In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit, glory to Jesus Christ. My
dear friends, you probably thought you would
never get too much sun by coming to the Divine
Liturgy. But here we are, enlightened in more
ways than one. We have a great blessing today,
my dear friends in Christ. We have an opportunity
to open our hearts, to be inspired, to be nourished,
and maybe to be renewed in our soul by the life
of the first saint glorified in America, Saint
Herman of Alaska. It was August 9th. 1970, exactly
50 years ago today, that hierarchs and priests
and monks and faithful came together to celebrate
the many vigils, muyebbins, liturgies before
the grave on Kodiak Island of the humble and
assuming but bright, very bright star of the
church, Father Herman. It was so important, not
only for Alaska, not only for the church, not
only for the church in the whole world, but even
the country. His life was submitted to the congressional
record in Washington with a resolution to recognize
this day the glorification of St. Herman. Times
have changed, obviously. You can read about the
life of St. Herman on your own. So I'm not going
to give you much detail about that now. Let me
just tell you this. Some recent research about
St. Hermit tells us what his name was before
monasticism. Before this research, we had no
idea. It was Igor, George. We had no idea that
he had been married, and at 19 years of age,
he had a son. We had no idea that the son...
and the wife died in an epidemic. One can imagine
the young man's sorrow, 19 years of age. And
he became a monk in a difficult time when Tsar
Peter the Great made it very difficult for someone
to join a monastery. He eventually came to the
great and ancient monastery of Valam on Lake
Latika. I had the blessing to go there in 19...
And he became a hermit. While I was there, I
saw the field they call Herman's Field, where
he had a hut. And he lived there until the call
from the church, from missionaries to come to
Alaska to evangelize. And he volunteered with
some nine or so others. After a year's travel
across Russia, it took a year to travel to get
to Alaska, they arrived in September of 1794,
not to find a church built, not to find a place
to stay, but to find a Russian -American company
that was abusing the local native population.
And their work was cut out for them. Forty years
of labor, and most of that alone, because the
others that came with him, two or three drowned
at sea, some returned, some were killed. And
here's where your own reading is going to need
to fill in the rest of the story. I want to...
focus our attention on six things that he did
that we also can do as Christians and that we
are invited by the Lord to do. He was an ascetic
and he was a monk. He took up the cross. He denied
Christ. He took up the cross, denied himself.
And he followed Christ. He took up that invitation
from the Lord to be with him. That's what we've
all done. And he wore a 16 -pound cross around
his neck inside of his shirt. He was a true ascetic.
He gave himself entirely to the Lord to care
for the people, to teach them the faith, and
they... Loved him. He didn't worry about what
he wore. He wore the same clothes. Year in, year
out, icy cold, terrible heat. Same clothes. And
most of the time he was barefoot, even in the
snow. He was an equal of the Desert Fathers in
every way. He humbly prayed the services of the
church. He taught others to sing. He prayed all
night the Jesus Prayer. He slept very little,
and he had the gift of pure prayer of the heart,
and he was an enlightened man. This is why people
wanted to be with him. He was an evangelist.
Because people came to him, he could share the
good news of the resurrection of Christ. of the
overcoming of death, of the forgiveness of sins.
He was a nurse to the suffering, having lived
through two, not just one epidemic. He buried
hundreds who died. He stayed with the sick during
the epidemic. He tended them. He prayed for them.
Some of them were healed. He comforted them,
and he prepared many. to die. He was a man who
cultivated paradise. What do I mean by that?
Because the Garden of Eden, the kingdom of God,
was in his heart, so he was in harmony with nature,
stopping a tsunami from destroying the village,
stopping a fire from destroying a village. He
had a spring with healing water coming out of
it. Around him and within him, because of his
heart, was paradise. He had friends of wild animals
and bears that would come to him. He had a productive
garden, and he made food for all the people there.
He was a defender of the oppressed. He spoke
the truth, but he spoke the truth in love, and
he spoke the truth from a heart that was transfigured
by the knowledge of the resurrection. He was
a defender of the oppressed against the Russian
-American company who was oppressing the native
population. And attempts were made many times
on his life. to kill him, to get him out of the
way, because he was a troublemaker for them.
