemaker 13 Mar 1881 to Nov 1894 The Czars and the Czarinas who ruled the Russias from the 1760s to the 1890s.

8. 15 January 2015 ©HISTORICPHILIPPINES.COM 2015 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 8 Russia laid claim to Alaska in 1741, following Vitus Bering’s pioneer voyage across the Pacific from Siberia. Hundreds of Russian fur-seekers followed. The first Orthodox house of worship in America was a chapel built by laymen on Umnak Island in the Aleutians in the 1760’s. The Orthodox mission established a formal presence in North America, at Kodiak, in 1794 with the arrival of ten monks including North America’s first Orthodox Saint, the humble monk Herman. Another great cleric, Bishop (also Saint) Innocent (Veniaminov) designed and built the first Russian Orthodox cathedral in North America, St. Michael’s in Sitka, between 1844 and 1848.

12. 15 January 2015 ©HISTORICPHILIPPINES.COM 2015 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 12 The island of Unalaska was first inhabited by the Aleut people, who named it "Ounalashka", meaning: "Near the Peninsula". They developed an intricate and complex society long before their first contact with the Russian fur traders who would document their existence. Unalaska and Amaknak Islands contained 24 settlements with more than 1,000 Aleut inhabitants in 1759, when the first Russian group under Stepan Glotov came and started trading for three years on Umnak and Unalaska. Between 1763 and 1766, a conflict between the Russian fur traders and the Unalaska Natives occurred; the Aleuts destroyed four Russian ships and killed 175 hunters/traders The Port of Unalaska as seen by Louis Choris in late summer 1816.

16. 15 January 2015 ©HISTORICPHILIPPINES.COM 2015 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 16 Grigory Ivanovich Shelikhov (1747-1795) was a Russian seafarer and merchant born in Rylsk. Shelikhov organized commercial trips of the merchant ships to the Kuril Islands and the Aleutian Islands starting from 1775. In 1783–1786, he led an expedition to the shores of Russian America, during which they founded the first permanent Russian settlements in North America. Shelikhov's voyage was done under the auspices of the Shelikhov-Golikov Company, the other owner of which was Ivan Larionovich Golikov. The company would later form the basis on which the Russian-American Company was founded 1799. In 1784, Shelikhov arrived in Three Saints Bay on Kodiak Island with two ships, the Three Hierarchs, Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom and the St. Simon. The Awa'uq Massacre or Refuge Rock Massacre, was an attack and massacre by Russian fur trader Shelikhov and 130 Russian armed men & cannoneers of the Shelikhov-Golikov Company against the Qik’rtarmiut Sugpiat tribe of Koniag Alutiiq (Sugpiaq) people of the Kodiak Island in 1784 in Russian-controlled Alaska.

17. 15 January 2015 ©HISTORICPHILIPPINES.COM 2015 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 17 This happened in April. When our people revisited the place in the summer the stench of the corpses lying on the shore polluted the air so badly that none could stay there and since then the island has been uninhabited. After this, every chief had to surrender his children as hostages. I was saved by the fact that my father begged to be exempted and paid with many more sea otter pelts than demanded. It occurred on the secluded stack island Refuge Rock (Awa'uq in Alutiiq language) of Partition Cove on Sitkalidak Island, near and across Old Harbor, in the Kodiak Archipelago. The Russians slaughtered 500 men, women and children on Refuge Rock, although some sources state the number to be 2000 or worse between 2,500–3,000. Following the attack of Awa'uq, Shelikhov claims to have captured over 1000 people and detaining 400 as hostages. There were no Russian casualties. The massacre was an “isolated incident” and the Alutiiq were completely subjugated by Russian traders thereafter. 1784 to 1818 were called the "darkest period of Sugpiaq history," and it ended with a change in the management of the Russian-American Company.

18. 15 January 2015 ©HISTORICPHILIPPINES.COM 2015 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 18 Over a half century later, an old Sugpiaq (Koniag Alutiiq) man, Arsenti Aminak, reported his own recollections of the same events to a Finnish naturalist and ethnographer Heinrich Johann Holmberg (1818–1864) who was collecting data for the Russian governor of Alaska. This is the memory of Russian conquest at Awa’uq that Aminak had survived as a young boy. He stated: “The Russians went to the settlement and carried out a terrible blood bath. Only a few were able to flee to Angyahtalek in baidarkas; 300 Koniags were shot by the Russians. Having established his authority on Kodiak Island, Shelikhov founded the first permanent Russian settlement in Alaska on the island's Three Saints Bay Kodiak Island was explored in 1763 by Russian fur trader Stephan Glotov. The first outsiders to settle on the island were Russian explorers under Grigory Shelekhov, a fur trader, who founded a Russian settlement on Kodiak Island at Three Saints Bay near the present-day village of Old Harbor in 1784. The settlement was moved to the site of present-day Kodiak in 1792 and became the center of Russian fur trading. (Unalaska had existed long before, but it was never considered the permanent base for Russians until Shelikhov’s time). In 1790, Shelikhov, back in Russia, hired Alexandr Baranov to manage his fur enterprise in Russian America. The settlement of Grigory Shelikhov in Kodiak Island. A gulf in the Sea of Okhotsk, a strait between Alaska and Kodiak Island, and a town in Irkutsk Oblast in Russia bear Shelikhov's name. Shelikhov actually travelled via Shelikhov Bay in the Sea of Okhotsk in December 1786-January 1787, after he had been left behind at Bol’shereck in Kamchatka as the winds tore the Three Hierarcs from her anchors and carried her out to sea.

