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.”
Continue reading “St. Jacob’s Greatest Gifts to the Church”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.
Continue reading “St. Jacob of Alaska: His Legacy, His Trials, and His Example for Today”St. John Kochurov service: Vespers, Vigil, Matins, Liturgy
St. John Kochurov was a priest who service in the missionary diocese of America under St. Tikhon in the early 20th century. He was mainly in Chicago, and besides being responsible for the building of the Holy Trinity Cathedral there, he also was influential in helping start up several parishes in Illinois, including in Streator, Madison, and Joliet, but also far to the east and north in Buffalo, New York, and way down in Hartshorne, Oklahoma.
That is where he caught my interest, being from Oklahoma myself. I wanted to commemorate him in the services, so, back in 2018, I found his full service available on the OCA Diocese of the Midwest website. At that point, I only converted it to traditional English, “thou/thy” wording. This year, however, in preparation for his celebration tomorrow, I went through and pointed the text to be sung with the tones. That includes a fair amount of editing, just to smoothly fit text and music together, and to allow the music to bring out the essential meaning of the text.
Feel free to use this full service to St. John Kochurov, including Vespers and Matins to do a Vigil.
Continue reading “St. John Kochurov service: Vespers, Vigil, Matins, Liturgy”