Description

This hagiographical text tells the story of Herman (1756–1837), a Russian Orthodox missionary to Russian America (present-day Alaska). Little is known for certain of Herman’s early life, but biographers agree that he was tonsured a monk in 1782 at the great Russian Orthodox monastery at Valaam (located on an island in Lake Ladoga, in Russian Karelia). Herman lived for several years as a hermit, before being sent as a missionary to Alaska in 1794. He worked at the mission on Kodiak Island until 1811, when he left to ...