‘A Russian Teenager’: An account for children on the life of St Herman

About 200 years ago there was a teenager living in Russia. He was about 16 years old. He decided to leave his family, his home and his village, and to go away and live in a new way.
His family was sorry to see him go. Some people tried to make him change his mind, but his mind was made up.
He went off to a place called a monastery (mah-ne-stair-y). This is a special place where life is very different from the kind of life we lead at home. In a monastery, people get up before dawn and pray in a special way. Sometimes they pray alone or pray in groups. They pray inside buildings or off in the woods. They pray so much that they begin, after a while, to become experts in praying. We call these people monks if they are men and nuns if they are women. We call the places they live monasteries.
Some strange things can happen to people when they pray. Sometimes they feel different in their bodies. Their faces may begin to shine as bright as the sun. Some of them can see far into the future. While others can cure all kinds of sickness or can change the weather. There are no limits to prayer. Some of these people learn how to pray so deep inside their own hearts that the prayer starts to go by itself without ever stopping, even while her or she is talking on the phone, writing a letter, fishing, or making things with his or her hands.
Sometimes, for very special monks, the prayer happens without any words, and instead of saying a prayer, the person becomes a prayer.
These things happen in a mysterious way. The special power of the Holy Spirit, which people get when they are Baptized and Chrismated into the Orthodox Church, comes to life in the lives of people who fast and pray a lot.
The teenager wanted to be like these people who pray so well. So he left home and went to a monastery. He learned how to pray from the monks who were there.
When he first arrived he was called a ‘learner.’ After a few years the monks saw that he was really serious about what he was doing so they made him a monk. This was the beginning of his new life. Since he became a monk he had to be given a new name. We don’t know what his old name was, but the new name that the monks gave him was ‘Herman.’
When someone is adopted into a native tribe in Alaska he or she is given a new name. This name usually belonged to somebody who was very important a long time ago. When someone is adopted like this, he or she is told about the important person who first had that name. The new member of the tribe is supposed to live up to his or her new name.
Once a long time ago in southeast Alaska there lived a man whose name was Gu-Naylth. He was a great man--everybody remembers what he did. When there was going to be a war or bad argument people would call Gu-Naylth to come and straighten things out. Gu-Naylth always helped other people. When he found good water in the forest he would mark the spot and leave a cup so people could come and drink easily. This was important long ago because there weren’t any modern kitchens or running water indoors.
In 1970 the Orthodox Bishop of Alaska was adopted by a native tribe in southeast Alaska. He was given the name Gu-Naylth because the bishop was like him: thinking of other people, helping others, and straightening out things for others.
The same thing happens to everybody who becomes a member of the Orthodox Church. When you were baptized and Chrismated you were given the name of an important Orthodox Christian called a saint. This is your Church name. You are supposed to learn about what your saint did and try to be like him or her.
The monks gave the young man the Church name Herman, naming him after a great Orthodox missionary who had started a big monastery in a country called Finland.

A young monk in Finland
The monk Herman soon left this monastery in Russia and travelled to the country called Finland. (You can easily find Finland on a good map). Finland looks just like much of Alaska: the same kind of rivers and waters, lakes, trees, villages, dogs, houses, fishers, and hunters. There is a great lake in Finland called Lake Ladoga (lah-do-gah), and there are many monasteries on this big lake. Herman went to the monastery called Valaamo (va-lah-mo). He lived there for many years, learning how to fast, pray, and live a good Orthodox life.
One day in 1793 the chief of the monastery called all the monks together for an important announcement. The chief of an Orthodox monastery is called an abbot (ah-bot). This abbot’s name was Nazarios (Na-ZA-ri-os). He told the monks that he had special news. There was a place many thousand miles away from Finland called Alaska. About 50 years before some Russian hunters had travelled to Alaska to find furs. Now they wanted Orthodox missionaries to come and teach the natives of Alaska about the Orthodox Church. Abbot Nazarios wanted some monks to volunteer to go to Alaska. Eight monks stepped forward and said they wanted to go. One of them was Herman. They were all very excited. The Russian hunters had promised them a fine Church and all the help they would need to teach about Jesus Christ.