And he was a prophet. He spoke the truth. He
spoke of things to come, including the day of
his own repose. Much, much more. He was many,
many more things. He was a man, let us just say,
whose very presence revealed the kingdom of God,
the goodness, the mercy, the love and embrace
that God has for all. That was his life. Exactly
as St. Paul says, the grace of God was not in
vain. Through patience, endurance, in stripes,
in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in fastings.
by pureness, by knowledge, by long -suffering,
by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, as sorrowful,
yet always rejoicing, as poor, yet making many
rich, as having nothing, and yet possessing all
things. That was St. Herman. And the physical
hardships he endured, the sorrows of his life.
the personal attacks against him by the authorities,
the care of so many souls, right up until his
repose in November of 1837, just a few years
after the repose of St. Seraphim. All that he
did seems impossible to us, and it is heroic,
which is why... We place him where we do, and
we write hymns about him, and we sing, and we
pray to him that he would intercede for us. Despite
all these troubles, but along suffering, imprisonments,
tumults, great endurance, sleepinesses, fastings,
he was not shaken. He did not sink. Like Peter,
who should not have gotten out of the boat in
the first place, who became just like his name.
What happens to a stone, a rock, when you throw
it in the water? It sinks. Peter the rock should
not have gotten out. St. Herman did not sink.
The storms. It's not the storms outside the boat
that we need to worry about. Yes, sometimes we
need to do something about them, but it's not
the storms outside the boat that we need to worry
about. Do you follow what I'm saying, my dear
friends? It's not the storms outside the boat,
the church, that we need to worry about. It's
the storm within us that will sink us. Christ
doesn't save us from the storm. Here we are.
He saves us in the midst of the storm. He comes
walking, and when we sink, we cry out, save me,
O Lord, and he reaches his hand out to us, and
he pulls us up. Dear friends, we don't need to
complain. We don't need to curse what's around
us. All we need to say is, save me, O Lord. St.
Herman's gaze and trust, unlike St. Peter's,
who at that point was not illumined by the Holy
Spirit yet. St. Herman, his gaze, his trust was
always on and in the Lord Jesus Christ. How?
How can we follow that same way? Yes, by prayer,
reaching out our hands to Christ. When we are
in turmoil, We reach out our hands to Christ.
When the sea of life is scaring us, we reach
out our hands, save me, O Lord. When we feel
alone and anxious, without resources to cope,
when we think it's someone else's fault, we say,
by God's grace, save me, O Christ. And then the
time comes, indeed, finally it will come, when
we finally admit that we are ruled not by the
Lord, the master and king of all creation, but
by the turmoil within us, by our thoughts and
fears and desires. And when we realize that,
this is good news, then by God's grace, we can
grasp our Savior's hand. And through the prayers
of St. Herman, we understand. that it's not the
storm outside the boat. We need to come to the
peaceful harbor first before we can fix things
out there. And then we start believing in God
as St. Herman would describe it. Listen to these
simple, basic words. If we love someone, he said,
we always remember that person. We try to please
that person. Day and night, our heart is concerned
with the subject of that person. Is that the
way we love God? Do you turn to him often, says
Venerable Father? Do you always remember him?
Do you always pray to him? Do you always fulfill
his holy commandments? Why was St. Herman successful?
Why were the missionaries in Alaska successful?
Why within the first few years were 7 ,000 people
baptized? It wasn't just because they defended
them against the oppressors. No, it was because
they brought good news of the peace and the joy
of the kingdom of God and the life eternal now.
The legacy of St. Herman, his work, His life
as an icon of our Savior is our model of orthodoxy
in this land. He is the first saint canonized
in this country. And that's true for the Catholics,
too. He's the first one. Can we accept his work,
his legacy, as our own? If we don't, then as
St. Paul says, is the Holy Spirit given in vain?
He prays for us, this saint. His relics are before
us, and they contain holiness of God. Let's receive
the benefit of his prayer. Let's receive the
benefit of the grace of the relics. Let us shake
off our spiritual slumber, be awakened, or else
the Orthodox Church in this country will be irrelevant
if we don't embrace the legacy for life. the
acts of St. Hermit, because it's just the Christian
life. That's all. He lived it in a way that is
magnificent and beautiful and intense, but we're
also invited to share in the same good news and
peace and love of Christ, to be renewed in our
conversion to the Lord in whatever humble way
is appropriate to us. To our Lord be glory. And
may God bless us through the prayers of our venerable
Father Herman of Alaska.