19. 15 January 2015 ©HISTORICPHILIPPINES.COM 2015 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 19 The Russian colony in Alaska was established in 1784 by merchant Grigory Shelikhov. Shelikhov's colonisation attempt at Kodiak Island was met with resistance by the native population. He returned to Russia and installed Alexandr Baranov as director of the colony. In order to convince the Russian imperial court of the seriousness of his colonial ambitions, Shelikhov recruited volunteers from the Valaam, an environment that appears strikingly similar to the Kodiak archipelago's landscape, and Konevitsa monasteries to travel to the new colony. The volunteers, led by Archimandrite Joasaph (Bolotov), departed Saint Petersburg on December 21, 1793, and arrived at Kodiak Island on September 24, 1794. When they arrived they were shocked by the harsh treatment of the Kodiak natives at the hands of the Russian settlers and Baranov. They sent reports to Shelikhov detailing the abuse of the local population, but were ignored. In response, however, the Holy Synod created an auxiliary episcopal see in Alaska in 1796, and elected Fr. Joasaph as bishop. Fr. Joasaph and a small party returned to Russia in 1798 for his consecration, and to offer first- hand accounts of what they had seen. During their return voyage to the colony in May 1799, their ship sank and all aboard died. In 1800, Baranov placed the remaining monks under house arrest, and forbade them to have any further contact with the local population. Russian outpost at Three Saints Harbor, 1790 Alexander Baranov of the Russian-American Company & the first governor of Russian Alaska.

20. 15 January 2015 ©HISTORICPHILIPPINES.COM 2015 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 20 Despite the lack of leadership, the Orthodox mission in Alaska continued to grow. In 1811, however, the Holy Synod officially closed the episcopal see. It was not until 1823 that the Holy Synod sent instructions for a new priest to travel to Alaska. Father John Veniaminov of Irkutsk volunteered for the journey, and left Russia in May 1823. He and his family arrived at Unalaska Island on July 29, 1824. In 1840, after the death of his wife, Fr. John accepted monastic tonsure taking the name Innocent and ordination as the Bishop of Kamchatka, the Kurile and Aleutian Islands, making him the first ruling bishop of the Alaskan mission since Bishop Joasaph. Bishop Innocent was elevated to archbishop in 1850. For his missionary and scholarly work that had focused on blending indigenous Alaskan languages and cultures with Orthodox tradition, Innocent became a saint of the Orthodox Church in America in 1977, and is referred to as the Enlightener of the Aleuts and Apostle to the Americas. Fr John Veniaminov Fr John Veniaminov, his wife & children arrive in Alaska, painting by: Nikolai Solomin St Innocent of Alaska =

22. 15 January 2015 ©HISTORICPHILIPPINES.COM 2015 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 22 The Shelikhov-Golikov Company appealed to the Most Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church to provide a priest for the natives. Catherine the Great decided instead to send an entire mission to America. She entrusted the task of recruiting missionaries to Metropolitan Gabriel of St. Petersburg, who sent ten monks from Valaam, including Herman. The missionaries arrived on Kodiak on September 24, 1794. Herman and the other missionaries encountered a harsh reality at Kodiak that did not correspond to Shelikhov’s rosy descriptions. The native Kodiak population, called “Americans” by the Russian settlers, were subject to harsh treatment by the Russian-American Company, which was being overseen by Shelikhov’s manager Alexander Baranov who later became the first governor of the colony. The men were forced to hunt for sea otter even during harsh weather, and women and children were abused. The monks were also shocked at the widespread alcoholism in the Russian population, and the fact that most of the settlers had taken native mistresses. The monks themselves were not given the supplies that Shelikhov promised them, and had to till the ground with wooden implements. Despite these difficulties, the monks managed to baptize over 7,000 natives in the Kodiak region, and set about building a church and monastery. Herman was assigned in the bakery and acted as the mission’s steward (ekonom). St Herman of Alaska St Herman’s Crucifix & Chains