The Orthodox Church starts in Alaska
And so they all left Valaamo Monastery. Many months and many thousands of miles later they arrived on Kodiak Island. It was September 24th, 1794. (Do you know who the President of the United States was then?)
Something went wrong.
The Russian hunters had lied to the Orthodox missionaries—there was no fine new church. In fact, there was no church at all. And instead of helping the Orthodox missionaries teach about Christ, many of the Russians were cruel towards the natives who were mostly Aleut people.
And so, from the beginning, there was trouble between the Orthodox missionaries and the Russian hunters. The missionaries tried to help the natives and defend them against the hunters’ cruelty. When the hunters, when they found out that the missionaries were helping the natives and were telling the Russian government what the hunters were doing (it was against Russian law to mistreat native people of Siberia or Alaska) the leader of the Russian hunters, Alexander Baranov, put all Orthodox monks under house arrest. But secretly, at night, the native people came to learn about Orthodoxy. Life was very hard for the missionaries, but they loved the natives and the native people came to love them.
One night a native chief came to visit the monks. He had already been baptized Orthodox. One of the monks has his godfather. He brought some of his friends with him. He wanted them to learn about Orthodoxy too. But another thing went wrong. Even though the chief and his friends had come secretly at night, the Russian hunters found out that they were in the cabin were the monks were kept. So Baranov and his men made a plan to capture the natives when they left the cabin.
Somehow the monks found out about Baranov’s plan. So one of the monks disguised himself in the chief’s clothes. All of a sudden he ran out of the cabin and headed, full speed, for the shore where the chief’s canoe was hidden. He jumped into it and pushed off. Baranov’s men, thinking that the monk was the chief, caught the boat and dragged the monk out of it.
Very soon they discovered their mistake. But it was too late. The monks’ plan had worked. While Baranov’s men had been chasing the monk the real chief and his friends had escaped safely. The never forgot how the Orthodox monks helped them.
Of course, Baranov and his men were very angry. Baranov himself threw a fit right on the beach. He threatened to get rid of all the monks. But then Father Herman stepped forward. He was very calm. One of the things that happens to you when you learn how to pray really well is that, even when people are really angry with you and threaten your life, you keep cool and are full of peace and love, even for those who hate you and shout at you. Father Herman talked to Baranov and got him to let the monks go. But later, Baranov put all the monks under house arrest for almost one year.
Even under arrest, the Orthodox monks continued their work in secret. But as the years passed some of them went back to Russia and Finland and others died. Finally there were only two or three left. One of them was Father Herman.
Now the Russian hunters thought they could get rid of the few monks who were left. They spread dirty gossip about the monks. They made life very hard for them. Some people tried to kill Father Herman, but God protected him.
Once some hunters broke into Father Herman’s log cabin. They heard that he was keeping gold hidden away under his floor. They smashed everything in his cabin. The one of them picked up an axe and tore up the floor. Then a strange thing happened---Father Herman foresaw the future. He spoke to the man with the axe peacefully, without any anger or hatred, saying: ‘One day soon, my brother, you are going to die by an axe.’
A few months later this same man went with some other hunters deep into the forest. They went out to attack some native people. But during the night the natives came and attacked these men. The man who had torn up Father Herman’s floor was killed during the fight—by an axe!
Soon Father Herman realized that he could not live in Kodiak. Not all the Russians were bad; but many were, and Baranov was working against the Orthodox mission. Father Herman asked for permission to move to southeast Alaska and settle in Sitka. But Baranov was fighting the Thlinget Indians and the time. He was afraid that Father Herman would try to help the natives in the southeast, just as he had helped the natives in Kodiak. So he refused to let any Orthodox come and start a mission in southeast Alaska. It was only many years later that the Russian hunters let the Orthodox missionaries come to the southeast and preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Father Herman of Spruce Island
Father Herman moved from Kodiak to nearby Spruce Island. Here he was visited all the time by many of his native friends. He preached about Jesus Christ and taught the people that the Orthodox Church is the true Church, founded by Jesus Christ for the salvation of all humans. When the people were sick, Father Herman took care of them. When families got drunk and fought, Father Herman taught them how to live an Orthodox life. If children had no home, they came to live with Father Herman.
He built an orphanage and a school on Spruce Island. A wonderful young native woman named Sophia came to help Father Herman. She was the first Orthodox nun in Alaska. She took care of the girls at the orphanage and the school. Other natives came and some of them became monks like Father Herman. Now Father Herman had a monastery right on Spruce Island. Remembering his old home on Lake Ladoga, he called his new monastery ‘New Valaamo.’
Father Herman lived on Spruce Island until he was a very old man. People always came to him for help. And he was always ready to help other people, even those who were his enemies. Father Herman also lived close to animals. Another thing that happens to you when you learn how to pray deep in your heart is that wild animals lose their fear of you, and come to you. You can speak to them and they can understand. Even wild mothers with little babies, who usually won’t let anybody get near them or their young, used to let Father Herman come and even pick up the babies and pet them.
One day Father Herman told his friends that God was going to call him on a certain day. Just as he foretold, on the day he mentioned, Father Herman fell asleep in our Lord. It was 1837.
People never forgot Father Herman. They remembered many things that he had said and done. He had healed many sick people. Once there had been a huge tidal wave that was coming right down on Spruce Island. The people were scared and they ran to Father Herman. He put an icon on the beach and said a special prayer that he knew. The tidal wave could not go beyond the icon and the island was saved. Another time there was a great and raging forest fire on the island. Again, the fire stopped when Father Herman said a prayer and made a line on the ground.
On the night he died many people saw a strange pillar of fire going up from his cabin into the clouds.
After he was buried, people would come to his grave and pray, especially if they were sick. The Holy Spirit, who had lived in Father Herman while he was alive on earth, continued to work through his body. We call the deceased bodies of people like Father Herman Holy Relics. The Holy Spirit in the Relics of Father Herman cured many believers’ illnesses. Even just a short time ago people as nearby as Anchorage have seen miracles at these relics.

