Herman: Name Day and Patron Saint

St Herman was born in Serpukhov near Moscow and entered monastic life at sixteen. He was formed at the great Valaam Monastery on Lake Ladoga. In 1793 he was one of ten Valaam monks sent to bring the Gospel to the native peoples of Alaska. He settled on Spruce Island near Kodiak and called it “New Valaam.” There, for decades, he lived in prayer and hard labor. He taught orphans, fed and clothed the poor, and nursed the sick through a deadly epidemic. He also defended the Aleuts against abuse by the colonial authorities, calling himself their “nanny.” He calmed a flood with an icon of the Mother of God and halted a forest fire with a line in the moss. He reposed in 1837. Glorified in 1970 as the first saint of the Orthodox Church in America, he is beloved as the Wonderworker of All America. Orthodox Christians pray to him for protection in storm, flood and fire.

What the faithful pray for

• protection from floods and rising water
• protection from fire
• safety at sea and in storms
• help and protection whenever it is needed
• the peace and purity of the Church in America
• the defense of the oppressed and offended
• healing
• a love for prayer to the Lord Jesus

Protection

• from floods and tidal surges
• from forest fires
• seafarers from storms
• the defenseless from oppression
• orphans and children

Miracles

• When a flood threatened Spruce Island he set an icon of the Mother of God on the shore and prayed, saying the water would rise no higher. It did not, and he promised the same help from that icon in the future. (source)
• When the forest on Spruce Island caught fire, he and his disciple turned over a strip of moss and he said the fire would not cross it. The wind-driven fire stopped at the line. (source)
• At his repose a pillar of light reaching to heaven was seen above Spruce Island, and the faithful knew the Elder had departed to the Lord. (source)

Read the life of St Herman of Alaska