St. Herman of Alaska (c. 1756-1836)

One of the monks of Valaam sent in 1794 with the mission to Kodiak, in what was then Russian America, and the one who stayed. He was never ordained. He defended the Aleut and Alutiiq people against the traders of the Russian-American Company who were abusing them, and was hated by the company for it. He moved to Spruce Island, which he called New Valaam, kept a garden and a school for orphans, and nursed the sick through an epidemic when no one else would. He told the officers of a ship from St Petersburg that from this day, from this hour, from this minute, we should love God above all. He died in 1836 and was the first saint glorified in America, by the Orthodox Church in America in 1970. Feast: August 9.