23. 15 January 2015 ©HISTORICPHILIPPINES.COM 2015 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 23 The monks became the defenders of the native Kodiak population. Herman was especially noted for his zeal in protecting them from the excessive demands of the RAC, and Baranov disparaged him in a letter as a “hack writer and chatterer.” A contemporary historian compares him to Bartolomé de las Casas, the Roman Catholic friar who defended the rights of native South Americans against the Spanish. After over a decade spent in Alaska, Herman became the head of the mission in 1807. Although he was not ordained to the priesthood, the local population loved and respected him, and he even had good relations with Baranov. Herman ran the mission school, where he taught church subjects such as singing and catechism alongside reading and writing. He also taught agriculture on Spruce Island. However, because he longed for the life of a hermit he soon retired from active duty in the mission and moved to Spruce Island. The Russian Orthodox church founded its first mission in Alaska in 1794 Church in Kodiak

24. 15 January 2015 ©HISTORICPHILIPPINES.COM 2015 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 24 Herman moved to Spruce Island around 1811 to 1817. The island is separated from Kodiak by a mile- wide strait, making it ideal for hermit life. Herman named his hermitage “New Valaam.” He wore simple clothes and slept on a bench covered with a deerskin. When asked how he could bear to be alone in the forest, he replied, “I am not alone. God is here, as God is everywhere”. Despite his solitary life, he soon gained a following. He received many visitors—especially native Aleuts—on Sundays and church feasts. Soon his hermitage had next to it a chapel and guesthouse, and then a school for orphans. Herman had a few disciples, including the Creole orphan Gerasim Ivanovich Zyrianov, a young Aleut woman named Sofia Vlasova, and others. Entire families moved in order to be closer to the Elder, who helped to sort out their disputes. Herman had a deep love for the native Aleuts: he stood up for them against the excesses of the Russian-American Company, and once during an epidemic he was the only Russian to visit them, working tirelessly to care for the sick and console the dying Herman spent the rest of his life on Spruce Island, where he died on November 15, 1836. Spruce Island in Herman’s time Aluets winter lodge

25. 15 January 2015 ©HISTORICPHILIPPINES.COM 2015 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 25 On March 11, 1969, the bishops of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) formally declared their intention to canonize Herman, “as a sublime example of the Holy Life, for our spiritual benefit, inspiration, comfort, and the confirmation of our Faith”. On August 9, 1970, Metropolitan Ireney of the OCA along with Archbishop Paul of Finland and other hierarchs and clergy presided over the canonization service, which was held at Holy Resurrection Cathedral on Kodiak Island. His relics were transferred from his grave underneath the Saints Sergius and Herman of Valaam Chapel, on Spruce Island, to the Holy Resurrection Cathedral. The major portion of his relics are preserved at Holy Resurrection Cathedral in Kodiak, Alaska, while his burial site at the Sts. Sergius and Herman Chapel, Spruce Island, Alaska is an important pilgrimage site, where the devout will often take soil from his grave and water from the spring named in his honour.. Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church, Kodiak, Alaska destroyed by fire July 1943 by Sam McLain St Herman’s Reliquary at Holy Resurrection Cathedral in Kodiak

26. 15 January 2015 ©HISTORICPHILIPPINES.COM 2015 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 26 The Watercolours in this story are part of a set of 106 paintings by Alaskan Artist Sam McLain. His works are now part of the Alaska State Library Historical Collections. We have included on the following pages about 30 of Mr. McClain’s work. We will provide you with more examples of these beautiful watercolours over the months to come. SAM McCLAIN (1919-1994). Sam McClain was born in San Angelo, Texas. He came to Alaska in the late 1940s and worked as an architect for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Alaska District Office, in Anchorage from 1949 until his retirement in 1979. He married Christine Ferrari Reeder in Anchorage in 1950. McClain was an artist, specializing in pen and ink drawing and watercolors. He studied under watercolor artists Rex Brandt and Robert E. Wood in California in the late 1960s. He was best known for his drawings and watercolors of Russian Orthodox churches and other historical buildings in Alaska. McClain contributed drawings and designed the cover for Fern Wallace's book, The Flame of the Candle: a pictorial history of Russian Orthodox Churches in Alaska, which was published in 1974. He also taught watercolor art classes and performed volunteer work for the Anchorage School District and other local organizations. Sam McClain died in Anchorage in 1994.

58. 15 January 2015 ©HISTORICPHILIPPINES.COM 2015 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 58 Alaska State Library, Historical Collections. Roselyn J Parrenas, She Who Must be Obeyed, my wife, facilitator, translator. & de BOSS! Wikipedia, the on-line-free encyclopedia. This work by Fergus JM Ducharme is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.historicphilippines.com. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at fergus@historicphilippines.com .

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A brief history of Russian America & the Russian Orthodox Church