St Herman of Alaska
The whole Church finally heard about the wonderful life of Father Herman of Spruce Island. The Alaskan natives kept telling the story of his life, and how he is still helping people who ask Father Herman to pray to God for them. The natives knew that Father Herman had really been a saint. And so Bishops, priests, deacons, and laypeople from all over the world came to Kodiak, Alaska and officially told the world, on August 9th, 1970, that Father Herman of Spruce Island was now St Herman of Alaska, Wonderworker of All America. And people all over the world are asking St Herman to pray for them and help them, which he does.

Work you can do . . .

1. Find a map of the world. Look-up the following countries: RUSSIA and FINLAND. Now look inside RUSSIA and find SIBERIA. Look inside the UNITED STATES and find ALASKA (this may be more difficult!). Make a map of your own and draw a line showing how far the eight monks had to go from Finland to Kodiak Island, Alaska.

2. Find a good map of Alaska. Look-up KODIAK ISLAND and SPRUCE ISLAND.

3. If you like to draw, you can make any one or more of the following pictures. Do not tell people what you have drawn; hold up your picture and ask your friends to guess what part of St Herman’s life you have drawn: St Herman talking to a bear on Spruce Island; St Herman talking to Baranov; the monk, disguised as the chief in the canoe; St Herman as a boy leaving his home; St Herman learning to pray in front of an icon; St Herman putting the icon on the beach just before the tidal wave; St Herman and the forest fire; St Herman building the school. Maybe you can think of other scenes we didn’t mention.

4. This is a word game. As you read this story about St Herman you probably ran into some new words you never saw before. Can you tell what the following words mean? --- MONK, NUN, MONASTERY, VALAAMO, LAKE LADOGA; NEW VALAAMO; ICON; ABBOT; BARANOV; NAZARIOS; FINLAND; RUSSIA; KODIAK; GU-NAYLTH.

5. More fun with words: which of the following are spelled incorrectly? --- Nazerios; Lake Logoda, akon; cherch; Orthadox; abbut; Herman; Kodaik; saint

6. Maybe it’s raining and you have to stay indoors. It would be very easy to put on a kind of little play or skit about the life of St Herman. Why don’t you chose people to play the different parts and see how quickly you can re-tell the story you have just read in a little play?

7. Dates are fun if you can remember them. Remembering this story, can you tell what happened in: 1793? 1794? August 9th 1970? 1837?

8. People and places. What was the name of the woman who helped Father Herman on Spruce Island? Where did Father Herman want to move before he went to Spruce Island? What was Father Herman’s name for the Spruce Island monastery? What was Father Herman’s abbot’s name? Where is Lake Ladoga? What is the name of the great monastery on Lake Ladoga? What did people see going up from Father Herman’s cabin the night he died? What did Father Herman tell the man who tore up his floor? What was against the law for Russians to do in Siberia and Alaska? Why did a monk once disguise himself as a native chief? What are some things that happen to some Orthodox people who learn how to pray really well? Maybe you can think of other questions to ask each other or your teacher.

9. One last, but very important, date: when did the Orthodox mission begin in Alaska?