Section 02: The Kodiak Mission (1794)

This section covers the mission that brought St. Herman to America: the party of Valaam monks under Archimandrite Joasaph (Bolotov), their roughly 7,300-mile journey of 1793–94, their arrival at Kodiak on September 24, 1794, and the early years of extraordinary evangelism cut short by the loss of Juvenaly and the wreck of the Phoenix. It stays consistent with — and links to rather than re-arguing — the separately verified general history of the 1794 mission.

Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (glorified by the OCA and ROCOR, 1970)

Section Contents

• Mission Party and Voyage — The eight-to-ten-member party under Archimandrite Joasaph (Bolotov); the named members, including the unordained monk Herman; the ~7,300-mile journey of 1793–94 (the “longest missionary journey” claim attributed, not asserted); arrival at Kodiak on September 24, 1794; and the gap between Shelikhov’s promises and the colony the monks found.
• Early Mission Years — The mass baptisms of the Alutiiq (the 7,000 / 12,000 figures and Juvenaly’s 746 Chugach, with sources); the first school in Russian America; the death of Juvenaly (c. 1796) and the consecration and Phoenix wreck of Joasaph (1799); Herman left effectively senior, becoming head of the mission in 1807; and the decline under Baranov into the 1800s.

How to Use

• Read Mission Party and Voyage first for who came, how, and what they found.
• Read Early Mission Years for what the mission accomplished and how it was broken — the setting for Herman’s later Spruce Island ministry.

Cross-References

• For Herman’s formation and why he led without ordination, see Valaam Formation.
• For the contested origins and the Telepnev confusion, see Early Life.
• For the full, separately verified history (including the complete Juvenaly source-critique and the repose-date dispute), see The 1794 Valaam Mission to Kodiak.
• For the second-generation mission, see St. Innocent and the Native Church.

References

• Stokoe, Mark, and Leonid Kishkovsky. Orthodox Christians in North America, 1794–1994. Syosset, NY: Orthodox Christian Publications Center, 1995, ch. 1.
• Oleksa, Michael. Orthodox Alaska: A Theology of Mission. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1992.
• Black, Lydia T. Russians in Alaska, 1732–1867. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, 2004.
• Korsun, Sergei. Herman: A Wilderness Saint. Jordanville, NY: Holy Trinity Publications, 2012.
• Orthodox Church in America. “His Grace, Bishop Joasaph (Bolotov)” and “Repose of Venerable Herman of Alaska.” oca.org.