saints – Page 2 – St Jacob Orthodox Church

May 22, 2025May 12, 2025

Sorrows in a Tough and Demanding Land

What is abundantly obvious is that life in Alaska in the early and mid-1800s was full of trials. Having only married his wife, Anna, in 1826, she fell grievously ill with cancer in 1835, and was sent far down the Alaskan coast to Sitka for medical treatment, before falling asleep in the Lord the next year.

“This same day, May 29th (1836), I received the news of the death of my wife on March 19 of this year in Sitkha. She did not obtain the restoration of her bodily health, but she was cured spiritually, and, by the Will of God, entered eternity. On this occasion, to give me solace, my two brothers Osip and Anton, came here aboard the above mentioned transport vessel. Osip had leave to visit his kin. Anton had the opportunity to do so as he was aboard in the line of duty, serving as First Office on the brig. … This day, then for me, was marked by various events [in my life] which were met unexpectedly.”

And barely one month later:

May 19, 2025May 12, 2025

Russian Alaska and a Creole Priest

One struggle I was looking for in the journals of St. Jacob is racism. St. Jacob was half Russian, half Alaskan native. And in much of the world’s history during this colonial era, racism is thoroughly embedded. I did find one reference of such an issue from Governor Chistiakov in Sitka, when St. Jacob, his wife, and father first arrived, the governor being described by Archpriest Michael Oleksa as “racist, opposing, and attempting to prohibit Russian-native marriages”. Even then, mentioned in the same source, this governor was known to be anti-clerical. Meaning: he already did not like this priest coming around in the first place, much less his native lineage.

May 11, 2025May 13, 2025

Yes, Lord — Scriptures, Church, Christ

The holy scriptures—Christ’s Church—Christ himself: how incredibly fortunate we are!

First, the scriptures. John Chrysostom says this:

Great is the profit of the holy Scriptures, and all sufficient is the aid which comes from them…for the divine words are a treasury of all manner of medicines. Whether it be needful to quench pride, to lull passion to sleep, to tread under foot the love of money, to despise pain, to inspire confidence, to gain patience—in the Scriptures we find abundant resources. For what man—of those who struggle with long poverty or who are nailed by a grievous disease—will not, when he reads the passage before us, receive much comfort? This man had been a paralytic for thirty eight years, and he saw others delivered each year, and himself bound by his disease… “Yes, Lord, he says, but I have no man…to put me in the pool.” What can be more pitiable than these words? …Do you see this heart crushed through long sickness? Do you see all violence subdued?…He did not curse his day…but replied gently … Yes, Lord. (Homily 37 on Jn 5)

“Great is the profit”, he says. “All sufficient is the aid which comes” from the scriptures. Let us seek (as St. John put it) the medicine for our pride, our love of money, our fear of pain. And instead, through the reading of the scriptures, find confidence and patience in our long sickness—maybe we are not sick of body, but we are certainly so in soul.

May 8, 2025May 3, 2025

St. Jacob’s Greatest Gifts to the Church

St. Jacob followed in the footsteps of many who came before him, not only the big names like St. Herman, St. Juvenaly, and St. Innocent, but more than that, the faithful, everyday folks who worked for the Russian-American Company and lived a faithful witness among the Alaskan peoples. What we find all over St. Jacob’s journals is mentions of locals who had been baptized by laymen and just did not have access to a priest. “It remained for me only to establish them in the faith and chrismate them.”

May 5, 2025May 3, 2025

St. Jacob of Alaska: His Legacy, His Trials, and His Example for Today

St. Jacob of Alaska has left us a wealth of information in his journals. We have translations of his journals, with entries almost every day spanning nearly forty years of missionary efforts. It is clear in many sections of his journals that part of the purpose of journaling was to record vital statistics to pass on to superiors in the Church and in the Russian-American Company.

Though not often mentioned, there is also a feeling that he thinks of these journals as, what we might call, clinical notes: partially processing what is happening, partially recording information that might be useful to himself or others who come back to these same places, and partially studying his own mission efforts so that he may improve upon his methods over time.