St Herman, pray for us!
St Herman came from a family of merchants of Serpukhov, a city of the
Moscow diocese. His name before he was tonsured, and his family name are
not known. There is a possibility, however, that his baptismal name was
Gerasimus. He had a great zeal for piety from his youth, and he entered
monastic life at sixteen. (This was in 1772, if we assume that Herman
was born in 1756, although sometimes 1760 is given as the date of his
birth.) First he entered the Trinity-Sergius Hermitage which was located
near the Gulf of Finland on the Peterhof Road, about 15 versts (about
10 miles) from St Petersburg. He also spent time at at Sarov, where he
first met Fr Nazarius, who became his Elder at Valaam. Later, St Herman
followed him to Sanaxar where St Theodore (February 19) was their
igumen.
[snip]
In the second half of the eighteenth century the borders of Holy Russia
expanded to the north. In those years Russian merchants discovered the
Aleutian Islands which formed in the Pacific Ocean a chain from the
eastern shares of Kamchatka to the western shares of North America. With
the opening of these islands there was revealed the sacred necessity to
illumine with the light of the Gospel the native inhabitants. With the
blessing of the Holy Synod, Metropolitan Gabriel gave to the Elder
Nazarius the task of selecting capable persons from the brethern of
Valaam for this holy endeavor. Ten men were selected, and among them was
Father Herman. The chosen men left Valaam for the place of their great
appointment in 1793. The members of this historical mission were:
Archimandrite Joseph (Bolotoff), Hieromonks Juvenal, Macarius,
Athanasius, Stephen and Nectarius, Hierodeacons Nectarius and Stephen,
and the monks Joasaph, and Herman.
[snip]
In America Father Herman chose as his place of habitation Spruce
Island, which he called New Valaam. This island is separted by a strait
about a mile and a quarter wide from Kodiak Island on which had been
built a wooden monastery for the residence of the members of the
mission, and a wooden church dedicated to the Resurrection of the
Savior. (New Valaam was named for Valaam on Lake Ladoga, the monastery
from which Father Herman came to America. It is interesting to note that
Valaam is also located on an island, although, this island is in a
fresh water lake, whereas, Spruce Island is on the Pacific Ocean,
although near other islands and the Alaskan mainland.)
Spruce
Island is not large, and is almost completely covered by a forest.
Almost through its middle a small brook flows to the sea. Herman
selected this picturesque island for the location of his hermitage. He
dug a cave out of the ground with his own hands, and in it he lived his
first full summer. For winter there was built for him a cell near the
cave, in which he lived until his death. The cave was converted by him
into a place for his burial. A wooden chapel, and a wooden house to be
used as a schoolhouse and a guest house were built not too distant from
his cell. A garden was laid out in front of his cell. For more than
forty years Father Herman lived here.
Father Herman himself spaded the garden, planted potatoes and cabbage
and various vegetables in it. For winter, he preserved mushrooms,
salting or drying them. He obtained salt from sea water. It is said that
a wicker basket in which the Elder carried seaweed from the shore, was
so large that it was difficult for one person to carry. The seaweed was
used for fertilizing the soil. But to the astonishment of all, Father
Herman carried a basket filled with seaweed for a long distance without
any help at all. By chance his disciple, Gerasimus, saw him one winter
night carrying a large log which normally would be carried by four men;
and he was bare footed. So the Elder worked, and everything that he
acquired as a result of his immeasurable labors was used to feed and
clothe orphans, and also for books for his students.
His clothes
were the same for winter as for summer. He did not wear a shirt; instead
he wore a smock of deer skin, which he did not take off for several
years at a time, nor did he change it, so that the fur in it was
completely worn away, and the leather became glossy. Then there were his
boots or shoes, cassock, an ancient and faded cassock (riasa) full of
patchwork, and his klobuk. He went everywhere in these clothes, and at
all times; in the rain, in snowstorms, and during the coldest freezing
weather. In this, Father Herman followed the example of many Eastern
Ascetic Fathers and monks who showed the greatest concern for the
welfare and needs of others. Yet, they themselves wore the oldest
possible clothes to show their great humility before God, and their
contempt for worldly things.
A small bench covered with a
time-worn deerskin served as Father Herman’s bed. He used two bricks for
a pillow; these were hidden from visitors by a skin or a shirt. There
was no blanket. Instead, he covered himself with a wooden board which
lay on the stove. This board Father Herman, himself called his blanket,
and he willed that it be used to cover his remains; it was as long as he
was tall. “During my stay in the cell of Father Herman,” writes the
creole Constantine Larionov, “I, a sinner, sat on his ‘blanket’-and I
consider this the acme of my fortune!” (‘creole’ is the name by which
the Russians referred to the children of mixed marriages of native
Indians of Alaska, Eskimo and Aleuts with Russians.)
On the
occasions when Father Herman was the guest of administrators of the
American Company and in the course of their soul-saving talks he sat up
with them until midnight. He never spent the night with them, but
regardless of the weather he always returned to his hermitage. If for
some extraordinary reason it was necessary for him to spend the night
away from his cell, then in the morning the bed which had been prepared
for him would be found untouched; the Elder not having slept at all. The
same was true in his hermitage where having spent the night in talks,
he never rested.
The Elder ate very little. As a guest, he
scarcely tasted the food, and remained without dinner. In his call his
dinner consisted of a very small portion of a small fish or some
vegetables.
His body, emaciated as a result of his labors, his
vigils, and fasting, was crushed by chains which weighed about sixteen
pounds. These chains are kept to this day in the chapel.
Telling
of these deeds of Father Herman, his disciple, the Aleut lgnaty
Aligyaga, added, “Yes, Apa led a very hard life, and no one can imitate
his life!” (Apa, Aleutian word means Elder or grandfather, and it is a
name indicative of the great affection in which he was held).
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