St Herman of Alaska
Acrylic Paint on Wood Panel
7.25" x 10"

This icon shows St Herman with the Alaskan landscape in the background. On the scroll we can read one of the best known quotations of the saint, which is a fragment of a conversation between St. Herman and officers of a Russian ship, which was recorded by his disciple Yanovsky:  

 "But do you love God?" asked the Elder. And all answered: "Of course we love God. How can we not love God?"     "And I, a sinner, have tried to love God for more than forty years, and I cannot say that I perfectly love Him," answered Father Herman, and began to explain how one must love God. "If we love someone," he said, "then we always think of that one, we strive to please that one; day and night our heart is preoccupied with that object. Is it in this way, gentlemen, that you love God? Do you often turn to Him, do you always remember Him, do you always pray to Him and fulfill His Holy commandments?" We had to admit that we did not."For our good, for our happiness," concluded the Elder, "at least let us give a vow to ourselves, that from this day, from this hour, from this minute, we shall strive above all else to love God and to do His Holy Will!" (1)

Our venerable father Herman of Alaska (1756 - December 13, 1837) was a Russian Orthodox monk from  Valaam Monastery who traveled with eight other monks in 1793 to bring the Gospel to the native Aleuts and Eskimos in the Aleutian Islands.

In the second half of the 1700s, explorers were expanding the boundaries of Russia and Saint Herman was chosen by Valaam's Elder Nazarius as one of  the missionaries that were to go to evangelize to the Aleutians. For more than four decades St Herman labored in an obscure corner of what is now Alaska, on an Aleutian island called Spruce.  Braving subzero temperatures, plagues and storms, ill treatment from fellow Russians who resented and misunderstood him, St. Herman lived a life marked by astonishing ascetic labor that gave birth to a deep love and concern for all with whom he came in contact. St Herman taught the natives by word and example, to whom he was known as Apa, "Grandfather."

In 1970 St Herman became the first saint to be glorified by the Orthodox Church in America. (2,3 ,4)